7 Wonders - Tips & Strategies

Military points can be great, but don’t spend too many cards on military if your opponents are going for it as well. If it costs many cards, there are other options which are higher scoring in value. The penalty is also at worst -6 points, so the harm is minimal. Now, if your opponents aren’t taking military, it is quick and easy points to acquire some military.

If your neighbors end up getting the gray resource cards, play a yellow card that lets you use theirs at a discount.

From the very start, look at what resources your neighbors’ wonders require, because that will very likely tell you what resource cards your neighbors are going to want. Then, you can also have a good idea what cards you won’t necessarily need to play (because you can buy from them).

The yellow cards that let you choose from a selection of resources can be vital if neither you nor your neighbors have the resources you need.

A lot of 7 Wonders players will advise you that going after military victories is a waste of time. However, a perusal of the results from the World Championship of Boardgames shows that all the finalists made the military a key part of their civilization. While you certainly don’t want to get bogged down in an arms race, military victories do offer you the potential of 18 points while allowing you to drop both of your neighbors 6 points – in other words, nothing to sneeze at.

My favorite approach to military in 7 Wonders borrows a page from modern American military tactics: Shock & Awe. With Shock & Awe you try to win military victories on the cheap by yes, shocking and awing your neighbors. To do this, wait on buying military in the First Age until the last couple of hands; in other words, lull your neighbors into thinking they don’t have to worry about military and then “shock” them at the last moment by laying down a military card.

In the Second Age, you reverse the strategy by playing down a military card as quickly as possible in order to “awe” your neighbors. By playing a military card quickly, you show your opponents that they are going to have to commit serious attention to pass your military capabilities. This situation encourages your neighbors just to give up on the military and concentrate their efforts elsewhere. Typically, you will even be labeled a military tyrant – something you should encourage. Once labeled this way, your neighbors are even less likely to bother challenging your supremacy. Thereby, you get all the military points without actually committing much to the effort. At this point, just one military card in the Third Age will likely assure you a complete military victory through sheer intimidation and numerical supremacy.

Of course military prowess alone will not assure you of victory; nevertheless, you just might be shocked at how often it will lead to an awesome civilization that wins you the game.

You might think this game is about choosing which cards to play. You are only half-right. This game is also about choosing which cards to pass on to your neighbors. Crucial cards here are the red, the green and the purple ones. If you think that a card can be a great help to your opponent, check if he can build it. If he can, consider building it yourself, discarding it, or using it for your wonder. In other words, deny it from him.

When both of your neighbors have the resources you need, you have the option of who to pay money to. Consider this when deciding who to pay.

In the early game, money is scarce. Think about how whoever you pay money to, will then have more money to buy resources themselves. If one of your neighbors is rich in money and/or resources, paying them will not help improve their position, while it may help a neighbor who is poor and/or lacking resources. Let that player lacking money and resources starve and pay the person who doesn’t need the money. At the worst, it’ll be a couple extra points for that player, but at the best, it will prevent the starved neighbor from building good cards.

Second of all, money is worth points. Every three coins is a point. Generally, points awarded for money is miniscule, but late in the game, if you can pay one person and avoid them getting an extra point for it, that is worth your while.