We downloaded and printed this expansion out, and finally got around to giving it a couple of games this weekend. We played first with just the original 'seven wonders' base game, and then with both official expansions, leaders and cities.
Both games were good fun, the new cards are quirky and the interplay between leaders and myths cards was quite interesting; it's nice that whereas you know who your leader options are from the outset, you don't know in advance what myth cards might be in your hand in the next age; the two complement each other quite nicely balancing pre-planned strategy and an element of 'luck of the draw'.
In terms of balance, the myth cards seem reasonable; a lucky draw in the last age can be a help, but overall they aren't going to overpower the rest of the game mechanics.
As with the leaders cards, you will find yourself refering to the manual a lot trying to work out what the cards do - although overall the written rules are fairly clear and simple; there are a few situations where there may be a bit of debate about how cards interact, but we didn't encounter any in our games.
Printing and assembling all the cards did take quite a while, but it's clear that a lot of care and attention has gone into the presentation and visual design of the entire expansion (manual and cards). I did try to print out the supplied card-box for the myths cards but unfortunately it was far too small to fit them all!
If you're the sort of person who doesn't like mixing 'official' and 'unofficial' cards, you might not like the new leaders and guilds; it's always difficult to make a home-brew card match the look and feel of the originals, although the artwork styles at least are very consistent. Although in our game, as it happened none of the custom guilds or leaders were played. A few of them look like they could be quite interesting ones to play!
Overall, good fun and I'm sure we'll give it a try again in the future!
Both games were good fun, the new cards are quirky and the interplay between leaders and myths cards was quite interesting; it's nice that whereas you know who your leader options are from the outset, you don't know in advance what myth cards might be in your hand in the next age; the two complement each other quite nicely balancing pre-planned strategy and an element of 'luck of the draw'.
In terms of balance, the myth cards seem reasonable; a lucky draw in the last age can be a help, but overall they aren't going to overpower the rest of the game mechanics.
As with the leaders cards, you will find yourself refering to the manual a lot trying to work out what the cards do - although overall the written rules are fairly clear and simple; there are a few situations where there may be a bit of debate about how cards interact, but we didn't encounter any in our games.
Printing and assembling all the cards did take quite a while, but it's clear that a lot of care and attention has gone into the presentation and visual design of the entire expansion (manual and cards). I did try to print out the supplied card-box for the myths cards but unfortunately it was far too small to fit them all!
If you're the sort of person who doesn't like mixing 'official' and 'unofficial' cards, you might not like the new leaders and guilds; it's always difficult to make a home-brew card match the look and feel of the originals, although the artwork styles at least are very consistent. Although in our game, as it happened none of the custom guilds or leaders were played. A few of them look like they could be quite interesting ones to play!
Overall, good fun and I'm sure we'll give it a try again in the future!