Tabletop Tuesday - 7 Wonders

Welcome to another edition of Tabletop Tuesday - Your weekly exploration into games of dice, cards, luck and more of the Tabletop world.

This week's game...the game of science and finance that is 7 Wonders.

Players: 2-7
Time: 30-45 minutes
Genre: Strategy



Winning over 30 various gaming awards, including the esteemed 2011 Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year award, 7 Wonders is an intricate and strategic game in which players make tough choices as they build up their mighty empire.  It may look intimidating at first glance, but this game is easy enough to learn once you start playing.  Each player is assigned a random civilization, each of which has their own unique starting resource and various rewards for building their wonder.  The game is divided into three "ages" / rounds, in which each player receives 7 cards from that age.  Players will then pick one card they wish to play, and then the remaining cards are rotated / passed off to the other players.  With this unique mechanic, you know any cards you pass on will be opportunities for your opponents to play, be it good or bad cards.  And depending on the number of players, there's a chance you may see a card you passed on return if it doesn't get played before rotating back to you.  Another great aspect of this mechanic is that there is often little waiting in the action, as every player takes their turn making decisions at the same time.

Playing cards doesn't come without a cost though, as many cards require certain resources to be played.  If the player doesn't have the needed resources to play the card, they can instead pay other players gold to borrow use of their resources.  Certain structures can also be built for free should you have built a previous structure in the series, which can be another liable strategy to focus on such structures rather than other resources.  At the end of each age, players then compare military might with their physically adjacent opponents, earning or losing victory points based off whose military is greater (more victory points being earned in the later ages).  At the end of all three ages, the winner is then determined by a many variety of scoring components: Military, gold, wonders, civic structures, commercial structures, guilds, and SCIENCE!  With so many means of earning victory points, it's often difficult to predict who could end up winning, which keeps every game exciting and hopeful for every player.

It's easy to have fun in this game just building your own little happy empire, but the keys of success in this game come from knowing how to plan ahead, identifying situational value, and predicting other player's motives / likely actions.  There are many other expansions and spin-offs of this game, but this original still holds extremely well by itself, and it works as a great game for large groups or even just 2 players.  I recommend this game for those who enjoy critical thinking and fast-paced gameplay.

If you have any questions about 7 Wonders, be sure to ask in the comments.  And stay tuned for more games and fun to be found in future installments of Tabletop Tuesday!