I don't watch many of your videos but I really enjoy the fact that you are one of the few boardgame reviewer that I don't have to put the video at 1.5x speed to enjoy it
I feel another positivie aspect of it's a wonderful world is missed here: the decision making in draft offers something different and more tactical vs 7 wonders I feel: do you focus on one strategy and get multipliers early on? Or do you spread out early on? Or spread out later, winning bonusses for production early. Or do you pick 2 or 3 bomb cards and gamble you'll get the right cards to build and finish them later?
Admittedly, I had a bad first (only) experience with 7 Wonders, and feel like it's a game that shines most only after everyone properly knows the various upgrade trees and what to expect in the final round. I find IaWW an interesting solo puzzle, and want to play it more and with friends, but I do admittedly find it hard to push for that over some of the many other games I have that haven't gotten play yet. Other than 'more players' type expansions, though, I've started to not really be a fan of expansions, as they usually complicate game rules that are already notably intimidating and hard for me to get to a table; As such, I do appreciate you separately stating the with and without expansions opinions.
I own both games and number of expansions for 7W (except Babel). I'd say I prefer 7W but it loses to IWW in terms of ease of set up and speed/ease of play (unless you play 7W often your decisions would take some time). So practically IWW wins because it's more likely it'll get to the table.
It's hands down It's a Wonderful World for me, I find it much more mechanically interesting, it's become my go-to solo game, I played through all the scenarios in a weekend and I really look forward to see what comes next for this game. I find the production chain really interesting, and I'm a big fan of engine building in games and it's amazing how far you can go in just four short rounds. In regards to 7 Wonders, it just doesn't do much for me, it becomes that last resort game when my group doesn't come to an agreement on another game. I never feel the tension on whether a card will come back around, I just deal with it hand by hand and just pick whatever seems like the best option for that draft and move on. And I honestly don't understand that theme argument, not that I get into theme in games, but in this one it's icons and artwork, blue cards get you points, green cards need to be sets, yellow gives you discounts, etc.
Why would you prefer playing this kind of game solo instead of ..I don't know - playing videogames and actuall strategy games. The fun of these kind of board games comes from the social aspect
@@RichyRich2607 I don't think I ever said I "prefer" to play solo. Boardgaming is definitely a social hobby for me, but sometimes there just isn't an option to play socially, this year especially has made social gaming really difficult. I have not been able to host a proper game night since March, even getting just a single other person to play with has been a rare event. So instead of letting my games gather dust, I've ventured into solo gaming to scratch some of that itch, and being a mechanical gamer instead of a thematic one, this kind of game is perfect for that. As for videogames, I've apparently spent 700+ hours on my Switch this year alone according to the end of year report. It's definitely one of my go-to solo activities. But adding that to all the other screen time from my phone and computer, I need to give myself something not screen related to do as well. Usually boardgaming with friends is one such activity, but when that isn't possible, solo boardgaming it is.
Thanks for your video! I usually agree with your viewpoint, but I prefer by far IWW, as it has more interesting choices and needs more practice to be mastered. That said, I agree 7 Wonders is far more thematic and easier to pick with my family and non-gamer friends.
To be fair, I haven't played it's a wonderful world too many times. But I agree with you, 7 wonders just feels like the better game. And I think the thematic element that you touched on is key, because it helps draw you into the game. I like the artwork on it's a wonderful world a lot, but you're right, the theme just really isn't there.
It's a Wonderful World and 7 Wonders are both great games, with very clean designs. I believe 7 Wonders is easier to get to the table and benefit from having great expansions, but ultimately to me IAWW is a better puzzle and a more interesting game to play. You have more choices overall, and a lot of forward thinking is required if you want to do well, while the choices between building and discarding are tougher than in 7 Wonders in the first stages of the game. I'm pretty happy to have both in my collection anyway.
I very much agree Wonderful World is a better puzzle. I do love the sequencing they have. For me it's just a question of the whole package that makes 7 Wonders win out.
What game would I want in my collection : it’s a wonderful world, has a solo, and the two campaigns with all their secret envelopes bring it back to the table, along with the great component cups that make the game pop. After the campaigns are done though I’ll probably move it out. 7 wonders to me suffers from 7 wonders duel having a better 2p and a solo mode. I wouldn’t want both in the collection, and duel is just to me a better game. That being said you’re right, it’s a wonderful world is not thematic and more of a complex puzzle to 7 wonders high player interaction and theme. The new expansion for wonderful world isn’t fixing that, it just doubles down adding card combos to make you more resources and harder to make cards To spend those resources.
Cool thanks. I did briefly take a look at the expansion before this video and that was my impression, but as I didn't do a deep dive I didn't want to say anything wrong there.
Robin Rising, Ordered IAWW from my friendly Games shop because it can be played solo. Nothing can be more frustrating than living a multiplayer game that cannot be played as a solo two player or just solo game! Looking forward to add the game ( arriving this week ) to my huge gameboard " library ".....filling those shelves nicely 😇
Alex, you should definitely start using the Cities-expansion. It integrates seamlessly with the base-game and leaders and just offers more variety with basically 0 additional rules-overhead. Personally, 7 Wonders if one of my most-played and favourite games of all-time due to the way it plays smoothly with differing player-counts and how it stays interesting between all levels of player-skill. Didn't get to play Wonderful World much, just one game at Essen...I want to, but 100€ up-front for the full experience just felt too much for me for a simple drafting game. Btw. Rahdo mentioned Paper Tales as his favourite drafting game in one of his videos and I recently acquired that, so looking forward to seeing how it compares to 7 Wonders.
I sort of went about this backwards. I backed the Heritage edition of IaWW and because everyone kept comparing it to 7W I got both 7W and 7W Duel. I loved IaWW from the first play. Of the new acquisitions we played 7 Wonders Duel first and it was...okay. I found the concept of how military and science were integrated interesting, but the actual play felt lacking, Then we tried 7W. It was better experience for us, even played a ton of games, but at the end of the day it just felt a little dated. I've spent a fair amount of time trying to decided just why I prefer IaWW by so much over 7W and I think it comes down to one thing - engine building. I love this mechanic, it's one of my favourites, and IaWW is just the much superior engine builder of the two. In addition, there is a fair amount of luck in both IaWW and 7W, in which cards come out and you actually get to see, but how the luck played out in 7W was a much worse experience for me. And perhaps here is the reason: in 7W you are given a city card that somewhat directs the best strategy for you in the game, what wonders and associated bonuses you will be able to build. If you don't get the right supporting cards it's game over. In IaWW you decide which strategy you are going for (unless you play the A side empire cards, or as I call them the 7W's side, which I recommend only for your first game) and you have some opportunity, albeit small, to pivot your strategy should the cards prove unkind. It's knowing when to pivot that can make all the difference. In closing , I think it is just the thrill of seeing how quickly in each game I have been able to build a pretty powerful engine and if I am able to achieve the goals I set out for myself that really pushes IaWW over the top for me. it has definitely become my favourite light to medium weight game. My game collection is still relatively small, but if I were to start selecting games to cull from my collection tomorrow the 7 Wonders siblings would be in line soon after Azul. One last note: There was a fair amount of talk about theme in the games. I find the theme pretty light in both without either feeling more thematic. But, I far prefer the art in IaWW, which is a direct consequence of the dystopian theme. The images on the cards just make me smile. And the art in 7 Wonders, well, we're just back to my previous comment, 'dated.' Oh, and I love the pretty resource cubes!
I think you like IaWW the better simply because you backed it on KS. In 7 Wonders you smell the theme from miles away and it has a waaay more player interaction.
I respect your opinion, but I strongly disagree with it. 7 Wonders is the superior game IMO. The drafting is much more strategic. Also you have interaction with the players next to you (you can buy resources from them, you can sell to them & you battle them at the end of each era) which makes it a lot more fun and exciting. And the more you play, the more you start to understand how the game works and how many paths to victory you have especially with the expansions. For me it is the base game + Leaders + Cities. When you add the expansions the game opens a lot and becomes far more strategic as well balanced which I like a lot and if you are good at it, you don't even need to build any of the stages of your wonder to win the game. But in order to get to this level, you need a handful number of games under your belt. When it comes to IAWW, it is just a simple engine building game that I understood after 5 mins and in the first game I scored 107 points. It is so easy that it is dull to me. And the most important thing that makes me dislike it is the lack of balance of the cards in play. You have a huge deck from which you only use like 1/4 from it to play the game. In the first few games we played (even after 10 mins of shuffling) we always ended up with more cards from one color which makes the game unbalanced and favors the player that chose to go with that color strategy. At the end of the day I gave this game a lot of chances, but it is just not as exciting for me as 7 Wonders is.
I have to give it to It's a Wonderful World for me. Though I am interested in give 7 Wonders more tries since my first two were so rough. They both lack strongly in theme for me in different ways. 7 Wonders gets a plus for resources like wood and glass, while IAWW lacks that in simply producing science, money and energy. 7W fell short for me in the world because I felt like there was going to be more emphasis on the wonders when in return they don't really matter, sure some points and abilities but you I didn I 't feel like your building that wonder up. Card art can be wacky in IAWW sometimes, but felt like I was investing in that world a bit more, I do love the setting of 7W more though. For ease of play, it's IAWW for me. I played 7 Wonders twice, and I was still confused about everything. Granted my first play of 7W was with Leaders & Cities so it was a bit more to take in, second play was just base, I still didn't fully grasp Science for example. IAWW started clicking after 2 rounds. Expansions 7W easily takes though. IAWW's expansion watching a quick bgg coverage doesn't seem that interesting to me, just more production and more points. The scoring cards for pairs of cards could be nice. Plus up to 7 players. 7W cities and Armada interest me the most, but Leaders is respectable.
I hear on most counts, the one I'm confused by, is the idea that wonderful world clicked more easily. I've generally found that the in-round sequencing takes people a bit to understand.
7 wonders is friendlier to non-gamers and you can have little control of what you get from drafting at higher player counts. IWW takes a lot more brain to master the production flux and it gets even better with culture and workers in the mix. I would not play it with non-gamers. All in all, i do not think these games are really comparable except for the fact that drafing cards is part of the game. IWW drafting is closer to Agricola (you draft all your hand before playing) that 7W (where you play what you get). I prefer IWW as the decisions you make are more interesting imho.
This video has been extremely helpful in helping me decide whether I should get IAWW. Please do more videos like these. I’m a recent subscriber and all your recent videos have been fantastic! Keep up the great work!
With the isolation thing going on, I actually went on a splurge and played pretty much nothing but dice forge and base 7 wonders at board game arena playing at least a few dozen times (I wouldn't be surprised if my play count was roughly 40 + plays) and I ultimately think that 7 wonders (the base game, i have not played any of the expansions) is essentially a flawed game for me and vastly prefer it's a wonderful world (having played it 3 + plays only) due to the flexibility it has. I'm gonna go in a bit of a rant here and of course this is solely based on my experience. I will agree that if you have 7 wonders already, and if you like the theme of 7 wonders more, you probably don't need this game. While i think IAWW is better, both games are very similar enough in some level. I also think IAWW suffers from distinctiveness on it's building cards as you mentioned as ultimately the cards mainly just lead to VP points or VP point multipliers. While 7 wonders you really do feel at least in an abstract way that you're really building to military, science or whatever. However, my biggest gripe with 7 wonders is that it lacks flexibility and certain aspects of the game doesn't feel tuned. Military is way too strong in the game, as I've never won or see someone win except once purely by ignoring military. If someone is able to get military on all 3 rounds they are pretty much guaranteed to win. I also think science feels a bit lacking. I had one particular game where I was able get science going from age 1 till the end of age 3 and still lost because someone got their military engine going. Yes, you can go do the trade route and all that, but i just haven't seen anyone win that route. The root cause of the flexibility issue is that 7 wonders sort of works like this: age 1 is you build your empire by getting goods, and you sort of continue that with age 2 and then you bank big with age 3. The problem is if you don't get certain goods in the game based purely on drafting and your neighbours don't have that certain goods for you to buy you are pretty much screwed. IAWW fixed that issue for the most part with me with that brilliant system of turning a building into a resource cube instead of just getting 3 gold. In fact, the moment you have to discard it into 3 gold unless you know that card is going to affect you neighbour you've pretty much lost (at least from my experience) as it's a much better idea to discard that card and put it into building your wonders. I really feel that 7 wonders needed an extra age for me personally. PHEW! sorry got a bit of rant there but i think you get where i'm getting at. Nothing wrong with 7 wonders btw, it's a good game and with the expansions i can see why you would prefer it over IAWW (on top of theme). I also don't like with IAWW how the campaign expansions are locked in a kickstarter pack which is a really shame because a huge amount of gameplay content is locked in there (I have the kickstarter edition which i bought off someone off a stroke of luck, and i feel like the retail version is only showing you half the game). My favourite game is actually PAPER tales which I think is a 7 wonders killer for me at least. I like that you can adapt you strategy mid way and the fact that you score along the way fixes the somewhat tedious scoring that 7 wonders can have (which IAWW has as well but in a lesser extent IMO). Anyways, sorry for the super long rant. I honestly didn't expect my comment to be this long...ah well lol
I have to say I disagree on Military being required for 7 Wonders. And I do highly recommend Leaders, it sort of gives you that extra age and much more variability as well.
@@BoardGameCo I think it's not so much that it's required, it was just almost the dominant strategy of people winning from my experience. Perhaps for lower level players it wouldn't be that big of a problem but it really was for me.
fooni360 so i also have been binging 7wonders on BGA! and i think your conclusion is correct, but the reasoning misses the reality... Science is an exonential reward *literally* - which makes for an obvious and BIG way to hurt someone you see growing greens: just use one for a wonder. Because of this, EVERY other person at the table "keeps you in check" While Military only really matters to the two people next to you; if one take the time to steal/play a card for sheilds to fight you, they still may lose out and receive nothing. The most points someone can score with military is 18 (36 relative to the negative they inflict), but science i have seen 50+ before. highest possible is 96. neilsutcliffe.com/7wonders/ Now, please understand i agree woth you - the whole balancr of the game feels stacked weirdly. The card combos to build free are weird and the age progression can throttle your strategy. Overall, it's kinda a lame game, which is why they keep adding crap to fix it - but is it better than Catan? sure
@@KXC42069 No that's fair enough. My experience just says something else. It's been ages since I've played the game. I think with science while you can score big it's easy to deny and uses far more resources than military from what I remember so for me the science path is pretty hard to win hence the big reward IF you can get it going. Where as I always felt that military just felt easier to accomplish whilst still doing other goals (such as building the blue VP cards).
Will you be getting the KS version of the Ascension expansion in stock once that ships? I recently acquired the Heritage edition of the base game and now sadly found there's no way to get the KS version of the expansion.
Possibly a stupid question, what game do those 4 what appear to be character packs on the top right corner of the shelves go to? Can't quite make out the words on the boxes
I hope you have played Armada! Such a unique expansion and guides you to diversify so you can move your ships forward and try to gain rewards every turn
@@BoardGameCo no problem. Only a suggestion, you are busy. By the way I was introduced from the Dead Reckoning quackalope video. Drove into your channel today. Keep up the great work, subscribed today and take care.
Can you please tell me the difference between the two boxes of 7th Continent you have on your shelf behind you ? Would buy the game but not sure if the errata in the rule book.....which edition has those ? Thanks and Shalom.
Terraforming Mars is my favourite game I fell asleep playing seven wonders after 3 games played. I am really on the fence woth Wonderful world since people compare it to both of them.
I have to ask, I know that you aren't the only person who has the cover not be the same side as the back. Why is it upside down and why do other people do it as well?
:) I just don't care enough to pay attention to which direction the cover goes on when I'm done. I'm OCD about my cards all facing the same direction if that helps.
i'm not convinced by the similarities of these two games. When i bought IAWW, i feared it could be too close from Res arcana.. drafting cards which produce resources, that help to buy more powerful cards during very few turns... yeah, in a way, it 's not absolutly wrong, but Res arcana and 7 wonders, have so much more depth for choices and strategies that comparing them with the quick and light IAWW makes no much sens imo. I love to play to IAWW.. when im not into deep thinking... it s fluid, it s easy, its quick . its not competitive at all the materials are great.. but even sushi go is more stressful The first extension failed at adding some complexity to the game.. because the main potitive point is that it's not complex.. second extension adds new cards with 'coruption points.. yeah.. no big deal
Base Wonderful World just bored us. I don't like 7 Wonders either because of the same thing - the base mechanic is just not enough for me, and the decisions are so simple. Both are boring (base game). But I've read that the Kickstarter version has all the bells and whistles that the retail game doesn't have. Bummer.
I'm kind of late on this. But I've been a 7W since it came out. The leaders and cities expansions were cool, but babylon really bloated up the game, and I kind of play without it or only one of the modules, just if it gets stale for some of the people. But, oh wow, was armada a surprise, I thought it will feel the same (extra and bothersome) but was I wrong, it's AMAZING, I did not mix it with babylon so I have no feedback on that. But armada knocks it out of the park with only the base game.
I don't watch many of your videos but I really enjoy the fact that you are one of the few boardgame reviewer that I don't have to put the video at 1.5x speed to enjoy it
Lol nice :)
I agree with the final decision. Sometimes the new and shiny isn't the better game.
I feel another positivie aspect of it's a wonderful world is missed here: the decision making in draft offers something different and more tactical vs 7 wonders I feel: do you focus on one strategy and get multipliers early on? Or do you spread out early on? Or spread out later, winning bonusses for production early. Or do you pick 2 or 3 bomb cards and gamble you'll get the right cards to build and finish them later?
Admittedly, I had a bad first (only) experience with 7 Wonders, and feel like it's a game that shines most only after everyone properly knows the various upgrade trees and what to expect in the final round. I find IaWW an interesting solo puzzle, and want to play it more and with friends, but I do admittedly find it hard to push for that over some of the many other games I have that haven't gotten play yet. Other than 'more players' type expansions, though, I've started to not really be a fan of expansions, as they usually complicate game rules that are already notably intimidating and hard for me to get to a table; As such, I do appreciate you separately stating the with and without expansions opinions.
this video came out 2 years ago. How you feel about these games nowadays? Excellent video btw
Haven't changed at all :) I've replayed both games multiple times since and still vastly prefer 7 wonders
I own both games and number of expansions for 7W (except Babel). I'd say I prefer 7W but it loses to IWW in terms of ease of set up and speed/ease of play (unless you play 7W often your decisions would take some time). So practically IWW wins because it's more likely it'll get to the table.
It's hands down It's a Wonderful World for me, I find it much more mechanically interesting, it's become my go-to solo game, I played through all the scenarios in a weekend and I really look forward to see what comes next for this game. I find the production chain really interesting, and I'm a big fan of engine building in games and it's amazing how far you can go in just four short rounds.
In regards to 7 Wonders, it just doesn't do much for me, it becomes that last resort game when my group doesn't come to an agreement on another game. I never feel the tension on whether a card will come back around, I just deal with it hand by hand and just pick whatever seems like the best option for that draft and move on. And I honestly don't understand that theme argument, not that I get into theme in games, but in this one it's icons and artwork, blue cards get you points, green cards need to be sets, yellow gives you discounts, etc.
Totally hear :) wonderful world gets a lot of love
Why would you prefer playing this kind of game solo instead of ..I don't know - playing videogames and actuall strategy games. The fun of these kind of board games comes from the social aspect
@@RichyRich2607 I don't think I ever said I "prefer" to play solo. Boardgaming is definitely a social hobby for me, but sometimes there just isn't an option to play socially, this year especially has made social gaming really difficult. I have not been able to host a proper game night since March, even getting just a single other person to play with has been a rare event. So instead of letting my games gather dust, I've ventured into solo gaming to scratch some of that itch, and being a mechanical gamer instead of a thematic one, this kind of game is perfect for that.
As for videogames, I've apparently spent 700+ hours on my Switch this year alone according to the end of year report. It's definitely one of my go-to solo activities. But adding that to all the other screen time from my phone and computer, I need to give myself something not screen related to do as well. Usually boardgaming with friends is one such activity, but when that isn't possible, solo boardgaming it is.
Thanks for your video! I usually agree with your viewpoint, but I prefer by far IWW, as it has more interesting choices and needs more practice to be mastered. That said, I agree 7 Wonders is far more thematic and easier to pick with my family and non-gamer friends.
Very much agree. Wonderful World has excellent sequencing that I enjoy. For me the theme and tense drafting make 7 Wonders win out.
To be fair, I haven't played it's a wonderful world too many times. But I agree with you, 7 wonders just feels like the better game. And I think the thematic element that you touched on is key, because it helps draw you into the game. I like the artwork on it's a wonderful world a lot, but you're right, the theme just really isn't there.
Yep, I'm happy to play it anytime. Just prefer 7 Wonders.
It's a Wonderful World and 7 Wonders are both great games, with very clean designs. I believe 7 Wonders is easier to get to the table and benefit from having great expansions, but ultimately to me IAWW is a better puzzle and a more interesting game to play. You have more choices overall, and a lot of forward thinking is required if you want to do well, while the choices between building and discarding are tougher than in 7 Wonders in the first stages of the game.
I'm pretty happy to have both in my collection anyway.
I very much agree Wonderful World is a better puzzle. I do love the sequencing they have. For me it's just a question of the whole package that makes 7 Wonders win out.
What game would I want in my collection : it’s a wonderful world, has a solo, and the two campaigns with all their secret envelopes bring it back to the table, along with the great component cups that make the game pop. After the campaigns are done though I’ll probably move it out.
7 wonders to me suffers from 7 wonders duel having a better 2p and a solo mode. I wouldn’t want both in the collection, and duel is just to me a better game.
That being said you’re right, it’s a wonderful world is not thematic and more of a complex puzzle to 7 wonders high player interaction and theme. The new expansion for wonderful world isn’t fixing that, it just doubles down adding card combos to make you more resources and harder to make cards To spend those resources.
Cool thanks. I did briefly take a look at the expansion before this video and that was my impression, but as I didn't do a deep dive I didn't want to say anything wrong there.
Robin Rising,
Ordered IAWW from my friendly Games shop because it can be played solo.
Nothing can be more frustrating than living a multiplayer game that cannot be played as a solo two player or just solo game!
Looking forward to add the game ( arriving this week ) to my huge gameboard " library ".....filling those shelves nicely 😇
Alex, you should definitely start using the Cities-expansion. It integrates seamlessly with the base-game and leaders and just offers more variety with basically 0 additional rules-overhead.
Personally, 7 Wonders if one of my most-played and favourite games of all-time due to the way it plays smoothly with differing player-counts and how it stays interesting between all levels of player-skill.
Didn't get to play Wonderful World much, just one game at Essen...I want to, but 100€ up-front for the full experience just felt too much for me for a simple drafting game.
Btw. Rahdo mentioned Paper Tales as his favourite drafting game in one of his videos and I recently acquired that, so looking forward to seeing how it compares to 7 Wonders.
Started using Cities a few days after this video :) I like it, simple and to the point.
I sort of went about this backwards. I backed the Heritage edition of IaWW and because everyone kept comparing it to 7W I got both 7W and 7W Duel. I loved IaWW from the first play. Of the new acquisitions we played 7 Wonders Duel first and it was...okay. I found the concept of how military and science were integrated interesting, but the actual play felt lacking, Then we tried 7W. It was better experience for us, even played a ton of games, but at the end of the day it just felt a little dated. I've spent a fair amount of time trying to decided just why I prefer IaWW by so much over 7W and I think it comes down to one thing - engine building. I love this mechanic, it's one of my favourites, and IaWW is just the much superior engine builder of the two.
In addition, there is a fair amount of luck in both IaWW and 7W, in which cards come out and you actually get to see, but how the luck played out in 7W was a much worse experience for me. And perhaps here is the reason: in 7W you are given a city card that somewhat directs the best strategy for you in the game, what wonders and associated bonuses you will be able to build. If you don't get the right supporting cards it's game over. In IaWW you decide which strategy you are going for (unless you play the A side empire cards, or as I call them the 7W's side, which I recommend only for your first game) and you have some opportunity, albeit small, to pivot your strategy should the cards prove unkind. It's knowing when to pivot that can make all the difference.
In closing , I think it is just the thrill of seeing how quickly in each game I have been able to build a pretty powerful engine and if I am able to achieve the goals I set out for myself that really pushes IaWW over the top for me. it has definitely become my favourite light to medium weight game. My game collection is still relatively small, but if I were to start selecting games to cull from my collection tomorrow the 7 Wonders siblings would be in line soon after Azul.
One last note: There was a fair amount of talk about theme in the games. I find the theme pretty light in both without either feeling more thematic. But, I far prefer the art in IaWW, which is a direct consequence of the dystopian theme. The images on the cards just make me smile. And the art in 7 Wonders, well, we're just back to my previous comment, 'dated.' Oh, and I love the pretty resource cubes!
Totally respect your breakdown, for myself it's totally different but that's part of the fun :)
I think you like IaWW the better simply because you backed it on KS. In 7 Wonders you smell the theme from miles away and it has a waaay more player interaction.
I respect your opinion, but I strongly disagree with it. 7 Wonders is the superior game IMO. The drafting is much more strategic. Also you have interaction with the players next to you (you can buy resources from them, you can sell to them & you battle them at the end of each era) which makes it a lot more fun and exciting. And the more you play, the more you start to understand how the game works and how many paths to victory you have especially with the expansions. For me it is the base game + Leaders + Cities. When you add the expansions the game opens a lot and becomes far more strategic as well balanced which I like a lot and if you are good at it, you don't even need to build any of the stages of your wonder to win the game. But in order to get to this level, you need a handful number of games under your belt.
When it comes to IAWW, it is just a simple engine building game that I understood after 5 mins and in the first game I scored 107 points. It is so easy that it is dull to me. And the most important thing that makes me dislike it is the lack of balance of the cards in play. You have a huge deck from which you only use like 1/4 from it to play the game. In the first few games we played (even after 10 mins of shuffling) we always ended up with more cards from one color which makes the game unbalanced and favors the player that chose to go with that color strategy.
At the end of the day I gave this game a lot of chances, but it is just not as exciting for me as 7 Wonders is.
"Should you play it?" Hahahah
You mixed the series names!
Lol wow, totally missed that in my rewatch before posting as well! Geez I need more coffee!
@@BoardGameCo or less coffee....?
I find 7W more overwhelming for beginners. More micro management, more taking care of what your neighbors are providing. It is more baroque than IaWW.
Omg, it's A wonderful world is so much better for me
Seems to be the majority concensus :)
Agreed. Almost no player interaction. Might as well be playing a solo game
Agreed, but what about 2 players and, if You want compare 7 wonders duel vs IWW, this one is harder to decide for me
@@zhonatanxd 7 wonders and duel are apples and oranges. I still like iww more I think though
Is wonderful world similar to Century? Which one would you recommend? Or am I just being confused because of the cubes?
Not that similar in my opinion, I prefer Century.
I have to give it to It's a Wonderful World for me. Though I am interested in give 7 Wonders more tries since my first two were so rough.
They both lack strongly in theme for me in different ways. 7 Wonders gets a plus for resources like wood and glass, while IAWW lacks that in simply producing science, money and energy. 7W fell short for me in the world because I felt like there was going to be more emphasis on the wonders when in return they don't really matter, sure some points and abilities but you I didn I 't feel like your building that wonder up. Card art can be wacky in IAWW sometimes, but felt like I was investing in that world a bit more, I do love the setting of 7W more though.
For ease of play, it's IAWW for me. I played 7 Wonders twice, and I was still confused about everything. Granted my first play of 7W was with Leaders & Cities so it was a bit more to take in, second play was just base, I still didn't fully grasp Science for example. IAWW started clicking after 2 rounds.
Expansions 7W easily takes though. IAWW's expansion watching a quick bgg coverage doesn't seem that interesting to me, just more production and more points. The scoring cards for pairs of cards could be nice. Plus up to 7 players. 7W cities and Armada interest me the most, but Leaders is respectable.
I hear on most counts, the one I'm confused by, is the idea that wonderful world clicked more easily. I've generally found that the in-round sequencing takes people a bit to understand.
Another great comparison. Good day to you all.
Thanks! You too!
7 wonders is friendlier to non-gamers and you can have little control of what you get from drafting at higher player counts.
IWW takes a lot more brain to master the production flux and it gets even better with culture and workers in the mix. I would not play it with non-gamers.
All in all, i do not think these games are really comparable except for the fact that drafing cards is part of the game. IWW drafting is closer to Agricola (you draft all your hand before playing) that 7W (where you play what you get).
I prefer IWW as the decisions you make are more interesting imho.
Agreed on the higher player counts...I generally end up playing 7 Wonders with 3-4.
This video has been extremely helpful in helping me decide whether I should get IAWW. Please do more videos like these. I’m a recent subscriber and all your recent videos have been fantastic! Keep up the great work!
With the isolation thing going on, I actually went on a splurge and played pretty much nothing but dice forge and base 7 wonders at board game arena playing at least a few dozen times (I wouldn't be surprised if my play count was roughly 40 + plays) and I
ultimately think that 7 wonders (the base game, i have not played any of the expansions) is essentially a flawed game for me and vastly prefer it's a wonderful world (having played it 3 + plays only) due to the flexibility it has.
I'm gonna go in a bit of a rant here and of course this is solely based on my experience.
I will agree that if you have 7 wonders already, and if you like the theme of 7 wonders more, you probably don't need this game. While i think IAWW is better, both games are very similar enough in some level. I also think IAWW suffers from distinctiveness on it's building cards as you mentioned as ultimately the cards mainly just lead to VP points or VP point multipliers.
While 7 wonders you really do feel at least in an abstract way that you're really building to military, science or whatever.
However, my biggest gripe with 7 wonders is that it lacks flexibility and certain aspects of the game doesn't feel tuned. Military is way too strong in the game, as I've never won or see someone win except once purely by ignoring military. If someone is able to get military on all 3 rounds they are pretty much guaranteed to win. I also think science feels a bit lacking. I had one particular game where I was able get science going from age 1 till the end of age 3 and still lost because someone got their military engine going. Yes, you can go do the trade route and all that, but i just haven't seen anyone win that route.
The root cause of the flexibility issue is that 7 wonders sort of works like this: age 1 is you build your empire by getting goods, and you sort of continue that with age 2 and then you bank big with age 3. The problem is if you don't get certain goods in the game based purely on drafting and your neighbours don't have that certain goods for you to buy you are pretty much screwed. IAWW fixed that issue for the most part with me with that brilliant system of turning a building into a resource cube instead of just getting 3 gold. In fact, the moment you have to discard it into 3 gold unless you know that card is going to affect you neighbour you've pretty much lost (at least from my experience) as it's a much better idea to discard that card and put it into building your wonders. I really feel that 7 wonders needed an extra age for me personally.
PHEW! sorry got a bit of rant there but i think you get where i'm getting at. Nothing wrong with 7 wonders btw, it's a good game and with the expansions i can see why you would prefer it over IAWW (on top of theme). I also don't like with IAWW how the campaign expansions are locked in a kickstarter pack which is a really shame because a huge amount of gameplay content is locked in there (I have the kickstarter edition which i bought off someone off a stroke of luck, and i feel like the retail version is only showing you half the game).
My favourite game is actually PAPER tales which I think is a 7 wonders killer for me at least. I like that you can adapt you strategy mid way and the fact that you score along the way fixes the somewhat tedious scoring that 7 wonders can have (which IAWW has as well but in a lesser extent IMO).
Anyways, sorry for the super long rant. I honestly didn't expect my comment to be this long...ah well lol
I have to say I disagree on Military being required for 7 Wonders. And I do highly recommend Leaders, it sort of gives you that extra age and much more variability as well.
@@BoardGameCo I think it's not so much that it's required, it was just almost the dominant strategy of people winning from my experience. Perhaps for lower level players it wouldn't be that big of a problem but it really was for me.
fooni360 so i also have been binging 7wonders on BGA! and i think your conclusion is correct, but the reasoning misses the reality...
Science is an exonential reward *literally* - which makes for an obvious and BIG way to hurt someone you see growing greens: just use one for a wonder. Because of this, EVERY other person at the table "keeps you in check"
While Military only really matters to the two people next to you; if one take the time to steal/play a card for sheilds to fight you, they still may lose out and receive nothing.
The most points someone can score with military is 18 (36 relative to the negative they inflict), but science i have seen 50+ before. highest possible is 96. neilsutcliffe.com/7wonders/
Now, please understand i agree woth you - the whole balancr of the game feels stacked weirdly. The card combos to build free are weird and the age progression can throttle your strategy. Overall, it's kinda a lame game, which is why they keep adding crap to fix it - but is it better than Catan? sure
Yeah, getting stuck midway is a real issue!!!! and the scoring IS very tedious. Will give Paper tales a try :)
@@KXC42069 No that's fair enough. My experience just says something else. It's been ages since I've played the game. I think with science while you can score big it's easy to deny and uses far more resources than military from what I remember so for me the science path is pretty hard to win hence the big reward IF you can get it going. Where as I always felt that military just felt easier to accomplish whilst still doing other goals (such as building the blue VP cards).
None of the above. Play Among the Stars :)
Lol, it's been awhile since I played it but I remember being so excited for it and being let down after I played it.
Will you be getting the KS version of the Ascension expansion in stock once that ships? I recently acquired the Heritage edition of the base game and now sadly found there's no way to get the KS version of the expansion.
Not sure, we generally get everything at some point :)
Possibly a stupid question, what game do those 4 what appear to be character packs on the top right corner of the shelves go to? Can't quite make out the words on the boxes
Dogs of war :)
7 Wonders is an entry level Civ game. IaWW is a 7 Wonders game.
What do you think if there r only 2 players? Is 7 wonders still the better choice?
Hmm...I haven't played wonderful world with only two so it's hard to compare
I agree 100% with you on this one. 7 wonders is better.
Just played it again today! Couldn't agree more.
I hope you have played Armada! Such a unique expansion and guides you to diversify so you can move your ships forward and try to gain rewards every turn
On my shelf, but unplayed for now :)
@@BoardGameCo no problem. Only a suggestion, you are busy. By the way I was introduced from the Dead Reckoning quackalope video. Drove into your channel today. Keep up the great work, subscribed today and take care.
Can you please tell me the difference between the two boxes of 7th Continent you have on your shelf behind you ?
Would buy the game but not sure if the errata in the rule book.....which edition has those ?
Thanks and Shalom.
Terraforming Mars is my favourite game
I fell asleep playing seven wonders after 3 games played.
I am really on the fence woth Wonderful world since people compare it to both of them.
Terraforming Mars is amazing :)
I have to ask, I know that you aren't the only person who has the cover not be the same side as the back. Why is it upside down and why do other people do it as well?
:) I just don't care enough to pay attention to which direction the cover goes on when I'm done. I'm OCD about my cards all facing the same direction if that helps.
@@BoardGameCo Haha alright then. My OCD won't allow that so I always make sure it's the right side up.
I will add Paper Tales to this situation. Tough choice
Oh man...Paper Tales totally fell flat with me :(
@@BoardGameCo if you play with 5 people the first time you play it works. Low player counts are a no no.
I Love 7 wonders with Leaders! I will try wonderful world
It's a Wonderful World is way better. Better engine and tableau building. Also scoring is better.
But..... Is it?
Yes it is. I played both multiple times.
i'm not convinced by the similarities of these two games. When i bought IAWW, i feared it could be too close from Res arcana.. drafting cards which produce resources, that help to buy more powerful cards during very few turns... yeah, in a way, it 's not absolutly wrong, but Res arcana and 7 wonders, have so much more depth for choices and strategies that comparing them with the quick and light IAWW makes no much sens imo. I love to play to IAWW.. when im not into deep thinking... it s fluid, it s easy, its quick . its not competitive at all the materials are great.. but even sushi go is more stressful The first extension failed at adding some complexity to the game.. because the main potitive point is that it's not complex.. second extension adds new cards with 'coruption points.. yeah.. no big deal
Base Wonderful World just bored us. I don't like 7 Wonders either because of the same thing - the base mechanic is just not enough for me, and the decisions are so simple. Both are boring (base game). But I've read that the Kickstarter version has all the bells and whistles that the retail game doesn't have. Bummer.
I'm kind of late on this. But I've been a 7W since it came out. The leaders and cities expansions were cool, but babylon really bloated up the game, and I kind of play without it or only one of the modules, just if it gets stale for some of the people. But, oh wow, was armada a surprise, I thought it will feel the same (extra and bothersome) but was I wrong, it's AMAZING, I did not mix it with babylon so I have no feedback on that. But armada knocks it out of the park with only the base game.
Ya I've heard that, I have both but haven't played with either yet.