New Game Round-up: More Wonders for 7 Wonders, Axis & Allies Minus the Axis & The Falcon Breaks Free to Fly on Its Own?

As the name suggests, 7 Wonders: Wonder Pack includes new wonders for use with the 7 Wonders base game, with the wonders in question being:

-----• The Great Wall of China, with the owner being able to build the stages of this wonder in any order (since the wall is, of course, a long horizontal wonder and not a primarily vertical one)
-----• Stonehenge, with the amount of stone you have being important during its construction
-----• Abu Simbel, in which leaders can be buried and mummified for bonus points
-----• Manneken Pis, which is a revised version of the 7 Wonders: Manneken Pis wonder first released as a promotional item at Spiel 2010

Vila Rica is a game about gold-mining in 18th-century Brazil, when Bandeirantes (explorers) started to travel through the country and discovered a new region of "black gold" along the way. The "sugar rush" was coming to an end in the northeast part of the country and near the "city to be" of Vila Rica, a whole new region of precious metal was suddenly one of the most important suppliers of the old world. Hundreds of thousands of men came from everywhere once word spread, and a number of small but relevant locations started to grow near Vila Rica.

Most of the wealth in Europe had its origins in the colonies of that time. Brazil, for example, was the number one provider of gold, and Portugal lived a prosperous long time from it. Some people maintain that the industrial revolution was in part financed by the metal that came from Brazil.

The game of Vila Rica is played with cards. More than a simple game about mining, it requires that players combine actions to develop the region by building essential infrastructures like houses, stores, farms, churches and roads. Players build their path to wealth by keeping in mind the changing characteristics of the region, the moves and needs of other players, and the common good of the vibrant and prosperous Vila Rica.

This is not World War II. Progress during "The War to End All Wars" was measured by yards, not miles. The Italians were on the side of the Allies, while Turkey – then at the center of the Ottoman Empire – was one of the members of what was known as the Central Powers. Imperial Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were the two other main Central Powers.

The major Allies, sometimes referred to as the Entente, consisted of the British Empire, France, Italy, the United States, and Imperial Russia. The alliance included other historical members, but they more or less fell under the command and control of one of these great powers. In fact, had General Pershing not insisted that its integrity be maintained, even the American army would have found itself as simply being replacements for French and British.

Axis & Allies 1914 World War I puts players in charge of one of the major powers, each with its own infantry sculpt; other sculpts represent the artillery, tanks, aircraft, and naval line-up of either the Allies or the Central Powers.

As designer Larry Harris notes, "While playing this game, you will quickly realize that this is not World War II. There are no massive sweeps across continents with blitzing armored divisions and aircraft. Instead, there are a series of determined offensives resisted by equally determined armies dedicated to holding the line. You will find that your depleting resources of men and artillery must be deployed with great thought and efficiency. You will be fighting pretty much the way man has been fighting with each other for thousands of years – only this time the ability to kill your enemy, and for him to kill you, has become intolerably efficient."