Type of Game: Action Points, Tile Placement
Number of Players: 1-5
Age: 14+
Designer: Zé Mendes
Artists: Tom Ventre, Roy Wijnen and Odysseas Stamoglou
Publisher: Meeple BR, Mundus and Arcane Wonders
Day One of PAX Unplugged 2023 and Chrissy and I make our way to the Arcane Wonders booth first. We demo the quick card game of GAP with Amanda Panda and then we sit down with Karen and played two rounds of what may just be my favorite game from 2023. I know I'm letting the cat out of the bag before we get to my Final Thoughts, but World Wonders is really that good.
Arcane Wonders was able to provide Comic Book Yeti with a review copy. We wonder why... Pfpfpfpff!
CONCEPT
Ancient world leaders task you with building the most glorious city the world has ever seen. You will be filling your lands with buildings, roads, towers and spectacular monuments. Buildings purchased and placed into your land will provide resources of food, ceramics and gears which will drive your population higher. As your city grows, you will have the chance to build iconic monuments as long as they fit their specific building criteria. All this is done to make your city the greatest and most desirable...or, you know, for Victory Points!
HOW IT WORKS
Players start with a map board, a resource board, one long road and seven gold. Players will take turns in the round performing actions and use that gold to perform them.
Roads, long and set of short, can be purchased. They must always be adjacent to another road tile, the bottom of the player board or a tower.
One tower per round can be purchased and it must be placed adjacent to something already placed on your board.
Building tiles, ranging in value from two to five gold and being of five different types, can be purchased. These can only be placed adjacent to a road or a building of the same type. Buildings also provide your city with resources (Food, Ceramics and Gears).
You can spend a gold to claim first or second in the turn order for the following round.
Finally, you can spend all your remaining gold, ending your turn, to buy a Monument. Monuments have special placement rules and often can provide not only resources and/or population, but also Victory Points.
Loans are a free action that grants the player two more gold. This loan may be paid off in a later round for three gold.
End game scoring should be understood beforehand so you know what to do with the pieces you are buying. If a player reaches the max population the game ends at the end of that round. If not, after ten rounds are completed. Victory Points are given for the following.
Rings reached on the Population track
Value of the least produced resource
Victory Points from Monuments
Natural Resources adjacent to at least one piece on map board
City Districts - one point if a city tile is totally surrounded by non-green spaces.
Unpaid Loans - lose two Victory Points
With Advanced Play you can add Public Objective scoring cards into the mix and solo mode is also provided.
COMPONENTS
The components are wonderful. Each monument has its unique wooden piece that will be placed on your player board. The player markers, resource markers and towers are all quality wooden pieces. The tiles are bright colors with fun details in them and the combination of all of this on the table really makes the game stand out and brings attention. The game looks gorgeous.
FINAL THOUGHTS
When I setup a game I tend to get everyone to help. It speeds it up and gets people in the mindset of and for the game so you aren't wrangling and grabbing attention while teaching. That said, not every group works this way and if you are the lone setup and tear down person, it may take you a bit longer than you would like.
Teaching the game to new players isn't painful. You want to explain final scoring, but a learn as you go mentality definitely works.
The game can be played up to five players which is a nice change from your normal one to four. The five player games does get a bit long if you and your friends are prone to analysis paralysis, but if you all know what you are doing, it can move fairly quickly.
As I said at the beginning of this article, this is my favorite game released in 2023 that I have played. I love the choices that you are presented with each turn and with how those choices change as each tile or road piece or Monument gets selected by the other players. The choice of when to end your turn and take that Monument or risking it for one more turn so you can spend more gold on tiles is fun to make and fun to watch your opponents go through. World Wonders is a a fun puzzle and a game not only will I play if others offer, but one I will actively pull off my shelf and ask people to play.
The ever present CBY Cryptid Creator Corner co-host Jimmy Gaspero has played World Wonders and the following comics gave him the same vibe. Please check out the below.
Pax Romana by Jonathan Hickman:
Britannia by Peter Milligan and Juan Jose Ryp: https://valiantentertainment.com/comics/britannia/
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