There are a number of games on my shelf that we haven’t played in a while, so my husband and I have decided to try to play through them all. To that end, we’ve set one night a week to pull out a game, playing A to Z through our Collection as listed on Board Game Geek. First up? 7 Wonders.
Basic Info:
7 Wonders
Players: 2-7
Time: 30 Minutes (from the box – usually 45 minutes for us)
Designer: Antoine Bauza
Artist: Miguel Coimbra
Publisher: Repos Production (our copy)
Description: In this game you are building an ancient city – collecting resources, setting up trading posts, building up your military, erecting buildings, developing technologies, and building a “wonder”. This is done through three rounds, or “ages”. In each age, the players get a hand of 7 cards, they choose one card from that hand, the cards are played simultaneously, then the hand is passed to the next player. This continues until each player has played 6 cards. At the end of each age, military strength is assessed, with the points gained for winning “battles” increases each age, though the penalty for losing stays the same. At the end of the game, points are gained for building stages of your wonder, for combinations of the technology/science cards, and as shown on other cards. The winner is the one with the most points.
In our games this evening, we played with the 2-player variant (obviously). This variant adds a dummy city to the game where players alternate drawing and playing an additional card on a third city. It was interesting to see how that dummy city was built up, since it is possible for the dummy city to win the game. I tended to put resources on the dummy city that I could buy when I needed them or cards I didn’t want my husband putting in his city. In our last game (of 3 games), the dummy city had ALL the military.
I like this game. It’s hard to pick a strategy, and my strategy each game often depends on the cards I get in the first few hands – balancing resources with point-generating cards or collecting sets of science cards. I prefer the game with more players – 3-4 is ideal in my book, though we have played a few games with 7 players and it worked fine (if a little chaotically).
7 Wonders is a bit of a points-potpourri type game where there are a lot of different strategies to getting points. I always feel like I’m losing, even if I end up smoking everyone else in the game. I also find that I can’t help but be drawn to the science cards…what can I say? I’m a sucker for science.
How is it as a 2-player game? 7 Wonders plays well with 2 players. We found it a little confusing to incorporate the dummy city at first, but we got the hang of it.
Will this stay in my collection? Definitely.