When I was younger I was always fascinated by ancient cultures and the amazing things they built. I loved watching those old TV shows that would try to explain how the pyramids were built, or how the Druids of Stonehenge must have had some advanced technology to get those stones in their spots. Here we are now with me at a much older, but I am still enthralled by those ideas, and now I get to build these ancient wonders with a deck of cards, a wonder board, and some cardboard tchotchkes.
In 7 Wonders you are given one of seven wonders (get it?) with which you are to build up a civilization around. You do this by playing cards that give you resources, science, culture, military, commerce, or guilds. Each card group affects the game in unique ways, with individual cards also giving different benefits. Resources are required to build additional buildings, science gives victory points (VP), culture also gives VP, military allows you to attack other cities at the end of each age giving you VP and giving them negative VP, commerce can give you money, VP, resources, or even the ability to buy resources from your neighbors for cheaper, and guilds are just crazy, each guild has a different effect.
Start of the game.
One of the most interesting parts in a game of 7 Wonders is that everyone plays a single card at the same time, then you pass the remaining cards to the player on the left. This allows everyone at the table to see all the cards and makes strategy that much more difficult. If you are playing a chain of science cards and your neighbors notice your plan, it is entirely possible for them to get rid of that oh so important card just to spite you. This one aspect changes the dynamic of the game from being a version of multiplayer solitaire. And it adds both replay value and a bit of a social element.
End game.
My only complaint with 7 Wonders is that the two player rules really lose a lot of what makes the game fun. When you only have two players the swapping of hands really loses a lot of the bite that makes the game so enjoyable. It starts to turn into you planning out all your moves for the age and hoping the other player doesn’t use the cards you want.
If you have at least a three player group I highly recommend 7 Wonders. The rules are incredible simple, the art is great, play is fast, and it scales very well from three to seven players. A two player game can be fun, but there are much better games that scale down to two.
You can pick up 7 Wonders from our Amazon link here.
7 wonders is a lot of fun, but be wary of the expansion packs. They do add a lot of cool new rules to the game, but every one of them can extend play time by probably 50%, turning what starts as a nice, 30 minute game into well over an hour per game.
That is good to know. I haven’t tried either of the expansions yet, but I have heard from a number of people that Leaders is good and makes a great game better. Right now the play time is perfect for the light feel of the game. Maybe once it starts to wear thin I will add the expansions.
Thanks,
Robert
I really enjoyed this game. It was simply simple, don’t let that “end game” photo fool you! There is a lot of cards on the table and it looks complicated but it’s not. Lots of fun! Except for when I realize the person to my left just used a card that would have been awesome for me and I literally had the chance to use it the turn before!
I had a lot of fun playing this and look forward to trying it again at the more difficult level (eventually). I thought my approach was going to pan out better, especially when I was rolling in gold coins at the end, but I’ll have to try a more aggressive approach next time… Like building ALL of the armies!
Yes I loved this game!( though I did throw a wee tantrum at first but hey “winners never loose”) it was really fun, fast pacest & very strategic. I love games like this and am truly thankful that we have the chance to broaden our gaming experiences. Good article Rob but also like you correct me about stuff all the time… The top picture is sideways and umm thats wrong!
lose … and it is only sideways on iDevices.