7 Wonders: Armada & Edifice Expansions

Eat Lunch and Board Game

7 Wonders is one of my favorite lunchtime games of all time. I have played it probably close to one-hundred times. I did a very long, 18-minute, podcast episode on it a long time ago. It was actually the third episode of the show. At the time, I covered all the expansions that I had, which was all of them except Babel. I still have not purchased Babel. No interest. But, the completionist in me is calling to procure it. I am not going to lie. After writing that sentence, I went and looked into buying Babel. It looks to be about $30, as it is not in production right now.
Anyway, this episode is to talk about the two newest expansions, Armada from 2018 and Edifice from 2023. I purchased Armada right around the time of the start of the pandemic. I was excited to have the time to learn it and then play it when we all went back to the office. 7 Wonders was one of our favorite games to play at lunch. Well, as you can guess, we never went back to the office. I changed jobs, as many of my former coworkers have done. Armada just sat on my shelf of expansion shame.
Earlier this year, Repos Games released Edifice. I immediately delved into finding out if it was compatible with my version of 7 Wonders. They released a second edition back in 2020 with new artwork. This changed the card backs, so you cannot combine the editions. When I found out that it was compatible, because there are no new cards (a rarity in 7 Wonders expansions). Then, for Lent, I gave up buying new games and expansions. Of course, Edifice was released at the start of Lent this year. So, I had to look at it on the shelf of the game shop everytime I went. I tried to limit how often I went to limit my temptation. Now, with the Easter holiday behind us, I went to Fortuna Games on Easter Monday, and made my first new purchase.
Luckily, I was also able to wrangle my gaming buddies into playing both expansions, in the same night. Was the wait for Armada (nearly 3 years) worth it? Was Edifice worth being the first new game since Easter? Answers are given, just keep listening.