A Uniquely Novel Greek Mythological Game
# of Players: 6
Time: 30-50 mins
Age: 12+
Game Type: Strategy/Engine Building
Gamer Type: Moderate
Complexity:5
Greek mythology is one of the most interesting periods in classical human history. We have legends, myths, and reality all coming together into a great storyline. This area of time is rife with great storylines, great examples of strategy, and of course, great concepts for gaming. 7 Fortunes by Alpha Wolf Games embrace the essence of the time and the world of mythological Greece.
Story
Alpha Wolf taps into some of the greatest stories of all time to find content for the game. Players take the role of one of the Greek gods or titans as they battle for supremacy. The game’s story looks deep into some of the classical characters, items and tropes of Greek mythology. Sometimes you choose to match up heroes of lore with their items from their stories, sometimes you decide to see what would happen if Atlas had the “golden touch.” The story immerses the players in the mythology of the time and earns 7 Fortunes a 7.5 out of 10 for the story.
Art
The artwork is phenomenal; it is a form of realism and fantasy merged perfectly to fit the game. The player boards, which are among the most detailed we have seen in a while, allow players to see all of the cards that are in plan and could be in play. This eliminates a lot of the “didn’t know it did that” moments in the game. As the game is just going into Kickstarter, I have not seen the box, nor the box art yet. I would hope they would build the proper inserts to make the game easy to store. With just the game art, 7 Fortunes brings in a very good score of 7.5 for art.
Mechanics
When you have a card game, you have shuffling the cards as a randomizer. In dice games, you roll the dice every turn, right? Not with 7 Fortunes. This game uses a Baccarat/Blackjack style card game to randomize the game and the dice are only used for card effects (with exception of the suit dice which is used in the game). This provides a very strong randomization system that is completely within the control of the player. If you want to have risk, then you can reap reward or failure. If you want to play it safe, you can build resources through other means.
The cards themselves imbue abilities on the player. There are several types of cards, each has its own benefits and detriments. The relics cost gold and are worth points and hero points (victory points). Epics affect game play. Artifacts (4 of them) are major game effects and then there is your avatar, either a god of the Greek pantheon or a Titan, which gives you your powers for the game. These mechanics work well together and give the game an 8.5 out of 10.
Strategy
This game has three of the four main types of strategy. Since there is not really armies, minions or a variety of attach methods (physical), you cannot really rush your opponent. To be honest this would be a little overkill in a quick game like this. You can choose to go on offense in this game with a plethora of attack cards to mess with your opponents. Defense is there, but it is not represented as strongly as offense is. Engine building is where this game shines, as you can build engines to compliment your avatar or you can choose a counter-strategy to confuse your opponent. Either way, this game has many paths to victory earning it a 6.5 out of 10.
Novelty
From the game board to the type of randomizer, to the way the cards play off of one another, this game is novel. The fact that it incorporates great stories in a cool way with novel mechanics and some fast-paced gambling makes it one of those games that can adjust the genre, even if only a little bit. One of the key novel features is the Bronze-Platinum system for the gambling. This system allows players to “go for more” than a traditional game of 7-up. This really challenges when you hit and when you stand. As this game is about epic stories, it is only fair that it earns an epic novelty score of 9.5 out of 10.
Overall
This game is a masterwork of strategy and mechanics integrated into a simple game that people can pick up quite quickly. The cards’ instructions are simple, although “hero points” confused me as “hit points” since it was listed as HP. Once you get past the terminology, the game is quick to pick up. Since there are only about 15 cards in the game, you can learn what they do fairly quickly. Overall this game earns a score of 40.5 and takes its place among the pantheon of great games to be released this year.
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