7 Wonders

I bought this game shortly after I got into Magic the Gathering. I was already attuned to drafting and wanted a nice way to introduce that mechanic to other friends and family that played board games with me. The added benefit of supporting seven players makes this a hit with my family since we often have six altogether.

In 7 Wonders, each player is a leader of an ancient civilization striving to construct their “Wonder of the World.” This includes The Great Pyramid of Giza, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Players draft various cards that earn them resources, military, science, commerce, and civilization, all of which work together to build your wonder. Be careful; focusing only on one aspect can leave you defenseless against neighboring militia! 7 Wonders provides a wide variety of gameplay choices and rewards those who can successfully balance all aspects of forming a civilization.

Although there are several expansions, this review will focus on the base game.

ART: 8/10

The boards, as well as the cards, are both painted beautifully, depicting the historical, ancient civilizations. Each component is like a painting with smooth brush strokes and gradient texture. How the light source is depicted in each scene makes them truly ambient and idyllic.

There are also vibrant colors to depict the different card types, making viewing your neighbor's plans much more effortless. The iconography is obvious to understand, but for the occasional obscure one, there is a handy display sheet describing each icon.

STORYTELLING: 6/10

The story is in the history of these wonders. The resources required to construct each of the player’s wonder is flavorful. The card categories and corresponding cards are all very fitting for building a civilization. The more you focus on one card type (like science), the easier it becomes to gain more cards of that type.

All these aspects make you feel like you are a leader during ancient times. One of the most interesting rules is that you can only trade or combat your neighbors to your left and right. This also makes it feel semi-realistic and adds to the whole ambiance of the game. In such a short gameplay experience, 7 Wonders really covers its bases in immersive gameplay, but perhaps less in storytelling.

COMPONENTS: 5/10

Nothing great, nothing bad. The military points and coins are cardboard punch-outs that always feel cheaper, but this leaves room for upgradability! The player wonder boards are thick cardboard.

The cards are oversized playing cards with no unique texture. Like with many games, with the numerous plays under our belt, our cards are seeing wear. Since the cards are slightly larger, I wonder what sleeve options exist. We should have purchased some since shuffling and handling the cards make up the entire gameplay.

COMPLEXITY: 6/10

With deceivingly simple rules, 7 Wonders is challenging to master, especially given the variance of each game. “All you need to do” is gather resources that allow you to build your wonder and acquire other game cards. Balancing necessary cards with utility cards and point cards can be pretty tough. In addition to that, as Magic players are well aware, you must read the table to ensure others aren’t trying to take the same cards as yourself.

Some cards allow you to gain others in a future era for free: will you try to obtain resources for those? Wait, your neighbor is overpowering you with more military: will you try to catch up and beat them? Well, science card points can rack up really fast: will you try to get multiple sets of science tools, or specialize in a certain one?

As you can tell, decision-making is challenging if you want to win. Anyone with any skill level can play and take whatever cards they want, but certain players better at optimization will excel more in this game. That being said, the randomness of the cards can still get in the way of your plans, so sometimes it truly is anyone’s game!

TRAVEL-FRIENDLY: 4/10

First of all, the app version of this is quite convenient, and you can hammer out a game in a matter of minutes. You can play online with your friends if you want to get a game in while waiting for a table to open at a restaurant. As for the actual game, the required space directly correlates to the number of players.

Each player will accumulate a lot of cards throughout the game, which takes up a fair amount of space for each player. You also need room beneath your wonder board so you can place cards there as well.

Again, with more players, I hope you have a larger table. Sure, you can stack and organize your cards, but your neighbors have to be able to see your cards to strategize thoroughly.

UNIQUENESS: 7/10

Drafting has been around for a long time, and civilization-themed games are abundant, but 7 Wonders was the first simple experience I had with drafting purely to score points. 7 Wonders covers several mechanics seen across all games but somehow combines them into a streamlined gameplay experience.

I don’t feel like any of the cards or strategy is overly unique, but I want to call out how impressive the gameplay is, with many paths to victory. This game encourages players to obtain resource cards to be eligible to draft other cards in the future. But it also allows you to remove cards from the drafting pool to earn additional benefits, such as constructing wonders or earning coins.

There is a reason this game won so many awards and has sold so many copies worldwide! 7 Wonders’ uniqueness comes from its eloquence, blending favorite game mechanics into one fast, simple gameplay experience.

Innovation:

I briefly touched on this in the last section, but the innovation mostly comes from its ability to blend many experiences under the overarching drafting mechanic. In my previous article, I mentioned design isn’t design without a constraint, so this is another excellent example of limiting yourself to a small box and seeing where that takes you.

Final Comments

This game hits our table almost every time we get together with a large group (as long as we are not already playing Magic). In a world full of five-player games, it’s nice to have a game you can play with an entire party. If you are looking for an easy game to teach your friends and a game that can support your friend group size, this is it.

7 Wonders is so fast to play and quick to set up that even if newer players struggle the first time, just play again! With a few quick plays, everyone seems to get the hang of it and wants to try again. Now that is the mark of a great game!

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Publisher: Repos Production

Game(s) Pictured: 7 Wonders First Edition