it's lively, gripping and never plays the same way twice 7 Wonders is a modern classic board/card game (there's not much of a board) which brings its own take on the old Sid Meier 'Civilization' PC game.
|
Jonathan Rowe |
Here we are, building our ancient civilisations (Babylon, Giza, Olympios, etc) up from obscure Stone Age peasant through Bronze Age kingdoms to Iron Age empires. Essentially, it's a drafting game. You get a hand of 7 cards, choose one to play and pass the rest to your neighbour on one side, while your neighbour on the other side passes their unwanted cards to you. Did I say "unwanted"? That's not quite right, because the anguish of 7 Wonders lies in the fact that it's as much about what you mustn't pass to your neighbours as it is about what you want to play for your own benefit.
The cards represent various buildings (red military buildings, gold economic buildings, blue civic monuments, green scientific institutions as well as brown and grey resource centres). The resource centres generate basic goods (clay, stone, wood) and luxury goods (glass, paper, silk) which pay for everything else. In the last stage of the game, purple guild cards generate extra victory points if you've built up the right requirements.
It's an engine-building game. You set up your resource production in the early turns then use to to buy the buildings that generate victory points in the later turns. If you misjudge things, you find you can't afford the victory-providing buildings or else you spend too long on resource creation so there isn't enough time to buy your way to victory.
|
|
|
The problem is, there are so many distractions. Should you be sacrificing cards to build your civilisation's bespoke Wonder, unlocking its special powers? should you be focusing on money to buy extra resources from your neighbours or aim to be self-sufficient? is it important to win wars or just endure them? is it worth pursuing science (which only pays out big if you invest a lot in it) and, if not, how important is it to 'bury' science cards so your neighbour can't have them?
There are lots of expansions, adding in black city/criminal cards, leaders who add their own effects, diplomacy that let's you 'sit out' wars and debt tokens to put the squeeze on your rivals. Recently, a new Armada expansion introduces a completely new nautical dimension to the game.
7 Wonders is a game of nail-biting choices where it pays to watch other players closely and anticipate the ways their 'engine' is developing. It can feel a bit 'together alone' if everyone focuses on their own hand at the expense of interacting with other players, but at its best it's lively, gripping and never plays the same way twice.
There are lots of expansions, adding in black city/criminal cards, leaders who add their own effects, diplomacy that let's you 'sit out' wars and debt tokens to put the squeeze on your rivals. Recently, a new Armada expansion introduces a completely new nautical dimension to the game.
7 Wonders is a game of nail-biting choices where it pays to watch other players closely and anticipate the ways their 'engine' is developing. It can feel a bit 'together alone' if everyone focuses on their own hand at the expense of interacting with other players, but at its best it's lively, gripping and never plays the same way twice.
