7th Sea: City of Five Sails

I played a few more games of this new, hardcore LCG and, partly through deprivation and partly because after the fifth game I finally stopped constantly tripping over the rules, I think I like it quite a bit now. It is not a game that wins you over immediately with a casual “come on, we’ll figure it out as we go”; it wants you to learn it before it starts speaking clearly.

At its core, my experience so far is that of an LCG inviting you to build and test decks, rather than simply take a ready-made solution and play it mechanically. I have only taken cautious steps into deckbuilding, so I am still working out where familiarity with the rules ends and genuine strategy begins.

The games change a great deal, though, when you are not just playing what you already know. I have mainly seen BLTG echo champer, and I would finally like to face another deck and another approach, so I can better understand the choices the game opens up and how players’ strategies interact.

In another era, I would buy three or four decks and set up little tournaments, simply to teach it to people and have a good time together. Now I am just hoping some old acquaintance picks it up, so I can see the game from beyond my own familiar corner. O tempora!