Tag: family board games

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Azul Crystal Mosaic Expansion – Review

The Crystal Mosaic Expansion for Azul requires the base game. In the box you will find two new components. The expansion includes four new, two-sided boards with different placement or scoring rules. Also included is a plastic overlay for the boards to help keep the tiles and scoring marker in place.

Azul Crystal Mosaic Expansion
Azul Crystal Mosaic Expansion

You can also check out our review of the base game, Azul here!

The Mom Review

I liked the new boards and scoring. To be honest, during the first game play, I got a little bit stuck with my tile placement. I wanted everything to be perfect and just like the placement in the base game. However, once I got over that feeling, the game went more smoothly for me. I wouldn’t recommend the new scoring boards for young or inexperienced players. It is definitely important to establish a foundation of understanding of the basic rules before moving on to them.

The plastic overlays were SO NICE! When we play games, there can be a tendency for the table to be bumped, or for a player to be careless about a sleeve. The plastic overlays help to solve this problem. The tiles fit very nicely within the indentations made for them, yet still can be moved and removed easily. However, the spots for the scoring cube are less impressive. The cube does not lay flat, and each slot encompasses two scoring spots. As a result, the cube can get bumped around a little still.

Scoring Cube Track
You can get a good close up at the scoring track sections here.

While the scoring portion isn’t perfect, it is significantly better than having no tray at all. I give this expansion an 9/10.

The Dad Review

Crystal Mosaic offers something I wish the original did in the first place. It includes an acrylic piece that fits over your original boards. So, you now have recessed spots to put your scoring cubes along with your tiles. I will be honest, this is why I wanted the expansion. So I was all excited, the piece fit perfect over the board, the colors still pop through, they are not dulled. Perfect, right? This is where I get a little nit picky.

While the cover does a good job fitting, and the tiles fit perfectly, the scoring cubes sit weird and are not individually squared. What I mean by that is the recessed area for the scoring cubes are recessed every two points. So you can slide a cube from point one to point two, pick it up and put it back down for point 3. This isn’t the biggest deal, but the cube does not fit properly and sits at a weird angle instead of sitting flush. I know I know, what a jerk, to find the littlest thing and complain about it. Well yeah, I’m complaining because if you’re going to make a board cover make it proper. I’m sure there’s something I’m missing where they couldn’t make individual slots for points, and I’m okay with that; it just bugs me. 

On to the actual new expansion boards. One side gives you x2 bonus for certain tiles, and the other side offers bigger bonuses for completing rows, columns, and having all of a certain tile out. I really like the x2 bonus side more than the other side, but both sides add complexity to this game. So if you like the more simple, tell me what tiles can go where type of experience, you’re not going to like the new boards. This is because you have a lot more freedom to put your pieces anywhere you want while still following the basic rules of no repeating colors in the same row or column. This can lead to some major down time as players think through their tile placements. The basic board takes some of the thinking out of it.

After playing with the expansion, I have to say I’m OK with the new boards, but I actually like the basic board a lot more.  In closing, I wish the original game just came with a double cardboard recessed board but I get it, games aren’t cheap to make and the game still plays fine without them. Luckily, we have a really good gaming store here in town and The Gaming Goat had this expansion for a very affordable price so it is nice having the acrylic cover, but If I had to pay more than 10 dollars for this expansion I wouldn’t be super happy about it. 

For a family ranking it’s an 8/10 definitely good if you are playing with children or klutzy players who knock things off the board.

The Kid Review

I like the Azul Crystal Mosaic Expansion. I really like both sides of the new boards. First, I like the negative track because in the original game, it would be a total of -14 when it got filled. Now, the spaces go -1, then 0 and the total only goes up to -10 if it gets completely filled. I don’t have to worry about the second tile on the negative track. On the front side, I like the times 2 spaces.

Front Side of Crystal Mosaic Board with x2 spaces
You can see the x2 scoring spaces on the front side of the board here.

Next, on the back side there is another board. There are no times two spots but the columns, rows, and five of a color bonus are worth more points. Then I like both sides because I can kind of create the board. Also, I like the plastic thing where you put the tiles in it so they won’t slip or fall. In conclusion, I will give this expansion 10 out of 10.

Overall Thoughts

We all agree that we like the new board overlays, even though they aren’t perfect. We do have mixed reviews about the new boards. Our family agrees that this expansion is worth it if you can find it for a reasonable price.

  • Overall Average Rating – 9/10
  • Ease of Setup (Expansion) – 10/10
  • Ease of Understanding Additional Rules – 10/10
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7 Wonders – Board Game Review

7 Wonders is a card drafting game. It is intended for 2-7 players and takes about 30 minutes to play. The box claims it is for people age 10+ to play, but Maci has been playing since she was 6.

7 Wonders Overview

Basics of 7 Wonders Game Play

7 Wonders is played over a series of 3 rounds. In each round, players are dealt a hand of cards. Each player simultaneously chooses and reveals a card from their hand and then passes the remaining cards to the next player. The cards for each round have a little symbol to show in which direction the cards should be passed.

Chosen cards are kept in an active play area in front of each player. There are multiple types of cards that can be acquired.

7 Wonders hand of cards for round 1
Play hand at the beginning of a 7 Wonders Round
  • Resources (brown and grey) give players certain resources to be able to purchase future cards.
  • Civilian Structures (blue) provide victory points.
  • Scientific Structures (green) score victory points based on the sets you accumulate.
  • Commercial Structures (yellow) earn coins, produce resources, provide discounts, and sometimes score victory points
  • Military Structures (red) help during conflict
  • Guilds (purple) score extra victory points.

As the game progresses, each player’s collection of cards grows, gathering more resources, military strength, scientific collections and victory points to be scored at the end of the game. In addition to building up a collection of cards, players also work to build levels of their “Wonder”, a board they have in front of them. Each level of a wonder provides different benefits.

Board Game Geek Rankings for 7 Wonders

These are the rankings for 7 Wonders on Board Game Geek at the time we wrote this Review.

  • Family- 4
  • Strategy-51
  • Overall-49

The Dad Review

7 Wonders is a very popular card drafting game and it deserves a high family ranking in my opinion. This game is easy to teach and takes a couple of times playing to figure out strategies. Maci is very good at this game. In our last two sessions playing, she beat us. I hate losing, but not as much as when Maci beats me. She understands this game and loves to play.

The base game took less than half an hour to play, which is great for short attention spans. The war phase is pretty easy. It’s basically playing the card game war, whoever has the strongest army wins. So if I have three war symbols and you have two, I win. The only thing I will say that may be difficult to understand is the science scoring at the end, but once you have that figured out you’re good to go.

When it comes to replay-ability, this game is solid because the cards you receive will be a different combination each time. ‘Take that’ effects are not too bad, because if you do take a card someone needs, half the time they don’t realize it or you can use that card face down to build your wonder, which means no one sees it. This game is only 9 years old right now, which doesn’t seem like a classic but for modern board games I would say that it does fill the niche.

Overall, for a family ranking, I give it a 10/10. It is good to get new gamers into card drafting games.  For my own ranking I rank the base game a 8/10.

The Kid Review – Age 9

7 Wonders is one of my favorite games. One reason is, I like the fighting and the blue victory points. I also like getting the things [resources] I need to build the buildings. Here are some of the resources: brick, cloth, stone, and glass. There are other resources too.

7 Wonders Player Area
End of game layout of 7 Wonders for a single player

I also like the yellow cards because they give you victory points, money, and you can borrow resources from your opponents (like my mom and my dad) for less money.  

In conclusion, I will give 7 Wonders a 10 out of 10. I just love 7 Wonders.

The Mom Review

I really enjoy playing 7 Wonders. I like that it is a quick and easy playthrough, and after mastering the rules once, I have never struggled to remember them again. When I can’t remember what an icon means, I just refer to the quick reference on the back of the rulebook, and that is super helpful.

Setting up 7 Wonders is not difficult at all. You simply sort the cards for each age by the number of players in your game, set out coins and scoring tokens, and pass out the wonder boards to each player. I like to “deal” out the cards for each age before we start and set the stacks aside. When I do that, we can move from one age to the next with minimal wait time.

Another great aspect of 7 wonders is that if you have a very young player in your group, or someone who struggles in understanding strategy in games, they can totally still play just fine. The game is based on pick a card, place it in front of you, pass the cards. You might need to keep an eye on these players to make sure they don’t break the few card choice rules, but they still get to participate and eventually will pick up on the strategies that can be used to do well.

Overall, I give 7 Wonders a 10/10.

Overall Impressions of 7 Wonders

  • Family Game: 10/10
  • Overall: 9/10
  • Ease of Understanding the Rules: 9/10
  • Ease of Setup: 9/10

Other Games to Try

Other family card drafting type games to try – Ticket To Ride, Sushi Go, and Everdell.

Wanting to increase the difficulty level in card drafting? We recommendTerraforming Mars, Architects of the West Kingdom and Raiders of The North Sea.

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