{"id":3753,"date":"2004-12-08T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/12\/08\/7ages\/"},"modified":"2004-12-08T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-08T11:00:00","slug":"7ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/12\/08\/7ages\/","title":{"rendered":"7\nAges"},"content":{"rendered":"

7
\nAges<\/a><\/h2>\n

reviewed by Moritz Eggert<\/i><\/p>\n

I have to admit something from the start: I love this game. It is great. Please buy it
\nand make Harry Rowland a rich man (or at least help him produce more games). If games
\nlike “History of the World” or “Civilization” have ever piqued your
\ninterest, this game is an absolute must-have. Believe me. You can trust me. Order it….
\nNOW!<\/p>\n

Now come back to the screen or wherever you are reading this and let me explain
\nwhy:<\/p>\n

“7 Ages” has a bold approach – 6000 years of human history in a nutshell, or
\nrather, if you dare, in a weekend (although you can shorten the game in many ways, see
\nbelow). If you ever wanted to see the Babylonians make it into the 20th century and
\ndevelop nukes (possible in the game), if you ever wanted to see many of the historical
\ngreat empires rise and fall in a grand all-or-nothing game (possible), if you ever wanted
\nto build world wonders like the Colossus or the Hanging Gardens (possible), if you ever
\nwanted to see Native Americans force back a European invasion (possible), this is the
\ngame for you.<\/p>\n

The game is about gathering Glory points. Each of the empires you play (and you will
\nplay many different ones, rest assured) has different “goals”. Some want to
\ndominate a certain continent, some want to be the most technologically advanced, some
\nwant to have the most cities, etc. Achieving the goals gives an empire around 4 glory
\npoints average per turn; if you fall below that number, you might think about dumping an
\nempire and start a new one.<\/p>\n

Players can perform various actions, which are as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Start Empire (if you have a “slot” free – depending on the total number of
    \nplayers one can play from 1-7 empires simultaneously)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  2. Production (count the territories and cities you have, earn money, spend money for
    \nupkeep of your units, buy new units depending on which age you are in)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  3. Trade and Progress (perform a trade action with either the board or another player –
    \nif you are successful you advance 1-3 spaces on the age track)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  4. Manoeuvre (move your units and fight if necessary)\n<\/li>\n
  5. Destiny (draw new cards)\n<\/li>\n
  6. Civilize (create artefacts, adopt religions or governments for various advantages,
    \nplay mean cards against other players, get leaders, develop your cities)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  7. Discard Empire (obvious)\n<\/li>\n
  8. Wild Card (joker action= any of the above, but with negative effects if you double
    \nany action that has been played before)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The number of actions seems daunting at first, but with a very simple rule, downtime
    \nis effectively negated: each empire can only perform ONE of these actions! (Harry Rowland
    \nwrites in the rules that it took him several years to finally discover this solution to
    \nthe problem of endless turns). At the beginning of a turn all players place action chits
    \n(they have one of each the above) on their empires, the phases are then played one at a
    \ntime and only the empires who have the action will be active in each phase.<\/p>\n

    \"7This of course creates interesting dilemmas – on the one
    \nhand, you have to guess the actions of your fellow players and play accordingly, on the
    \nother hand, you have to develop your fruitful empires before they disappear from the
    \ncentre stage of history. A common combo is to play production in one turn, then to play
    \nmanoeuvre in the next. Two production rounds in a row rarely make sense as you have to
    \nalways conquer new territory to earn more money than the upkeep for existing troops that
    \namass in crowded spaces costs you. But spreading yourself thin makes you extremely
    \nvulnerable to attacks, as your defence will be pitiable.<\/p>\n

    “Civilize” is perhaps the most powerful action…if you have the right
    \nartefact cards to play, and perhaps an evil event card or two to spare. However, to use
    \nit effectively you MUST have played “Destiny” with some other empire, because
    \ncards aren’t automatically drawn, they have to be acquired. “Trade and
    \nProgress” seems boring at first, but many empires need to be advanced to gain glory
    \npoints, and also many nifty units only become available in higher ages.<\/p>\n

    This brings us to the “age track”, which is the heart of the game. Each
    \nempire will have a position on this 7×7 square track, which 1) shows in which age it is
    \n(one of the 7 lines) and 2) which units it can build (certain spaces show units which can
    \nbe bought if you are on or beyond this spaces).<\/p>\n

    There are also “dark ages” spaces which can only be left via a “trade
    \nand progress” action. The game ends, when the final space of the track is reached
    \n(or “Internet” is invented – a very funny idea). This happens more or less
    \nautomatically after a while (barring dark ages) as each empire normally gets a “free
    \nprogress” at the end of a turn.<\/p>\n

    The “age track” can also be used to limit game length; one could decide to
    \njust play one age for example.<\/p>\n

    The empire that is farthest ahead on the track denotes the current “age” of
    \nthe game. There are over a hundred cards representing the cultures (they can also be used
    \nas event or artifact cards), but you can only start an empire if it’s age is
    \n“current”. You can even restart an empire (if still possible) that already
    \nappeared.<\/p>\n

    \"7The amount of units available in the game is impressive
    \n– any possible military unit you can think of is represented, there are even Elephant and
    \nStar Wars counters that would make Ronny Reagan proud (or ashamed, as he should be). In
    \naddition each playable colour (15 empire “colours” are available) has a
    \ncompletely different counter mix, even different strengths for various units. Therefore,
    \nyou better think twice when selecting a colour for an empire that tries to conquer the
    \nseas (for which you need ships) – some colours have more but weaker ships, some less but
    \nmore powerful ships.<\/p>\n

    The combat system (diceless) looks daunting at first, but turns out to be very
    \ningenious and logical. Each player divides their troops in a front and back row, adding
    \nsupport, frontline value, defensive bonuses, bonuses for being in a higher age etc., all
    \nthis added to a random card that you can look at BEFORE deploying your troops. If you
    \nburn up your troops quickly at the front you will have to reuse them and gain disorder
    \nmarkers (which makes you weaker), on the other hand some units are stronger in frontline
    \nvalue than in support and vice versa. The ancient battles at the beginning of the game
    \nare usually tense affairs, as the card drawn (valued 0-7) really can make a difference.
    \nAs technology advances units become more and more powerful and fortifications and cards
    \n(luck) play a much lesser role (which reflects the real evolution of military
    \ntechnology). There are some cards that mess around with this, but usually you win a
    \nbattle that you really commit yourself to with the necessary force, which is nice.<\/p>\n

    \"7The best thing though is that war is not the best way to win
    \n– in fact, there are very few cultures, which profit from all-out conquest like the
    \nMongols or the Huns (following their real-life counterparts). The vast majority of
    \ncultures profits from other things. In our current game, I play the Phoenicians under the
    \nrule of an able artist. Since starting their empire, the Phoenicians have never left
    \ntheir homeland, instead concentrating on building artefacts. So far, they have a record
    \nnumber of eight artefacts in their homespace, gaining double as many points through the
    \nartist present. I actually got many more points through peaceful play than if I had tried
    \nto attack my neighbours!<\/p>\n

    All out war never pays off in the game – the more you fight the more you lose
    \nopportunities to get glory points. In fact artists (to my great joy the game actually has
    \ncounters for personalities like Mozart and Shakespeare) can be deemed the most powerful
    \npoint-garnering leaders in the whole game, much more effective than tacticians and
    \nstrategists. The most often used tactic is to select an empire that is far away from any
    \n“action” or “conflict” and let it thrive as long as you can, of
    \ncourse, but sometimes it also makes sense to start empires close to or even IN other
    \nplayers’ lands to limit their progress.<\/p>\n

    Conflict is therefore sometimes a necessity (and fun to play), but it is nice to see
    \nthat the game is not solely dependent on it (like “History of the World”).
    \nGlory points are forever – once you gain them you don’t lose them, so in effect it is
    \nnot important if you are the big boss on the board – gaining glory points in any way
    \npossible is the main incentive.<\/p>\n

    I already noted that event cards can be very powerful – in fact, this is the only
    \ngripe one could have with the game. Some events are so powerful that they literally can
    \nerase a complete huge empire with the play of one card. In the long run things equal out,
    \nthough, as at the moment players oppose a certain empire it is best to give it up anyway,
    \nand by having it destroyed one even saves an otherwise necessary time-consuming action
    \n(“discard empire”). The events have clearly been introduced to create flavour
    \n(of course, there are earthquakes and even the dreaded civil wars which play similar like
    \nin “Civilization”) and to satisfy players who want to have a
    \n“historic” or epic game with no regard to game balance. The rules suggest a
    \n“Mike Siggins” variant in which events can only be played on empires “in
    \nrange” (range is determined by the age an empire is in). I would certainly recommend
    \nthat variant, but it is also easily possible to leave away the events altogether,
    \nespecially if you want to play a shorter game. As I already said, events will equal out
    \nin the long run, but if you only play a couple of rounds, they can be very unfair.<\/p>\n

    “7 Ages” is not, as many would expect, a complicated game. In fact the rules
    \nare only slightly more complicated than “History of the World”. One can tell
    \nthat a lot of streamlining work has gone into the rules – although some concepts need
    \ngetting a little used to; the rules only need to be consulted for looking up the various
    \nartefact and leader abilities (a handout would have been handy, but isn’t existent).
    \nThey also contain a long fun article covering the whole world history and extensive and
    \ninteresting designer notes. There is even a quite beautiful and poignant poem by Harry
    \nRowland’s father in it, to top things off.<\/p>\n

    The amount of counters needed for the game is immense. ADG provides six heavily
    \ncluttered countersheets (the graphic design is excellent, by the way), but even then many
    \ncounters can only be found on the back of counters that are needed somewhere else, which
    \nmakes it hellish to find some particular counter. Some event cards ask for counters that
    \nare not existent (or at least we couldn’t find them). The amount of named leaders and
    \nartefacts is staggering, and if you don’t put them in some kind of order before the
    \ngame you might spend a couple of minutes to find Genghis Khan for example.<\/p>\n

    I recommend using different, out-of-the-game markers for fortresses (we use small
    \nwooden blocks) and unrest (we use the “gem stones” used for Magic the
    \nGathering-type card games). The huge board (two A1 paper sheets) is cluttered with
    \ncounters as it is, so some different looking, easy-to-spot counters are a nice change.
    \nAre all these (minor) gripes damaging the game as it is? Definitely no, you will find
    \nyour own solutions, and play it nonetheless.<\/p>\n

    Don’t be deluded, though: “7 Ages” is not a game for the casual gamer or
    \nfor the family gathering. It demands some attention, and especially time. You would need
    \na weekend to play a full game from age 1 (which is actually not necessary, as any age can
    \nbe used to start a game) with 4-5 players. In contrast to some other monster games in
    \nyour cabinet this game won’t gather dust. It is a game that you will want to store
    \nsomehow and continue playing again and again. Because there is little downtime every
    \nplayer is constantly involved in the game, and the fascination of seeing empires rise and
    \nfall in a truly epic but totally playable game is payoff enough for me. It is even easily
    \npossible to join a game already in progress, or to leave a game and come back later. The
    \nInternet will be another medium in which this game will thrive – there is already an
    \nexperimental cyberboard version around, and the game lends itself easily to an online or
    \ncomputer version – Harry should recommend it to the excellent Matrix Games who are
    \nalready working on computer versions of “Empires in Arms” and “World in
    \nFlames”.<\/p>\n

    If you have any love for grand historical games (AND call yourself a non-casual gamer)
    \nthis game will become a classic for you, to be visited again and again, for countless
    \nhours of pleasure. Don’t wait, do Harry a favour and order a game, I promise you
    \nwon’t be disappointed.<\/p>\n

    \n
    <\/form>\n<\/div>\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    7 Ages reviewed by Moritz Eggert I have to admit something from the start: I love this game. It is great. Please buy it and make Harry Rowland a rich man (or at least help him produce more games). If games like “History of the World” or “Civilization” have ever piqued your interest, this game … 7
    \nAges<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":4,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}