7 Wonders was the most anticipated game of Spiel 2010 with a very effective pre-launch campaign and general word-of-mouth. During the game, each player builds various buildings including developing their wonder of the world.  The winner is the player that scores the most victory points (VPs).

The game lasts 3 eras and each era consists of 6 turns.  Each turn, players pick one of the building cards in their hand and either:

(a) Build it
– Paying resources (if their built buildings produce enough or bought from neighbours)
– For free (if they built the pre-requisite building, or if it’s a basic building requiring zero resources)
(b) Discard it for 3 cash
(c) Use the card to build the next stage of their wonder (with the relevant resources)

Sounds pretty standard, right?  Well, there are several game mechanics that make 7 Wonders very different to other games. Read the rest of this entry »

Spiel seemed different this year compared to previous years – not good or bad different – just different.  We went for 3 days of the show as usual, stayed in the same hotel as usual, ate steak in our favourite restaurant multiple times as usual.  However, when asked what was my favourite game so far, I wasn’t able to point at one specific game which outranked the others; instead, there were lots that were very good indeed but too close to pick a single leader.

However, Spiel was the usual gaming marathon and didn’t disappoint as there were many superb games.  Whilst I can’t pick my favourite game of the show, I think think the following (in no particular order) were great.

• Merchants & Marauders
• Black Friday
• Isla Dorada
• Mille Graize
• Mord im Arosa
• Era of Inventions
• Tikal II
• Dakota
• 7 Wonders

Read the rest of this entry »