7 Wonders

Overview

Three to seven players build an ancient city over three ages, drafting cards simultaneously. Because everyone plays at once, the game takes roughly the same time with seven players as with three.

Designed by Antoine Bauza, published by Repos Production. This entry is checked against the 2nd edition rulebook (©2020), downloaded from Repos Production's site.

1. Setup

Each player receives a wonder board at random, choosing its Day or Night side, and three coins. The board shows a starting resource and two, three or four wonder stages, depending on the wonder and side. The rulebook suggests Day sides for your first few games.

Build each age's deck for the number of players: keep only cards whose minimum-player number is at or below the player count. For Age III, shuffle the purple Guild cards and add players + 2 of them at random.

2. The draft

Each age uses its own deck. Deal seven cards to each player.

1. Everyone simultaneously chooses one card and places it face down.
2. Everyone reveals and resolves at the same time.
3. Pass the remaining hand on.

Hands pass left in Age I, right in Age II, left again in Age III.

On the sixth and last turn you receive two cards: play one and discard the other face down, with no coins for it. So six cards are played per age, eighteen in total.

3. What you do with a card

Each turn your chosen card is used in exactly one of three ways:

• Build it — pay its cost and add it to your city. You can never build two cards with the same name.
• Build a wonder stage — slide it face down under your board and pay the stage cost instead. The card itself becomes irrelevant. Stages must be built in order, left to right, and are optional.
• Sell it — discard it for three coins.

You may always discard, whatever your resources, so you are never stuck.

4. Card types

Colour	Type	Effect
Brown	Raw materials	Clay, ore, stone, wood
Grey	Manufactured goods	Glass, papyrus, cloth
Blue	Civilian	Straight victory points
Yellow	Commercial	Coins and trade discounts
Red	Military	Shields
Green	Science	Tablets, compasses, gears
Purple	Guilds	Age III only; conditional points

From Age II, many cards have a free build chain: if you already built the card showing the matching chain symbol, you build this one for nothing. Without it, you can still pay the normal cost.

Resources are never used up. Each resource symbol in your city can be used once per turn, every turn.

5. Trading

You may buy resources from either neighbour, paying two coins per resource directly to them.

They cannot refuse, and their supply is not consumed — you are buying the right to use it this turn.

You may never trade with a player who is not adjacent to you. Some yellow cards reduce the price to one coin in a given direction.

The limits the rulebook sets:

• You can buy only a neighbour's starting resource and their brown and grey cards, not resources from their yellow cards or wonder stages.
• Each resource symbol once per turn per buyer, used that same turn.
• Pay with coins you had at the start of the turn. Coins a neighbour pays you this turn can't be spent this turn.
• Not from a card your neighbour built this same turn.
• Both neighbours may buy the same resource from you in the same turn.
• If their card offers a choice of two resources, you pick which one to buy, whatever they chose for themselves.

6. Military

At the end of each age, compare your shields with each neighbour separately.

Age	Win	Lose
I	+1	−1
II	+3	−1
III	+5	−1

A draw scores nothing for either side. You are only ever compared with your two neighbours, never the whole table.

7. Scoring science

The most lopsided category, and worth understanding before committing:

• n² points for each symbol, where n is how many of that symbol you hold.
• 7 points for each complete set of all three different symbols.

Holding	Score
3 of one symbol	9
1 of each	3 + 7 = 10
2, 2, 2	12 + 7 + 7 = 26
3, 3, 3	27 + 21 = 48

Science rewards commitment and punishes dabbling.

8. Final scoring

Total your military tokens, coins (three coins to a point), wonder stages, blue cards, commercial cards, guilds and science.

Highest wins. A tie goes to whoever has the most coins; if that's also tied, the tied players share the victory.

Commonly argued

• Neighbours cannot refuse a trade. It is a purchase, not a negotiation.
• You can only trade with adjacent players, never across the table.
• Trading does not consume their resource. Both of you may use it.
• The last card of each age is discarded, not played.
• Military is compared per neighbour, and a draw scores nothing.
• You can always discard for three coins, so you can never be stuck.
• The last card of each age earns nothing. It isn't sold for coins.
• You can't buy a neighbour's yellow-card or wonder resources, only their starting resource, brown and grey cards.
• Coins received this turn can't be spent this turn.
• You can't build two cards with the same name.
• Wonders have two to four stages, built in order.