7 Wonders is a strategy game where you build your city by gather resources, develop commercial routes, and affirm your military supremacy to become one of the seven great cities of the Ancient World to win the game.
This award-winning game has been around since 2010 and has been loved by many gamers. It is for aged 10 & above, and for two to seven players. I think that this game is nicer to play with at least three players rather than just two. For two players, there is an official two-player variant included in the instructions on page 7.
In the box, there are 7 Wonder boards, 7 Wonder cards, 49 Age I cards, 49 Age II cards, 50 Age III cards, 46 conflict tokens, 24 value 3 coins, 46 value 1 coins, score booklet, instructions, help sheet and 2 ‘2 players’ cards.
There are a lot of game elements to follow in this game and we struggled to understand this game by just reading through the instructions. I would suggest that you watch the tutorial videos on YouTube for a better understanding of the game. There are quite a few videos which really help! On your Wonder boards, you get to choose sides A or B. If this is your first time playing, choose side A as it is easier.
There are three ages to play during the game, represented by orange, blue and purple cards. In each age, players receive seven cards from a particular deck, chooses one of those cards, then passes the remainder to an adjacent player. On the ages cards, there is a reverse symbol printed on the card and you have to follow the direction of the symbol when passing the card (left-right-left over the three ages).
All players reveal their cards simultaneously, then paying resources if needed or collecting resources or interacting with other players in various ways.
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. The leftover cards will be put aside. After each age, players have to compare the total number of shields present on their military structures (red cards) with the total of each of the two neighbouring cities. Players will takes victory tokens or defeat tokens. After three ages, the game ends, which is equivalent to 18 rounds of card passing.
This game is definitely not a fast-paced strategy game. If you have not played this game before, please be prepared to spend at least an hour or more to learn and complete the game so it is a fairly long game but it is worth playing, especially if you have up to seven people. There are lots of tactics involved by getting the best card to start with! It is an interesting game concept that requires you to play strategically to win the game. It is a great party game for adults. This game can be purchased from all good toy retailers, eBay and Amazon. For more information visit Asmodee website.
Disclosure: We received the sample for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own. We are members of Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game Club.