7 WONDERS: EDIFICE

 7 WONDERS 

EDIFICE EXPANSION 

FROM 

REPOS PRODUCTION

A brief interlude to introduce the latest expansion for 7 Wonders which Asmodee kindly sent me a review copy of.  I doubt that the core game needs any introduction, as it certainly seems to be a staple in every boardgaming club or games cafe that I've visited.  On top of that, the 2 player version 7 Wonders Duel is the game that I most often play in real-time online Euro-gaming. 

Edifice is for me a very satisfying addition, as I'm not greatly fond of those that seem to take over the main game or radically alter it.  

So, lets start with a quick look at the contents.  Familiar features are a few additional coins of value 6 and additional Military Conflict tokens and a score pad that includes rows for scoring when using any of the Leaders, Cities, Armada expansions and, of course, this Edifice expansion.  Pleasant, but nothing out of the ordinary.  There are three copies of the sheet that describes the effects of the two new Wonders that are included.  Both playing boards for these two, Carthage and Ur, are very attractively detailed. 

Carthage simply adds a new alternative choice of playing board that can be used with the core game and any of the many expansions.  The Ur board, on the other hand, in its concept reminds me very much of the Babel expansion, as it can only be chosen when the Edifice expansion is being incorporated into the game.

Finally, there is a single four-panel folder that contains the changes to set up when playing with this Expansion and, most important of all, the rules of gameplay introduced.  

In the latter respect it has further clear echoes of Babel in that players have the chance to share in constructing three Edifices [ok, buildings to you and me, but Edifice sounds more dignified in keeping with building Wonders!].  

The front of one Edifice [unbuilt] and the back of another [built]

There's a good range of 5 for each Age, from which one is randomly chosen for each Age at the start of the game.  Rules for when and how you can contribute to the building are short and clear and supported with some simple plastic building pawns to mark your participation.

If the building is completed within the specific Age, all those contributing immediately gain a small reward.  Of more significance is what happens if the building is not completed!  Then those contributing simply gain nothing, but those who didn't help at all suffer penalties.

All in all, I like this Expansion.  It's well presented, visually pleasing and easy to incorporate into the core game.  Two things are most important for me.  The first is that the rules have all the pleasing clarity of the original game and mesh perfectly, the second is that the effects are light and neither drastically change the game play nor, even worse, add scoring swings that overwhelm good strategic play.  So, definitely thumbs up for a welcome addition.