7 Wonders Duel is the 2 player variant of the popular card drafting game 7 Wonders. While you are able to play the original 7 Wonders as just 2 players within the board game app, 7 Wonders Duel streamlines the game and properly balances the mechanisms so that a 2 player game can be played within 5 minutes and the card drafting doesn’t become. There is an “expert” 2-player variant of this game that exists but we will not explain here. There is also a completely separate stand-alone game called 7 Wonders Duel that is built specifically for 2 players.
Cheats for island experiment. I owe a lot to 7 Wonders. While, today, I can unequivocally declare myself as a complete board game nut, that wasn’t always the case. There was a time, a simpler time, where all I did on a tabletop was play games of Risk and Catan. I had a social security number, I paid my taxes, and I helped my landlady carry out her garbage. I had a normal life, devoid of a compulsion to buy board games day and night on a whim, scouring the deepest corners of Amazon for sales and deals, devoid of nights sitting at a table for hours and hours, pretending to be some kind of master tactician.
7 Wonders changed all of that. After playing this game for the first time, I realized that there was more to my life than what I was currently experiencing. Okay, maybe my life didn’t change that much, but the point of all this is that 7 Wonders turned me into a board gamer.
It was a game that showed me that there’s more out there than Catan and Monopoly. I’m not going to say this is the greatest game in the world, but the point is that 7 Wonders is, in a word, fun, and given that it’s the game that kicked off my hobby, I felt it was appropriate to review it first. 7 Wonders, designed by Antoine Bauza and published by Asmodee in 2010, is a fundamentally simple and yet satisfyingly complex card drafting game based around, you guessed it, the seven wonders of the ancient world. Yes, don’t let that big box deceive you; the game is, at its heart, a card game.
If you’re expecting a game that has a big board and pieces that you move, you’d better look somewhere else. But if a quick, clean strategy card game is what you’re itching for, look no further. 7 Wonders is card drafting at its finest. An example of a typical play area (click for more info)7 Wonders is a game about building the greatest civilization in the ancient world, based around the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Each player will play cards that represent “buildings” that give them various benefits and a myriad of ways to score points, which are calculated in the end of the game. The person with the most points at the end wins the game.The central mechanic of 7 Wonders’ gameplay is the drafting mechanic. Each player will start out with a hand of seven cards. They will choose one to play, and then pass their deck to the next player. They will then pick up the deck that was just passed to them, and play from there.
Once the cards run out, the phase will end (referred to thematically as “ages”), and the process will repeat two more times, until the three ages have passed and the points are calculated.The cards are divided into seven different colors, all of which serve different purposes. Brown and grey cards represent resources, which are used to pay for the other cards.
Red, blue, and green cards represent military, culture, and science respectively, each of which have their own scoring mechanism at the end of the game. These three suites are the main vehicles through which points are earned. Yellow cards facilitate commerce (players can pay their neighbors coins to have access to their resources), and purple cards, exclusive to the last age, represent “guilds.” These cards generate points in many different ways and are randomly dealt into each game. Giza’s player boardAdditionally, each player has a miniature board that represents their ancient wonder. Instead of playing a card, a player can opt to bury it to construct one of their “wonder stages” instead. Constructing these will yield special benefits to the player, exclusive to whatever civilization they’re playing.At the end of the game, victory points are calculated.
Military VPs score conditionally based on what neighbors played, cultural VPs are printed right on their cards, and science VPs score exponentially. In addition, some yellow and purple cards will accumulate points in their own specific ways. Whoever has amassed the most points has built the mightiest civilization and wins the game. 7 Wonders is a point salad game.
There’s plenty of ways to earn points, and at the end of the game it’s all added up whoever has the most wins. This type of mechanic is a growing trend in contemporary games, and makes the game a fun thinking challenge where the game is almost like a puzzle to most effectively optimize your setup.
However, these “limited-number-of-choices, high-pressure-point-salad-games” (is that a genre? I’m pretty sure that’s a genre) often come with a caveat. The good thing is that there’s pressure, and the bad thing is thatthere’s pressure. While a fun thinking challenge, I can think of more than one game where the pressure from your limited amount of choices just becomes stressful.I suppose, then, the thing that I like about 7 Wonders is that it’s not a stressful game to play. The game hits a perfect balance between painstaking strategy and relaxed fun. Due to the quick nature of the game, rounds never last long, and if the players know what they’re doing, games shouldn’t last more than twenty to thirty minutes.
Due to the short nature of the game, it’s also less frustrating to lose or to play a bad hand, because it’s not a hard game to just play over again. I’ve found that, in typical sessions of playing 7 Wonders, pretty much everyone is down to play a few games in a row.In a word, 7 Wonders is satisfying. As far as the fun factor goes it’s not like going to Disneyland, but it’s just satisfying to play those cards and see what kind of end result you end up with. There’s not a ton of player interaction, but there is enough to keep people engaged, and there is a nice gratifying feeling in the end when you’re able to look at your play area in the end of the game and see how everything added up.
Conversely, if you lost, it can be equally satisfying to play the next game and see changing your strategy will determine your outcome. Because the game can be played so quickly, there’s no waiting for a week until your next play session to refine your skills. 7 Wonders evokes that feeling of “let’s play again!” and any game that can do that is a winner in my book. Most of my 7 Wonders games have averaged at about twenty to thirty minutes. If each player knows what they’re doing, this is generally the standard.
Any variation from this amount generally depends on the players, how many there are, and how prone they are to analysis paralysis. I’ve had three player games last ten minutes, and seven player games last 45. This is a game where turns are played simultaneously, and we generally played so that, once you receive your deck, you can play your card and pass.
Using this method, if there’s a slow player, decks might pile up next to them, and in drastic circumstances, leave the entire table waiting. The delay that this causes is exacerbated by a higher player count. Ideally, each player would choose their card and reveal it, and then simultaneously pass to each other, but we preferred to play at our own pace. Using the former rules, the game will run faster (but be destroyed by analysis paralysis), and using the latter, it will stretch on a bit longer but will play out the way the designers intended. If a round stretches on for forty five minutes or more, it’s most likely that the problem lies with the players, and not the game.
“Yes, that means you get one coin for every brown card you have. No, only just for this round. No, they’re coins, not points. No, that one over there applies to gray cards”On that note, however, I have a bone to pick with 7 Wonders. The iconography of this game is at once a blessing and a curse. Every single card and wonder and, well, everything in the game is represented by an icon, and not words. This is a trend I’ve been seeing in a lot of games as of late, and I’m still a little torn on it.
On one hand, once all of the icons are memorized, it makes it easy to glance at any card and take its meaning. On the other hand, it makes it an absolute pain in the you-know-what to explain it to newcomers, and ensures that you’ll be passing around a massive icon legend around during your first few rounds. Hilariously, it took my group less time to learn and start playing Imperial Assault than it did to learn 7 Wonders. I’m known to be pretty good at explaining and teaching games, and it’s always taken a tremendously longer time to teach the game than to play it. This has nothing to do with gameplay, and everything to do with the icons.
Depending on who you’re playing with, you may need to explain over and over until they’re explained.Sometimes I think iconography is a good thing once it’s all learned, but I then think of my games of Dominion and wonder how much better they would have been if every card had big flashy icons to explain every single nuance, rather than their good old-fashioned text. This might also become a problem when expansions are introduced, where more complicated or varied rules are introduced, thus requiring more and more icons to memorize.
It’s really not a big problem, but it absolutely will extend the amount of time it takes to both learn and teach the game.I’ve found that a typical teaching session will last anywhere between ten to thirty minutes, depending on how adept your group is at memorizing symbols. The player interaction in 7 Wonders ranges from medium to minimal. For the most part, you’re building up your own little nation, and whoever does that the best will win. What sets 7 Wonders apart from many other similar games is the amount of influence that other players have on each other.
While you can’t really make decisions that directly affect someone’s board, you can influence what they’re capable of playing on their boards. In this regard, there is some interaction, which mainly comes in the form of card drafting and military points.
By pulling certain cards, you can ensure that your opponents don’t get them. If you have no need for a card, but don’t want an enemy to have it, you can trash it.
Meanwhile, you’ll always have to pay attention to military. You’ll want to make sure you’re not going to lose points by being weaker than your neighbors, and there is a small sense of competition there. 7 Wonders mostly has you playing on your own, but it’s a game that demands you to keep watch on your fellow players, and some things that you do might even change their game. Overall, this might not be your game if you’re looking for a lot of personal interaction between players. 7 Wonders is fundamentally simple and gratifyingly complex at the same time. Sure, all you’re doing is playing cards each hand. But once you begin to understand the game, you’ll realize that there is an impeccable strategy in building up your play area.
Maybe you should play all of those blue cards and stack up a ton of unchangeable points, but wait! It looks like your neighbor is piling up military cards. Is it worth it to use up one of your precious cards to fight against that, or is it more worth it to eat the negative points and continue your strategy? Let’s not forget the moment when you notice how Bob over there has inexplicably amassed five science cards without you noticing, and then you realize that unless you take action, and bury his science cards or play them himself, he’ll win. As you begin to understand the nuances of the game start adapting your strategy to not only benefit yourself but to cripple your neighbors, 7 Wonders really jumps into high gear and becomes nothing short of a whole lot of fun. This player is focusing on blue cards, but still has a few cards from other suitesI think what I like about 7 Wonders is that everything you do has an opportunity cost, so the game demands a strategy. For every card you play, you’ll see a bunch of cards in your hand that you now don’t get to play, unless they’re still there when the deck comes around to you (which may not even happen in a game with a lot of players).
This adds that wonderful sense of pressure that makes it fun to decide how you want to play, and also satisfying when you manage to play a hand where all of your points add up cohesively in the end of the game in glorious harmony due to your persistent strategy.7 Wonders has seven different avenues through which to score points. One thing I’ve noticed is that people rarely win from stockpiling a certain suite.
Hoarding on science (green) will, for example, win the game by a landslide, but clever players will catch on to that real quick and usually won’t let it happen. Military points (red) cap out at a certain level, so collecting a ton of those won’t do you much good. If your entire hand is blue, you’ll get an outrageous amount of points but usually it’s just not enough unless you somehow manage to practically monopolize them. Those three suites are the main point-earners, so it goes without saying that other colors won’t singlehandedly win. As a result, 7 Wonders demands that you give attention to all of the suites. Most wins I’ve seen have a good focus on one particular suite, while giving a smaller, healthy dose of attention to the others.
Ultimately, each game will be different and you most likely won’t be able to play the same strategy from one game to the next. 7 Wonders has a small amount of luck, almost exclusively in the form of how the cards are shuffled and dealt. This, of course, is random, so each hand will be different with each game.
More often than not, this randomness adds, rather than detracts, to the game, forcing a different strategy every game due to the way the cards move around each turn. In the overwhelming majority of the games I’ve played, luck has not been a significant factor in determining wins and losses. That’s not to say that it doesn’t show its face from time to time. Sometimes the distribution of cards hampers a planned strategy. An example would be if you’re trying to build up a certain suite.
Occasionally, though not often, the hand that’s passed to you might almost entirely be made of said suite. This causes a problem, because now, every player will be playing one of those cards, even if they had no plans on pursuing that strategy. If all of the green cards are in one hand, for example, you’ll lose your chance to use that strategy. Sometimes, due to the way cards are grouped, strategies that should have worked simply don’t. Is this this a big issue?
In fact, it’s what makes the game engaging; bad “luck” might break up your strategy and then you have to tactically decide what the next best option is.The only other luck component is associated with the purple “guild” cards. Purple cards are the only ones that are randomized for each game.
With the other six suites, 100% of those cards are dealt every time, but only a few of the purple cards make it in, resulting in different purple variety every game. Purple cards, in a nutshell, provide point bonuses for other cards played. For example, one purple card might grant you one point for every single blue card that both of your neighbors have played, or for every brown card that you’ve played. These cards, more often than not, are huge point earners and can swing the game. This, unfortunately, is the one area where the luck of the draw can significantly influence the game. If, for example, your two neighbors have been stockpiling blue the whole game, and then you just happen to get that purple blue-bonus card in your starting hand, then you immediately have an advantage that the other players never even had the opportunity of obtaining.
I’ve found that in most games, the purple card distribution isn’t a huge issue, and that, on the contrary, it helps to keep things interesting. It can’t be denied though that sometimes, the purple cards very obviously favor a certain person in the group. Fortunately, this can be mitigated by the players’ abilities to bury cards that might favor their opponents, but if lucky cards are dealt to the right people in starting hands, there’s not much that can be done. 7 Wonders is a well-designed, well-balanced game. Its replayability is a testament to the solid game mechanics, given that there’s not one strategy that wins every time.
Just about every strategy has a counter strategy, and each method of obtaining points is more or less equally viable. The only small gripe I may have would be regarding science. If one player can stockpile science, they will win. There is, of course, a built in strategy that simply demands that other players build or trash science cards to prevent a runaway science leader. If this is successfully done, science usually doesn’t have a large stake.
I’ve seen many games though where people simply don’t want to do that, because of the fact that science is worth practically nothing if you have very little of it. It’s a high opportunity cost that is frequently ignored, and sometimes just one vigilant player isn’t enough to counter a science-hoarder when none of the other players are letting it happen. Science is the one mechanic that needs to be countered every game. It’s not a big issue, and most experienced groups I’ve seen handle science just fine, but unfortunately, this might not resonate well with new learners who aren’t vigilant enough to prevent it in their early games. There is, in my opinion, a very small balance issue with science depending on your group.
7 Wonders can be played with two to seven players, with a special variant in the rules for the two player game. As far as the three to seven player games go, the game plays fantastically. More cards are added to each deck with each added player, to keep each player’s hand at seven cards. As a result, the game retains a similar sense of scale across the board, regardless of player count.The game feels a little different, however, with a smaller player count. Because of the drafting mechanic, the same deck will be passed through each player’s hands a few times, whereas with a six or seven player game, you may only see each hand once.
This changes the strategy a little bit, as you’ll be able to anticipate which cards are coming. I’ve found that it can be more difficult to form a cohesive strategy with a higher player count, as you can’t reasonably predict which hands are coming your way. Is this a bad thing?
No, it just makes the game a little different, albeit still enjoyable. A seven player game in actionThe two player game, among fans, is a bit divisive.
It’s not uncommon for contemporary games to use a “dummy player” in a two player game, and 7 Wonders follows this trend. Essentially, each player plays a card for a dummy player when it’s their turn. This adds a strategy that you won’t find with higher player counts, as you’re much more capable of affecting which cards your opponent will have access to.I found the two player variant to be enjoyable, though I didn’t end up feeling strongly about it one way or another. I’ve talked to many people who very much enjoy the two player game, and to others who think it’s a drag.
It’s hard for me to make a catch-all statement about its overall quality, as it will ultimately most likely just come down to personal taste. Personally, I’d rather play a game more optimized for two players than to play one with a dummy mechanic, but to each their own. “By the way, did we mention this game won tons of awards? Okay, just making sure”Let’s get something out of the way: 7 Wonders is gorgeous, both inside and out.
The colorful, eye-catching cover art, the nice clean logo, and the ridiculous amount of awards emblazoned all over the box are, I’m sure, no small part of 7 Wonders’ success. It is unfortunate when a brilliant, but ugly game suffers because of its unfriendly aesthetics, but 7 Wonders is no such game. Between the box and component art, iconography, and overall visual design, this game is a looker. As someone who loves ancient history, I very much enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful art on the wonder cards, eloquently depicting these ancient wonders in their hay-days.
Nothing to complain about hereUpon opening the box, you’ll be greeted by a pleasant insert, molded specifically for the game, its components housed comfortably within. You’ll have a few cardboard chit sheets to punch out, a modest eleven page rulebook, a reference sheet, scorekeeping book, and of course, the cards, organized into three decks. The component quality is top notch here.
The cards aren’t thin and flimsy, and the player boards/chits are printed and cut with stiff, high quality cardboard material. Sometimes, when cardboard components get worn down through playing or storage, the printed layer on top may begin to rip or peel off. I’ve owned this game for several months and everything is still in ship shape. Overall, I can’t find anything to complain about here. The rulebook is, more or less, well written and generally good at explaining game concepts. While the book itself is made up of eleven pages, it only takes two of them to explain the fundamental gameplay process of the game, from start to finish.
Most of the book is made up of reference material, the last few pages explaining the various meanings of the game’s expansive iconography. There are instructions for a two player variant, and the instructions are filled with pictures and hypothetical text examples to teach the gameplay concepts.
It’s not a perfect rulebook, but it’s clear and concise enough to get the job doneOverall, the rules do a decent job at explaining the game, though I might have preferred that they would rearrange some of the rules to make the core concept more understandable from the get-go. For example, the rules start with “game elements” that explain various concepts that would not make sense yet to a new player. This is not a grievous mistake, as many games contain a sort of pre-rules “glossary” to explain basic concepts. This section is followed by set-up, which is then weirdly followed by a page that explains how to “build” (in other words, play) your cards. This is then followed by the “how to play” section, which explains everything rather clearly.
For a new gamer like me that didn’t even know what a card drafting game was when I played it, I think that reading the very basic concept of the game before reading glossary pages may have helped me to pick it up faster. These objections, of course, are negligible, and ultimately the rulebook does its job well without any major frustrations. There are some games where the gameplay and the theme are woven together like some sophisticated tapestry, working in perfect harmony together; you can feel that the game was designed around the theme.
7 Wonders is not one of those games. While the theme doesn’t feel tacked on, it certainly feels replaceable. You’re not really playing this game to feel like the leader of a civilization, you’re playing it because it’s a fun card game. The theme could honestly change into anything and I’m sure it would feel all the same.
I’m not going to say whether or the theme or the gameplay came first (because I don’t know), but like I said, the theme could be anything and the game would hardly feel different. The Mousoleum of Halikarnassus lets you draw through the discard pile. Ehh?!That’s not to say, however, that the theme isn’t well implemented. The artwork and aesthetics, of course, are downright beautiful, and all of the cards in the game fit well within the motif of ancient history. Furthermore, it’s fun for a historyphile to see the parallels between the wonder bonuses and the actual civilizations they’re representing. The militaristic Rhodes, for example, is granted army bonuses.
The mighty Giza grants more points and an optional choice to build four wonders instead of one, implying their unparalleled labor force. Some of these connections make sense, and others not so much. Regardless, it’s nice to see that, even though the theme could be easily interchangeable, that the designers did their best to pay homage to it within the gameplay.
Although expansions are not being covered here, they also do an excellent job of pushing the theme even further. Alexandria A Side – Gives the usual victory points, with extra resource production in the middle 7 Wonders B Side – Gives extra resource production, extra commodity production, and some victory pointsThere are some games where the gameplay and the theme are woven together like some sophisticated tapestry, working in perfect harmony together; you can feel that the game was designed around the theme. 7 Wonders is not one of those games. While the theme doesn’t feel tacked on, it certainly feels replaceable. You’re not really playing this game to feel like the leader of a civilization, you’re playing it because it’s a fun card game.
The theme could honestly change into anything and I’m sure it would feel all the same. I’m not going to say whether or the theme or the gameplay came first (because I don’t know), but like I said, the theme could be anything and the game would hardly feel different.One thing that keeps the game fresh is the wonder boards. Each board has an “A” side and a “B’ side. The A sides are all similar (yet still slightly different for each civilization), but the B sides vary radically in difference, and typically yield more unique benefits. It’s not huge, but it’s a nice touch that helps keep things interesting after lots of playthroughs.As mentioned already, I’m not covering the expansions here, but I will note that, with them, the game jumps from “pretty replayable” to “near infinitely replayable.” Which brings us to. To date, there are three (and a half) expansions currently released for 7 Wonders, and it’s my opinion that the game is much better because of it. This entire review has been written in the context of having no expansions, so it’s obviously still good without them, but the expansions, in my opinion, change the game in a way to where I’d never want to play again without them.
The astounding quality of current expansions, combined with their relative cheapness, and the game’s ability to stand on its own without them puts the expandability score at high.A word of caution – Some might think that too much expansion detracts from the core appeal of the game, which is that it’s quick and easy but still deep. I’ve sometimes found that too many expansions combined together increase setup time and make turns a lot longer. Depending on the group, this might not be an issue if they determine the extra depth to be worth it.
I personally, for example would recommend playing Leaders and Cities together, but not combined with Babel, and the other way around. This, of course, is totally up to you and your group.Current expansions:. Leaders: Adds “leaders,” which allows players to much more easily plan a long-term strategy, new wonder boards. Cities: Adds a new suite of black cards, all of which with unique effects, that are shuffled randomly into each game to add variety. More wonder boards and leaders. Babel: Adds mechanics that increase player interaction, such as “laws” that affect all players and co-operative buildings that yield global effects. Wonder Pack: Adds four new wonder boards.
These things aside, 7 Wonders is a fantastic game because, after all is said and done, it hits that sweet spot. It’s simple, but it’s complex. It’s short, but it’s not too short. It’s makes you feel pressure, but it doesn’t make you feel stress. To be honest, 7 Wonders isn’t necessarily even the best at what it does. There are point salad games that are deeper and tighter. There are card games that have way more variety.
There are games that utilize the “ancient history” theme more effectively. But, the point salad games take forever to play. The card games might be overwhelming. The themed games might be too convoluted. They’re all great games, but sometimes they’re just a little too heavy and will take a little too much time. 7 Wonders shines because it’s able to stand right in the middle. It’s the perfect blend of strategy and brevity.
It’s not light, and it’s not heavy. It’s, well, medium.
We need more medium games. After all, if we didn’t, then the guy typing this would probably be playing Risk right now. And heaven knows we don’t need that.
You are the leader of one of the 7 great cities of the Ancient World. Gather resources, develop commercial routes, and affirm your military supremacy. Build your city and erect an architectural wonder which will transcend future times.7 Wonders lasts three ages. In each age, players receive seven cards from a particular deck, choose one of those cards, then pass the remainder to an adjacent player. Players reveal their cards simultaneously, paying resources if needed or collecting resources or interacting with other players in various ways.
(Players have individual boards with special powers on which to organize their cards, and the boards are double-sided). Each player then chooses another card from the deck they were passed, and the process repeats until players have six cards in play from that age. After three ages, the game ends.In essence, 7 Wonders is a card development game.
Some cards have immediate effects, while others provide bonuses or upgrades later in the game. Some cards provide discounts on future purchases. Some provide military strength to overpower your neighbors and others give nothing but victory points. Each card is played immediately after being drafted, so you'll know which cards your neighbor is receiving and how his choices might affect what you've already built up. Lost jewels app. Cards are passed left-right-left over the three ages, so you need to keep an eye on the neighbors in both directions.Though the box of earlier editions is listed as being for 3–7 players, there is an official 2-player variant included in the instructions.