A rainy Monday evening alone. What's a fellow to do? Gaze out the window at the rain, cup of tea in hand, wistfully recalling past regrets, perhaps while a saxophone plays the blues in the distance?
No! Let's play games!
I left life-drawing early in order to meet up with Sam for a pre-games-night games night. Once there we considered something new, but at the same time we didn't feel like learning any rules. We then realised we'd never played Seven Wonders as a two player game. We brought it to the table, and worked our way through the handful of variants for the two-player version.
The main change is that our imaginary friend Dirk gets to play! He acts as a third player, and the two players take turns in choosing his cards for him. Each go the player who has the Free City card draws an extra card and then from his (now expanded) hand, he chooses two cards – one for himself and one for Dirk.
This means that, as well as working out what's best for you, you have to work out what you can give to Dirk that benefits you, but doesn't benefit your opponent. Dirk can buy things from you if he must (assuming he has enough cash), so it's a useful way of getting money, and you can buy things from him so it's a useful way of getting materials.
I enjoyed this new twist to the game. Having the chance to chose two cards every other go felt like a real opportunity not to be missed, so there were a lot of pauses as the AP kicked in. As each player quickly gains a knowledge of both hands being handed back and forth, the random element of a new card introduced each time kept the game fresh and interesting.
As for the game, Dirk started off as a dumping ground for blue cards and he even had a military card, so after round one he was in a commanding position. But soon Sam and I overtook him. I thought it was quite close in the end, with my wide variety of sciences, but it turned out that Sam was a clear winner.
Sam 73
Andrew 52
Dirk 30something
We then played Contract Whist for old times' sake. It ended 62-62 and I went home rejoicing in our shared victory!
I wouldn't have suspected 7 Wonders would be so good as a 2-player; but the variant is a cracking one. I squeezed as much cash out of Dirk as I could, and when he was out of money I used him as a dustbin to burn cards I knew Andrew wanted - the Science guild, for instance. Despite Andrews 30-odd points just for sciences, the old truism about 'not specialising in 7 Wonders' - the one we learnt from our grandparents - is, er, true.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. Nothing like a bit of rejoicing in shared victory.
ReplyDeleteAnother two player I can add to the games cupboard. Play test some more for me please!