FallCon - A Cornucopia of Gaming

Name: Troyes
Designer:Sébastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges, Alain Orban
# of Players: 2-4
Playtime: 90 minutes
MSRP: $55.00 CDN
Link to Rules

Synopsis: Troyes is a strategy game in which you represent a rich family from Troyes, a grand city in the Champagne region of France. You use your influence to recruit and supervise individuals from three realms of expertise: military (associated with the color red), religious (white), and civil (yellow). Each player manages a common pool of workers (represented by colored dice) to determine which activities and events they wish to utilize to improve their status in the town.

Can you manage your city better than your opponents?

This 2010 release from Z-Man Games is one of the new breed of dice pool/worker placement games. Each turn, players roll a group of dice based upon workers they have previously placed in the various buildings depicted on the board. These dice can then be used on various activities and events that come out during the round to garner additional influence and victory points. As these events and activities are drawn from a large set of cards, the game is highly replayable. An additional novelty in this particular worker placement game is that you can hire your opponents' workers by paying them with your hard earned coin. This ups the tension and interaction in the game dramatically.

Troyes is clearly a descendant of worker placement games like Caylus and dice games like Kingsburg. Like these games, they appeal to more seasoned gamers. I've found the game really begins to shine after 3 or 4 plays, as one begins to appreciate the interaction between activity cards and the possibilities with dice manipulation. I personally quite like Troyes and believe it is in the top tier of gamer games of the last year.

Darren 

Name:  Pantheon
Designer: Bernd Brunnhofer 
# of Players: 2-4
Playtime: 90 minutes
MSRP: $47.99 CDN
Photo Credit: Daniel Denzer
Link to Rules
Synopsis: In Pantheon, players take the role of various empires in the Mediterranean.  Players travel their realms, accumulating materials and treasure, constructing monuments and building temples, all in the hopes of gaining favor with the pantheon of gods watching over the world. The one who succeeds in best honoring their gods will be declared the victor!

Pantheon's beautiful components are what initially drew me into the game. I'm especially fond of the little feet tokens (are feet meeples feetples?). Beyond the esthetics of the art design, I was attracted to the game because of my affinity for Stone Age, Bernd Brunnhofer's previous design.

Whereas Stone Age explores the “randomness” design space with dice, Pantheon explores it with card and tile draws. Serious boardgame players may argue that this game is too luck-based but I found that the random elements thematically captured the fickleness of the gods and the players’ attempts to capitalize on their favors. The card and tile draws also lend themselves to varied starts and in-game conditions, which consequently lead to unique playing experiences in each game.

In my opinion, a key component to any good game design is the existence of multiple paths to victory. In Pantheon, you can focus on building monuments, accumulating demi-god tokens, or building temples but the real power comes from the god tiles. If you let someone monopolize those, you will have a hard time catching up to them. Furthermore scoring is triggered in rounds 3 and 6, so timing and planning is also important.

Ultimately, this is a game that rewards multiple plays, especially to see the relative power of the various god tiles in play as well as their interactions and timing implications.  Knowing what options are available and then planning for the future will allow an experienced player to make the most of any given situation.

I really enjoy Pantheon and I’ll personally be ensuring it hits the table a number of times at FallCon. Hopefully I will see you sitting across from me at the game table!

Darren

Designer: Antoine Bauza
# of Players: 2-7
Playtime: 30 minutes
MSRP: $59.99 CDN
Link to Rules
Synopsis: Can you lead your people to become the most powerful civilization in the world?

7 Wonders was the smash hit at the 2010 Essen Speiltage (the largest game expo in the world) and with good reason: designer Antoine Bauza takes the card drafting mechanic to the next level in this award winning game. Each player starts with 1 of 7 (double-sided) civilization boards, each with its own Wonder to be built and associated special attributes. The remainder of the game revolves around card play. Cards represent resources or cultural developments (military, scientific, economic, civil/architectural) that players must either choose for their own civilization or opt to pass to their neighbouring opponents. The tension in the take-it-or-pass-it-on mechanic is the genius stroke that makes this game sing.

7 Wonders has become the default superfiller* in many of the groups I play with. The main reason: this 30-minute game can accommodate anywhere between 2 to 7 players. That’s right! A SEVEN-player game in 30 minutes! Since play is simultaneous, the number of players has very little effect on how long the game takes. There are very few games that play so well, in such a short time with so many players.

7 Wonders is also very easy and quick to teach, which furthers its likelihood of being selected in a diverse group or in between games to fill the time. I have taught this game to diehard gamers, newcomers, and even to cosplaying convention goers at the Calgary Comic Expo. Without fail, they have grasped the game within one play and always come back for more!

And wonder of wonders, the game stands up very well to repeated plays. The variety in the civilization boards as well as in the cards lends itself to multiple paths to victory. Consequently, there is a lot of replayability and there’s a drive to better your score by playing “just one more time”.

Designing a short, fun, interactive civilization game is a holy grail of sorts for many designers. Antoine Bauza has done just that and the numerous awards 7 Wonders has collected over the last year are a reflection of the incredible work he’s done with this game. 7 Wonders is a game I unequivocally think deserves a spot on your shelves.

*Filler = games that “fill” the space between games or other activities
*Superfiller = fillers that have greater depth than expected, considering their typical short length.

Darren