I am delighted to hear about the new blog. I hope to learn more about it.

Thanks Rodrigo, I was hoping to have 7 Ages II released this year but with my illness and covid, the timeline has slipped and we are now looking at a 2022 release.

I will start up a new blog shortly with our current progress for players of the current game to chip in with everyone’s ideas to ensure we make the best game possible.

regards
harry

Is there a way to track progress? Do you have dates for release or anything? Thanks!

Harry – I play heavy, long games and found no problem with 7 Ages and taught it to new people locally from time to time, sadly, we did not get to play much after. With them everything was fine with the mechanics, even given their limited understanding of the game. The cards could be hard to read at times as there was much going on with graphics. My wife loves games of history, and is less interested in heavy/clunky combat. She would like a simpler combat system, but everything else was fine. She did well enough to earn the name “she-devil” though, and there was the one time her Islamic Swedes took out the Hapsburgs… good times, good times…

So, cleaner cards and simpler combat system from my experience.

Dave H

We have only once played the last age, as the game breaks down in the world war era. Glory gains are so massive and also rather random, that it pretty much invalidates whatever happened in the hours of play in the earlier ages. So, some sort of scoring fix or possibility of earlier than internet age game end would be welcome.

One variant I heard about was double deck 7 Ages. So, that way the good cards played for countries are still in play.

Cheers.

I would like to see more incentive to start new empires. Perhaps by making Phoenix a standard rule instead of an event. If your discarded empire wasn’t one of your base colors your new empire would be required to use a new color.

Another incentive would be to give most empires a positive setup value instead of negative. This could also speed up the game a bit.

Finally, perhaps you could do something as simple as awarding glory for Start Empire. Just thinking out loud.

Changing subjects, I like to use the Elamites (https://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/98036) and Minamoto/Ashikaga/Modern Japan (https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1549620) cards posted on BGG.

Thanks for this Jonathan, yes pls that would be great to forward the variants to me.

regards
harry

Thanks for this Jakub. Are you sure you have my correct email (ausdesigngroup@bigpond.com)? I have checked my spam folder and haven’t received an email from you yet.

As to the changes you suggest, all of the above. The maps are going to be hard-mounted with wrapped edges, the counters will be die cut (not knife cut) the graphics are going to be updated, the cafrds balanced, new civilisations added, new religious rules and an optional simple combat system if players dont want to take the time of the more challenging system included in the standard games.

Thank you for your support for our games.

regards
Harry Rowland
ADG

Hello,
I’m not sure if my email reached you or fall into SPAM folder 😊 What we are wondering is what design principle is behind 7 ages II. Do you want to make a game refresh, tweaks etc. or goal is to make more of a new game originating from its glorious predecessor that would be more appealing to new board games market? On a high level some of suggestions applicable to different approaches would be:

1) Graphic design refresh (bigger frameless cards, using pictograms for some terms, slide-under cards to use for wonders and religions with explanation text, making map even more astonishing etc.)
2) Components quality improvement (linen cards and counters etc.)
3) Cards rebalance (some cards are close to useless, some are overpowered, many are much to deadly)
4) Streamlining end game triggers (currently game is much to fiddly at the end and can take ages to finish, also may be too random overall)
5) Finding a way to shorten overall duration to make it more accessible for less hardcore players

Omg! How I could miss those news. 7 Ages is one of our playgroup most favorite game of all times can we still jump in to support this? Sending you email straight away.

I have thought (perhaps belatedly) of a few more things I’d like to mention.

First, I have some variants in the variant section of the 7 ages boardgamegeek forum. Would you like for me to send the ideas to you?

I also have a couple of ideas for playing aids that might be included:

The first suggested playing aid is homeland counters, to help remember which areas, for example, the Moors or Byzantines started with. Basically, if you started an empire with both variable starting area and glory for homeland, you would put a homeland counter on each area the empire started with.

The second suggested playing aid is blank empire cards. For such situations as civil war and playing a no-empire action.

Gidday Irving,

thanks for your email. Pls email me at ausdesigngroup@bigpond.com with your ideas when you get a chance and I’ll give you a hoy.

regards
Harry Rowland

Hi Harry. I got to play the game with you some years ago and submitted expansion ideas on BGG. Do you still have them for consideration to include in the expansion? It would also be interesting to play test this new version. Regards, Irving

Thanks for this Jonathan. Hadn’t really thought about the Inuits movement issues but will pass it on to the testers.

regards
harry

One thing that bugs me about the first edition is that it is less difficult for the Inuit to reach Lapland than Greenland. This might not be worth fixing, but it annoys me enough that I thought I’d mention it..

(The fix I thought of is: Divide Norwegian Coast into two areas, with the boundary a line from Iceland to the icecap. Make the area adjacent to Greenland an ocean area. Add a crossing arrow from Baffin Island to Greenland.)