Board Game
Repos Production
Age Range: 10+ | Number of Players: 3-7 | Game Time: 30 minutes
Recently, I’ve been lucky enough partner with the amazing team at Good Games Miranda to bring you all a few board game reviews. This time around they bestowed upon me 7 Wonders the board game. The minimum number of players is three and as much as we’d love to get our cats, Aang and Korra involved in the gameplay, they just don’t have the thumbs to hold up a hand of cards. So, we turned to Adam’s family and boy, did we have some fun! 10% DISCOUNT CODE INCLUDED…
7 Wonders Game Intro
Ok, imagine you’ve just been given the title of ruler of a grand city. You’re starting from the ground up, so you have to collect materials and goods in order to build infrastructure and guilds. You then use those resources to make more materials and earn money. You’ve also got the capability to build a magnificent Wonder that will bring you much glory (and extra points at the end of the game).
The aim of the game is to build defenses, set up production of wood, stone and other materials for building, construct various things that you’d find in a city like baths, libraries and more. At the end of the game, you score points for an array of different achievements including:
- How far you progressed in the construction of your Wonder.
- How well you defended your city against neighbouring cities.
- How far along science has progressed in your city.
- How much $$$ you have by the end of the game.
Basically, as long as you’re doing something to further the advancement of your city, you’re going to rack up a few points and be in the running to win.
The winner is the person with the most points collected at the end of the game. Simples!
It’s a tactical game, but like most board games with cards involved, much of it does come down to the luck of the draw. Adam, for example, is lucky as hell (and I guess he’s got some smarts about him too) because he never fails to win ANY game we play first time around. This game was no exception.
7 Wonders Game Setup
First things first – you gotta get poppin’. And by that I mean you have to pop out a bunch of little tokens which is actually quite a cathartic exercise.
From there, you separate the Age cards, separate the tokens and randomly choose a city to rule! By the way, the cards are metallic and the game boards are BEAUTIFULLY designed…
Once you’ve got the setup sorted, each round is played as an “Age”. You’ve got Age I (bronze), Age II (silver) and Age III (gold) represented by three separate decks of cards. Each player is dealt a certain amount of the respective Age cards each round.
The game then starts with each player choosing a card to play from their hand, playing it, then passing their hand to their neighbour. This goes on for multiple turns until each player is left with two cards – one of those cards is the last card they play for that particular round/Age, the other is discarded.
The cards depict things like guilds, buildings, materials, areas and other bits and pieces that make up a city, so you can catch ’em all and be the very best ruler like no-one ever was!
There are quite a few moving parts but if you’re used to games like Wingspan and Arboretum that involve collecting specific tokens, items, etc. to score points at the end, it shouldn’t take too long to pick up. Midway through Age II (the second round) we’d found that we’d pretty much picked it up, with only a few “ah-ha” moments re. rules coming to us after that.
We also stopped for dinner halfway through which helped us recharge and reset, ready to tackle Age III. Dinner was delicious and may be featured as a recipe in a future blog, so stay tuned…
7 Wonders Game Tips
I only have one tip for this game and it’s literally written right there in the instructions…
When it comes to playing for the very first time, don’t try and have everyone play their cards simultaneously (as the rules suggest). Listen to the tip in the instructions that advises taking turns watching each player play their card and walking through the steps together until you get used to the gameplay. I think the simultaneous play only benefits toward reducing the length of time the game takes – there’s no real benefit to it because everything’s out in the open anyway.
Side note: I actually just opened up the box again and found a little note with a QR code on it linking to a “how to play” video. I’ll probably watch this at some point just to make sure we understood everything properly, but I think the rules are easy enough to follow and comprehend after a little play time, even if you have to use the first round as a practice round.
Also, this is what happens when you leave a board game lid on the ground for 0.1 seconds when you have a baby cat. Aang has a new bed and my board game now has no lid…
All in all, this game was a lot of fun! I’d definitely recommend it to pretty much anyone looking for a game that’s not too long and not too short. It’s also perfect for games nights with odd numbers of people, which some games don’t really cater to.
The only downside for Ad and I is the 3-7 player requirements, meaning that we can’t play it by ourselves. However, I’ve heard from a few friends that there is a two player version. Ad and I will definitely be investing in it as we want to be able to play 7 Wonders by ourselves at 3am if we so desire – because why not?
As always, if you have any questions about the gameplay itself and would like some advice or clarity, let me know in the comments, I’ll be happy to help. Leave me with your suggestions for future game reviews too! 🙂
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Where to buy Wingspan the game
If you’re in Sydney, pay the Good Games Miranda team a visit in store (across from the Westfield) and you can get a 10% discount on 7 Wonders until the end of March 2021 by showing them this discount code. They’re an amazing team and they truly deserve all the support you can muster! 🙂
Enjoy the following quotes from Ad’s family about 7 Wonders the game…
“It was good fun!”
Papa McKay
“It was good once we got the hang of it.”
Friend, sister and all-round wonderful human being Alli McKay
“Easy to learn – loved it!”
The man, the myth, the legend Adam McKay
*two thumbs up*
Scoot Hamilton
Very interesting and decent.”
A chef named Liam
If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, check out Wingspan the game and pair it with my mum’s one and only cheese and bacon cob loaf dip recipe! They’re a match made in heaven for any games night.
Kates
pray4kates 