Regular readers will have noticed that 7WD has disappeared from this blog over the last few months.

It is not that it has not been played at all, but to be honest, the “burn” has diminished. Neither of us want this, with hopes that over the summer holidays we will play more.

Everdell is a hit with me, but not so much Meg and Wingspan has been put on the occasional list. Both lack the relentless, focussed and cleanly balanced play of 7WD, but at least Everdell can be (and is) played solo and it works well, so no harm (7WD can be played solo also with a free fan made print and play expansion).

In an attempt to revitalise the game for us I have taken measures to add to the experience.

First up, the Agora expansion has been purchased. The intention with this one is to change the core game into a more realistic and cutthroat political-military (actually Roman civil war feeling) game. We both feel this expansion is an alternative to our usual game (usually played with the Pantheon expansion), not an addition to it. The two extra progress tokens and Wonders add specifically to this expansions mechanics and add some variety.

I feel the Agora expansion will be played maybe 1 in 5 five times at most. As an alternative to learning and playing a totally different game of political intrigue, it is ideal. I am sure we will give a game of “full noise” a go using all the options, but not regularly as we both predict that will simply add too much clutter to such a clean game.

The more exciting expansion is the one that arrived the other day, ordered on Etsy (delivered super fast from Lithuania against all the odds at this time of the year). This fan made Leaders expansion, a free print and play or in our case a pair of print and play Wonders and a set of very nice 63x88 cards (60 odd, but it varies depending on the shape of your game), is a 7WD version of the Leaders expansion from the original 7 Wonders multi player game. The art and game balance are well thought out and consistent. I have printed the Wonders out on photo paper and you cannot see the difference sleeved without turning them over (we slip them into the Agora sleeves when that expansion is not being used for better subterfuge when shuffling).

To give fair warning, the cards cost as much as the Agora or Pantheon expansions, which seems steep, but they add just as much content.

I have sleeved the cards in black backed sleeves, with a mat front surface for the bulk, but glossy fronts for the optional ones (16 for a Pantheon or 2 for a non Pantheon game), just so I can sort them out quickly.

Selected like Wonders, each player gets to alternately choose 4 from 8 randomly drawn Leaders at the start of the game with a normal maximum of 3 to be used per player. One can be chosen or cashed in at the beginning of each Age. The leaders are a mix of expensive and powerful to cheap and situational, but they cover the gamut of 7WD effects in all forms* with a few new ones to boot. The 2 Wonders add some interesting options also like the ability to “bury” your leader for extra VP or gain another from the deck.

With very little extra setup or play disruption we now have another way of breaking play flow, synergising effects and gaining victory points, but with a usual maximum of only 6 in play they are not game breaking. Both players get to see which ones are on offer at the start, but from then on, they are secretly selected or discarded.

With a lot more on offer than other elements of the game, they are far less predictable than Wonders or Gods, so hopefully we will never grow tired of them. We are also interested in their potential to spice up the base game alone, much as the Pantheon expansion did, but with much less process involved.

Finally, the Agora expansion uses plastic cubes for its Senate board, that unfortunately come with a reputation for flaking and feeling cheap, so I ordered some metal ones on Etsy at the same time as the cards. To be honest, I am not bothered by the plastic ones that have come, but I guess they may age badly. The metal ones are a good match also for the coins I bought recently (originally for the Role Player game). These were well priced, small in size and numerous enough (100+ value in 1’s and 3’s), and look right as long as you can ignore the slightly pointy ears on the Elven 1’s. We both love the “chink” of metal.

Our preference based on a short time with all of these in the house is:

• The base game with Pantheon and the Leaders is our favourite as of now, replacing the Pantheon only. The extra leaders included for Pantheon add to that expansion nicely.

• The base game with Leaders is similar in feel to just the Pantheon, but is much quicker to play and smaller on the table, if a little less dynamic. It adds enough to re-balance the base game. The game feels very grounded and “mercantile” in this form and is ideal for travel.

• Base game and Agora has a totally different feel for those days when a change, that is not a major a change, is ideal. We do not like it with the Pantheon expansion, but the Leaders work well and even match in with the big black cards for Agora.

• We have not tried the “full noise” option yet.

*Chaining builds, extra VP for sets, colours, Wonders and Science tokens, Shield and Conquer tokens, discard draws, card kills, turn skips, build proxies and exceptions etc. More on these at a later date.