Games That Don't Suck: 7 Wonders

(For a list of games in this series, click here and scroll down.)

Civilization-building games have been around since the publication of the Civilization board game in 1980, and they have been popular since Sid Meier developed the first Civilization computer game in the early 1990s. Such games, which require players to build resources, develop cities, make scientific breakthroughs, fight wars, and build monumental Wonders, can be very rewarding, but they generally also have complicated rules and take many hours to play. Game designers have been trying to develop a “Civilization lite” board game for some years, with limited success. With their 2010 game 7 Wonders, though, author Antoine Bauza and his marauding Belgian play-testers may have finally reached this goal, creating a game with the feel of a civ-builder but much less complexity and a much shorter play time.

In 7 Wonders players focus on developing a city associated with one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: Rhodes, Ephesus, or Babylon, for example. Game play takes place over three Ages of six turns each. During his/her turn, a player usually will focus on building up his/her city or constructing its wonder. A player may do one of three things on each turn:

Construct a building (the standard action),
Build a stage of his/her wonder, or
Cash in a card for 3 money, used to buy resources.

Wonders earn victory points, and each has a special ability associated with it that the player earns after building the middle stage – such as an extra resource, extra money, or a free science field (see below). The heart of the game, however, is the construction of city structures. Some of these produce raw materials, like wood or stone (sorry, Catan players: no sheep); some produce finished goods, like glass; some generate coins or give a commerce bonus; some generate military strength that helps earn military victory points; some (like temples and statues) simply give victory points; some give fields in a particular science (of which there are three, symbolized by a gear, a compass, and a tablet); and some, known as guilds, give victory points for certain sets of cards or other “criteria.”

On his/her turn, a player can build one structure or wonder stage provided s/he has sufficient resources for it. If the player's city doesn't have resource structures that produce some or all of the goods needed to buy the new building or stage, s/he can buy resources from a neighboring city for 2 coins per resource, provided that neighboring city actually produces that resource. One can only buy resources from the cities of one's immediate neighbors – the players to one's left and right. (This is one of the ways the designers have kept play time to an hour, even if there are more than 2-3 players.) There are also some structures that, once built, allow the player to build later Ages' structures for free – a workshop, for instance, allows a player to build a free laboratory.

The players' building choices are limited by the availability of resources and by the game's core playing mechanic: card-drafting. Each player starts each Age with seven cards, of which s/he selects one to build (or to use as a marker for a Wonder stage or to trade for three coins), passing the rest to the player sitting next to them. This gives players an opportunity to deny neighboring players the structures they might need to pursue a particular game strategy, like a military buildup or an accumulation of scientific buildings. On the next turn the player takes one card from her new hand, which she received from the player sitting next to her, and builds it (or uses it as a Wonder marker or for cash), and so on until they have only one card left, which they discard. This occurs after six turns and marks the end of an Age.

Before new Age cards are drawn and passed out, the players resolve military conflicts. Military structures generate from one to three crossed sword-and-shield symbols, representing each player's military power. Each player with military power will automatically fight a war at the end of each Age with their neighbors. Whoever has the most sword-and-shield symbols in these conflicts receives a military victory marker, ranging in value from 1 to 5 victory points (depending on the Age), for each battle they win. Each loser receives a defeat marker worth -1 points. Apparently these are fairly limited wars, which is just as well. Plenty of wargames on the market for those who prefer conflict simulations.

At the end of the game players earn victory points (VP) in seven ways:

1. for completing the stages of their Wonder
2. building civic structures that are worth a specified number of points
3. building certain mercantile structures that are worth victory points
4. building guilds and meeting the conditions on them
5. winning military conflicts
6. for their coins (1 VP per three coins, rounded down)
7. and for scientific fields, on an exponential scale. For each set of cards with the same scientific field (compass, tablet, or gear), the player receives a number of VP equal to the square of the number of cards. Players also receive another 7 VP for each set of three different fields. These points can really add up.

There are many different strategies for accumulating points, but in my experience a balanced approach works best. One can rack up a lot of points with a pure-science strategy, but someone who has been focusing instead on building civic structures, winning battles, and building their Wonder can usually accumulate more.

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One of the nice features of the game is there are relatively few parts – just the seven “wonder boards” (the players' play mats), the cards representing structures (which can double as markers for stages of a wonder), coins, and military victory markers. There are no resource tokens because one cannot pile up resources from turn to turn, and because resources are automatically generated by everyone's resource structures. It is also a quick game to play, even with 6 or 7 players, because one can only interact (trade, fight) with one's immediate neighbors. And players need not merely focus on building up their own civilizations, because the drafting mechanic allows them to affect what cards their neighbors receive, and military conflicts can yield a lot of points for their winners toward the end of the game. The “screw-thy-neighbor” aspects of the game, however, do not dominate so much that they produce many hard feelings. The most common reaction I've heard from new players at the end of their first game is “Let's play again!”

Are there any shortcomings? 7 Wonders was designed for both American and European players, so some of the cards and Wonder boards use symbols whose meaning can be opaque to beginning players. Fortunately, these are decoded in the rule book. Also, some people might be deterred by the $49.99 price tag. As with Dominion, however, this game has at least $100 worth of replay value.