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Monthly Archives: February 2017

Firefly: The Game

Ah, Firefly. This is a favorite show for many of our friends, so it’s no surprise that we got the game.
We had no idea what we were in for.
As we usually do with new games, we followed the first game play recommendation which was to use the Story Card “King of All Londinium” (we have a first edition of the game):
  1. Goal 1: Takes a Master’s Touch
    • Goal Location:

      • Jiangyin, Red Sun
    • Aim to Misbehave x2
    • Skill Test – Negotiate:
      • 1-5 Pay $1,000. Attempt Botched
      • 6-8 Pay $7,000 to Complete Goal or Attempt Botched
      • 9+ Pay $5,000 to Complete Goal or Attempt Botched
  2. Goal 2: …and Knowing is Half the Battle
    • Goal Location:
      • Londinium, White Sun
    • Aim to Misbehave x3
    • Skill Test – Tech:
      • 1-6 Attempt Botched & Warrant Issued
      • 7+ Success: Goal Complete
  3. Goal 3: Two Card Monty
    • Goal Location:
      • Boros, Georgia
    • Aim to Misbehave x4
    • Skill Test – Fight
      • 1-9 Attempt Botched & Warrant Issued
      • 10+ Success! The crown is yours!

The first player to steal the crown wins the game.
Estimated game play time: 2 hours
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7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: Age II

Setup details available in the first post.
Second Age:

  • Babel Tiles:
    • All single resource brown cards now have an infinite amount of that resource
    • Brick, stone, wood, and ore cost one less
    • Playing a purple card earns you five gold
  • Great Work: River Port [SUCCESS]
    • Participants must play a yellow card, pay one gold and a loom
    • Reward: 6 gold
      • Professor (x2)
      • Chubby Unicorn
      • Shutter
      • President Gamer
      • Space Cat
    • Penalty: Lose all your gold
  • Resolution of Military Conflicts:
    • Clumsy Ninja – Victories over Chubby Unicorn and Shutter
    • Shutter – Defeated by President Gamer and Clumsy Ninja
    • President Gamer – Victories over Shutter and Space Cat
    • Space Cat – Defeated by President Gamer and Professor
    • Professor – Victories over Space Cat and Chubby Unicorn
    • Chubby Unicorn – Defeated by Clumsy Ninja and Professor

Tower of Babel and Great Work

7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: The Second Year

Setup details available in the first post.
In a fit of frustration, Space Cat crumpled the report. Her Leader, Berenice, would bring in a bit of extra income, but, as a lover of science, she coveted Professor’s Leader, Aristotle. Babylon already boasted a few Scientific Structures, and Space Cat planned to build more. She smoothed out the report once more and read over the rest of the information.

  • President Gamer hired Hannibal
  • Shutter hired Amytis
  • Clumsy Ninja hired Semiramis

It seemed Chubby Unicorn declined to hire a leader, and Space Cat wondered if Byzantium was suffering from cash flow issues. Since they weren’t neighboring cities, it was unlikely to have much of an impact on Babylon.

“Declaration to all cities,” the town crier of Alexandria read from a scroll. “The second Great Work to be undertaken by our collective cities shall be the River Port.”
Clumsy Ninja looked down at an identical scroll in her hands and read along:
Each city wishing to participate must be able to supply loom and build a Commercial Structure.
Fee: 100 Gold
Reward: 600 Gold
“Hmm, that might actually be possible,” she murmured.
Alexandria already had a loom supply and enough money, now Clumsy Ninja just needed to find the right Commercial Structure for her city.

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Gaming Styles

A while back, President Gamer told Chubby Unicorn about a website (Quantic Foundry) that would tell you your Board Game Motivation or Gaming Style. Being a lover of gaming she took the quiz then had the rest of the group try it out. The results were mostly unsurprising (low conflict for many of us), and we just take Space Cat’s gregarious trait to mean she likes the social aspect. She isn’t exactly what you would call chatty.

Chubby Unicorn: Low Conflict, Relaxed, and Grounded

Chubby Unicorn: Low Conflict, Relaxed, and Grounded

The Professor: Low Conflict, Relaxed, and Grounded

The Professor: Low Conflict, Relaxed, and Grounded

Space Cat: Low Conflict, Grounded, and Gregarious

Space Cat: Low Conflict, Grounded, and Gregarious

Clumsy Ninja: Immersed and Independent

Clumsy Ninja: Immersed and Independent

Shutter: Grounded and Gregarious

Shutter: Grounded and Gregarious

President Gamer: Low Conflict, Strategic, and Independent

President Gamer: Low Conflict, Strategic, and Independent

Additional Data available from Quantic Foundry

7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: Age I

Setup details available in the first post.
First Age:

  • Babel Tiles:
    • One defeat token turns into two
    • Everyone has access to one ore or one brick
  • Great Work: Double Walls [FAILED]
    • Participants must play red card plus pay one gold to participate:
      • Professor
      • President Gamer
      • Shutter
    • Reward: Victory Token
    • Penalty: loss of resource from Wonder
      • Chubby Unicorn
      • Clumsy Ninja
      • Space Cat
  • Resolution of Military Conflicts:
    • Clumsy Ninja – Defeated by Shutter and Professor
    • Shutter – Victory over Clumsy Ninja; Tied with President Gamer
    • President Gamer – Tied with Shutter; Victory over Space Cat
    • Space Cat – Defeated by President Gamer and Professor
    • Professor – Victories over Space Cat and Clumsy Ninja
    • Chubby Unicorn – Protected by Diplomacy Token

Tower of Babel and Great Work

7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: The First Year

Setup details available in the first post.
Space Cat looked down at the report from her spies, attempting to memorize the information before burning the scroll. After all, she had tried to play fair before, and now she had to work on her Wonder alone. She mentally repeated the information again:
Leaders recruited:

  • Chubby Unicorn – Bilkis
  • Professor – Croesus
  • Clumsy Ninja – Xenophon
  • Shutter – Varro
  • President Gamer – Zenobia

Space Cat felt that her own Leader, Hatshepsut, was the superior choice, and tossed the scroll into the fire with a smile.
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Pathfinder: Choosing my Character: Seelah

In our first play through I chose the Rogue (Merisiel) without hesitation. I’ve always loved rogues for a few reasons: Lots of Skills, High Dexterity = Hard to Hit, and the ability to do well on their own (usually via Sneak Attack)
Merisiel had 4 skills (Acrobatics, Disable, Stealth, and Perception) and a D12 for Dexterity with the option to get it to +4. She also had the ability to Backstab in the form of when she is “the only character at [her] location, you may recharge a card to add 1d6 (upgradable to +2) to your combat check, or discard it to add an additional 1d6.”

As Chubby Unicorn mentioned, we followed the Suggested Deck Lists in the rule book, so Merisiel started with:

  • Weapons
    • Dagger
    • Dart
  • Armor
    • Leather Armor
  • Items
    • Caltrops
    • Crowbar
    • Potion of Glibness
    • Potion of Vision
    • Thieves’ Tools x2
  • Allies
    • Burglar
    • Guard
  • Blessings
    • Blessing of the Gods x4

Some things I didn’t like about her:

  • Favored Card: Item – with only 2 weapons to start with, I sometimes had to scramble to find a weapon.
  • Starting Weapons – if I was playing her again, I would have dropped both of those weapons for a pair of Light Crossbows (1d8 > 1d4)
  • Starting Items – in hindsight, I would have dropped the (single use) potions for a Codex and a Sage’s Journal

After completing Adventure 3, I chose the Thief role. This opened up some great additional powers. My favorite? When you play a blessing to add to your Dexterity check, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. I grabbed the Use Magic Item power (You may use Charisma in place of any skill on any check to recharge an armor, item, or weapon with the Magic trait.) early and never got a single successful use out of it. I didn’t realize how useful the Sabotage Location power (Add 2 to your noncombat check to close a location.) was, but once I got it, it proved a big help.
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7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: Initial Set-up

7 Wonders is one of our favorite games to play. It is a very complex game (especially with all the expansions), and we’re constantly having to look at the rule books to make sure we understand the cards we’re about to play (we plan to make “cheat sheets” so we’re not all fighting over the same book).  Despite all that, it moves fairly quickly because everyone plays at the same time.

This time around, The Professor explained the new Babel rules which added Great Works and the Tower of Babel.  The Professor and I tried these out (just the two of us) and didn’t find them too difficult to understand so we felt we could add both at the same time.

Initial setup:

  • Clumsy Ninja – The Lighthouse of Alexandria
  • Shutter –The Colossus of Rhodos
  • President Gamer – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesos
  • Space Cat – The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
  • Professor – The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
  • Chubby Unicorn – Hagia Sophia of Byzantium

We chose our Leaders, Babel Tiles, and first hand of cards.

7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: The Beginning

“A glorious vision came to me in my dreams,” President Gamer declared as he seated himself at the table.
Without needing to be asked a serving girl brought him a mug of cider. The others looked at him, waiting for further explanation.
When one was not forthcoming, Professor cleared his throat and spoke. “Pray tell, what was in this vision.”
President Gamer’s face brightened. “A grand temple devoted to Artemis. I have already contacted the builders to have the plans drawn up.”
“Wait,” Space Cat interrupted, gesturing with the scrolls in her hands. “I thought we were ready to move forward with my plans.”
At this the table erupted into an argument. It appeared everyone had a different plan for their city.
“No one cares about your ridiculous dream.”
“I have already found a trader willing to bring in the special marble needed.”
“The plans are finished. We should begin immediately.”
“Enough!”
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Pathfinder: Choosing my Character: Seoni

Previously for Pathfinder I played Kyra (female, human, cleric), and this heavily influenced my decision to play as Seoni (female, human, sorcerer).

For cards, Kyra begins with:

  • 2 weapons
  • 3 spells
  • 2 armor
  • 1 item
  • 1 ally
  • 6 blessings

Starting Deck:

  • Weapons
    • Mace
    • Quarterstaff
  • Spells
    • Cure
    • Guidance
    • Mending
  • Armor
    • Chain Mail
    • Wooden Shield
  • Item
    • Holy Water
  • Ally
    • Guard
  • Blessings
    • Blessing of the Gods x6

I ended up with:

  • 4 weapons (max)
  • 5 spells (max)
  • 3 armor
  • 2 items (max)
  • 2 allies (max)
  • 7 blessings

Ending Deck (Adventure Number in Parens):

  •  Weapons
    • Runechill Hatchet +2 (4)
    • Greatclub +3 (4)
  • Loot Weapons
    • Mokmurian’s Club (4)
    • Karzoug’s Burning Glaive (6)
  • Armors
    • Magic Full Plate (3)
    • Reflecting Shield (4)
    • Invincible Breast Plate (5)
  • Allies
    • Charmed Red Dragon (4)
    • Sacred Killer (5)
  • Spells
    • Holy Light (B)
    • Swipe x2 (3)
    • Major Cure (3)
    • Sign of Wrath (6)
  • Items
    • Belt of Physical Might (6)
  • Loot Items
    • Ordikon’s Staff (5)
  • Blessings
    • Blessing of Sarenrae x4 (B)
    • Blessing of Sarenrae (C)
    • Blessing of Pharasma (B)
    • Blessing of Abadar (2)

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