7 Wonders Duel Review - A 12x12 Review With Pantheon & Agora Expansions
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
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In many ways 7 Wonders Duel resembles its parent game 7 Wonders as over three ages players acquire cards that provide resources or advance their military or scientific development in order to develop a civilization and complete wonders.
What's different about 7 Wonders Duel is that, as the title suggests, the game is solely for two players, with the players not drafting cards simultaneously from hands of cards, but from a display of face-down and face-up cards arranged at the start of a round. A player can take a card only if it's not covered by any others, so timing comes into play as well as bonus moves that allow you to take a second card immediately. As in the original game, each card that you acquire can be built, discarded for coins, or used to construct a wonder.
Each player starts with four wonder cards, and the construction of a wonder provides its owner with a special ability. Only seven wonders can be built, though, so one player will end up short.
Players can purchase resources at any time from the bank, or they can gain cards during the game that provide them with resources for future building; as you acquire resources, the cost for those particular resources increases for your opponent, representing your dominance in this area.
A player can win 7 Wonders Duel in one of three ways: each time you acquire a military card, you advance the military marker toward your opponent's capital, giving you a bonus at certain positions; if you reach the opponent's capital, you win the game immediately; similarly, if you acquire any six of seven different scientific symbols, you achieve scientific dominance and win immediately; if none of these situations occurs, then the player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
BGG Link - boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1...
TimeStamps:
0:00:00 - Introduction
0:00:50 - Game Overview
0:07:03 - Base Game
0:09:07 - Pantheon Expansion
0:11:00 - Agora Expansion
0:15:44 - Digital vs Physical
0:16:42 - How Does It Hold Up?
0:18:15 - Final Thoughts
5.0 - My absolutely favorite games. You can pry them out of my cold dead hands.
4.5 - Love this game! At the same time missing something that would make it a 5. Could be hard to table, lacking variability, a little light, etc.
4.0 - Really great game, almost always keeping, although has meaningful complaints as to what takes away from the experience.
3.5 - Really enjoyed, don't love it, may lose out to better games but the idea of never playing again is a bit sad.
3.0 - A good game, would play and suggest with the right people, if I never played it again wouldn't lose any sleep.
2.5 - A game I'd play again , but will never suggest it myself
2.0 - A game I don't want to play again
1.5 - A game I can't find any reason to recommend
1.0 - A game that is just bad.
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For media inquiries, please email alex@boardgameco.com
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For us, Pantheon is pretty much a must have expansion. Both because it allows to break the flow of having to pick up a card from the pyramid, and because placing the gods and using their powers adds a lot of depth. It's an awesome game either way.
Appreciating the effort you put into those 12x12 Reviews. Of course some games you would have played in all variants anyways, but I guess in reality this is a lot of additional effort to be able to come up with such a complete review with all perspectives. Just wanted to highlight that!
These 12x12 reviews are absolutely great as many other reviews are not as in depth and reflect just a couple of plays. This series is super nice to assess the longevity of a game
Thanks for this Alex
Enjoying the deep dive reviews into games. Keep up the great work
Excellent review, very informative! Time for me to get the expansions!!
I love those in-depth reviews done after many many plays and with everything there is for those games! It is really nice to have a global opinion on the game itself and its expansion. Keep making more of those videos! They are very helpful.
Thanks for in-depth review, 12 plays + expansions + digital. Wish other channels make the same effort eh! 🎉
Really informed review, nice one!
Sometimes I wonder if I need new board game friends. Played this with my friend, and we enjoyed it so much we played it 10 times in the one day. The Next week I asked him to play again and he didn't even know what game I was talking about.....
I think Agora handled the extra win condition really well. They understood that adding another way to end the game early would further disincentivize the points game ao they tied the politician's strength to the number of blue cards you have. This was brilliant because it makes sense thematically (the more civilian infrastructure you have, the more popular/powerful the politicians) and it made blue cards really important in a way that isn't just about their VP or linking symbols. In the base game, blue cards are actually really undervalued as gathering resources and building an engine is far more important in Age 1 than getting blue cards which may or may not be counted in the end. Age 3 blue cards were always pretty important because if you're already in Age 3 you are more likely to end on points but those age 1 blues are more useful as coins than in my city. But in Agora, I find actually wanting to get those blue cards in order to maximize value from the politicians, something that would never happen in vase game.
To me Agora is also a mandatory expansion just like Pantheon once you've played a handful of games because of just how much intrigue and opportunities it gives players. You can be way more clever with Agora and I actually prefer it over Pantheon. But Pantheon actually addressed some issues with base game like the crazy-swingy Guild cards and the inability to affect the rhythm of the draft which sometimes led to predictable outcames that the players could do nothing to change. Agreed that Pantheon is mandatory ASAP but Agora is mandatory if you really want to sink your teeth into it.
Ty for this video!!
7WD is 10/10 for me. I love the victory conditions (instant victories vs accruing points), the zero sum economy (I may be best served to block you from a move rather than help myself), and the choice about when to buy gods cards or build a go agaib wonder in order to scoop on a burried card. Bruno Cathala is a genius. This is one of those near perfect games which i recommend to everyone!
It's sooo good :) It so rarely ends in points for us...but the points matter a lot :)
Off topic of the game but have to say... That is a hilariously awesome shirt! 🤣
Alex, I couldn't agree more with your consensus. One more rhing I would add is game length. Agora adds quite a lot more time to a quite short game as Pantheon is o ly adding a minute or 5-10 in my experience. Agora would be more close to 20 min. It also brings a lot more complexity, so I would never use it with first time players. Pantheon gives that much needed flexibility to skip a draw step which is a true gamechanger. I would never play without Pantheon if possible.
I play this a lot on Board Game Arena with both expansions. Some people have this mathematically figured out and there’s also the rare age one political victory which is nearly impossible to stop if the cards play out right and you have the right wonders.
There is a solo variant that was put out as well. I think it's worth trying. It's easy to manage, and there is an app to make it even more streamlined.
I still feel like I haven't "played it out" after about 150 games. One of the easier games to play on BGA as well, so that's helpful toward exploring the variations.
Cool - Pantheon is a no brained every time but when we tried Agora we felt the Conspiracy cards were too uneven. Did you feel this way?
Really a great game that is even better when you are playing against someone who knows how to play. I have been surprised how much I enjoyed playing with both expansions.
How often do you play with both expansions?
At this point most of the time
"7 Wonders Duel" basegame is really good on its own. I always found the expansions too expensive for what they are, especially the Pantheon expansion. Now that the Agora expansion is here, I'd like to try the 'complete' game but for the time being the high prices of the expansions will prevent that.
Agora is by far the better expansion but it does make it cutthroat as you said
Yes it does!
Algorithm and topic related comment 😜🐦
For me it felt a bit too random, because you could have several bad available cards in a row and lag behind. The expansions does mediate this a bit.
I do like the game though, but will choose something different if I got the choice.