7 Wonders - Cities

Our latest expansion (there is a newer one out there we haven't purchased yet) for the most played games in our collection arrived a couple of weeks ago; 7 Wonders - Cities.

I was so excited about this expansion that I spent time ahead of our first game going through the components, sleeving the cards and reading the rules (again as I had read them online prior to buying it).  One odd thing I found is that I received two less -1 debt tokens than it stated in the rules, and instead got two -1 conflict tokens it didn't mention; maybe just an edition thing?  Anyways, in all the games I have played so far we have never come close to needing all the debt tokens it comes with.  Every thing fit perfectly into the organizer (see post on it here), with still lots of room left.

My wife and I played a game not long after that, with just the base game + cities, with the two new wonders, just to get a feel for it.  I ended up with Petra, while my wife played with Byzantium.  One of the first things I noticed is that my focus on the coins grew very quickly; many of the black cards cost coins, my second wonder stage cost 9 coins, and I was paranoid about the debt cards.  It also didn't help that before we started playing with cities I often found myself with very few coins (something about my playing style, still haven't exactly pinpointed why).  I enjoyed the new flavor that the black cards added, and I appreciated the fact that they added without really changing the game too much.

Our first Cities game (from my wife's side of the board)

Accessories - 7 Wonders

Board game accessories are something that I have looked at a lot of, but I haven't actually bought many.  Now, I am lumping all gaming components that don't come with the game into my definition of "accessory".  To be honest, until recently I have only sleeved a couple of games, and bought a couple of small tackle boxes to organize tokens.

I have been looking into all sorts of accessories for the games I play the most often, but usually end up not getting them as they start to approach the cost of the game or possible expansions to it, and I just can't justify the cost. Recently I decided to actually try one, so I bought an organizer for 7 Wonders from +The Broken Token, and some card sleeves as well.  This is one of (if not the) most played game(s) in our collection and even with just two expansions (Leaders and Wonder Pack) it doesn't fit in the original box anymore.  Since that time I have also purchased the Cities expansion (it is still being shipped) which would have only compounded the problem.

The parts all come pre-cut in sheets, with two small tabs holding each part, which break easy enough.  The resulting parts are then put together using the tabs (into the slots) following the simple assembly instructions that come with it.


Assembly of a token tray

Recent Gaming - Dominion: Cornucopiua, Suburbia, Ticket to Ride: Europe and 7 Wonders

After a period of very little gaming (sometimes life just gets busy) we have had an opportunity to play a few games lately.

I received Dominion's Cornucopia expansion as a gift, and over the last couple of weeks we have been playing through the recommended card sets found in it's rules.  These are sets that pair with the original Dominion and the Intrigue set.  I recall seeing recommended sets in the rulebooks for some of the later expansions for pairing with Cornucopia, but I am not sure if we will play them.  With only 13 new kingdom cards, and each recommended set having 5 of them, I feel that we have had ample opportunity to see how they work.  Next is probably back to random sets, with the new cards included.

One of the recommended kingdom card sets from Cornucopia

Christmas Gaming - New Game!

Christmas and New Years holidays often lead to a lot of gaming for me.  Time off, not so nice weather and a lot of planned visiting are probably the primary reasons.  This is the first time in a few years that I haven't had a couple of weeks off, so we will have to see how true this holds.

This is also a time I often receive new games as my family knows I like boardgames.   I never know what I am going to get, but I have also dropped hints here and there as to what new games I am eyeing.  This past weekend we had a Christmas gathering, and one of the gifts I received was Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries.

My collection already includes Ticket to Ride (original North America map), Ticket to Ride: USA 1910, Ticket to Ride: Europe, and Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 2 – India & Switzerland.  The original, European and Swiss map are played regularly in our house, and most often as a 2-player game, so another smaller (max 3-player) map is exciting.  I am also of Nordic descent, so there is a thematic bonus as well, which I am sure wasn't lost on the gift giver.

Although we have played Ticket to Ride many times, and I have played this map a couple of times in the past with some friends, I decided to scan the rules before we played, and I am glad I did.  There are a couple of differences in the rules from the other versions we have around the wilds (can only be used on tunnels and ferries) and being able to use groups of cards as wild (on ferries and on one specific route).  I wasn't so sure about these rules but decided to try them for the first few games before modifying them if necessary.

After first game

Hearthstone - (free? or pay?) to play

Hearthstone is a game that I have been playing on and off for a while now.  Actually, to be fair, it has been pretty regularly (2-3 times per week), but for shorter (1/2- 1 hour) times.  It is a free game to play, but with options in the game to pay to accelerate access to some portions of it.  One thing I struggle with is whether to keep it free, or to spend a modest amount on it.

The items that can be purchased right now either the main single-player campaign (which was a previous expansion) or more card packs, which contain 5 random cards.

Opening a Card Pack

An upcoming expansion, Goblins vs. Gnomes, has over 120 additional cards, and come in separate card packs from the current cards.  I have been following the release of the cards a little bit and have been interested in the cards that I have seen so far.  This has led me to be even more tempted to spend some money on the game.  As part of the pre-release, all of the new cards were made available in the Arena portion of the game, where you build a deck by selecting one of the three random cards they present you (regardless if you have it in your collection).  They also gave a free entry, and I went on to have my best arena run ever, ending up with 6 wins before I hit 3 losses.  So far the new cards have lived up to my expectations.

Goblins vs. Gnomes Arena Announcement

Finished the Arena Run

Throughout my play time I have manage to save enough in-game gold to purchase 4 out of the 5 wings of the single-player expansion, and I haven't been saving for the last one since the cards gained through it don't seem as worthwhile for me.  I have been using the gold I earned recently to try and purchase as many card packs as possible prior to the launch.  I do not have a lot of the current cards, especially the more powerful epic and legendary cards.  This has led to times where I find that I am playing against a deck that just seems to have better cards and it really isn't a fair fight.  However, for the vast majority of the ladder games I play I find that I usually end up at a level where the other players have comparable decks and it is a lot of fun.

Playing my Mage Deck

The other option I have is to play the arena more.  For each entry of 150 gold you are guaranteed a minimum prize of one card pack, a 100 gold value.  The arena is designed to level the playing field as your card collection is irrelevant, but there is still some luck in which cards are presented for you to pick from.  As well, once the expansion goes live, all packs earned here will be of the expansion cards.  I could easily see myself doing this a lot more in the next little while.

For now my intent is to continue to try and play it as a free game, but we will see what happens once the expansion is released in full.