Tips & Strategies (109)

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Tips & Strategies (109)

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4
Gamer - Level 4
Junior
Novice Reviewer
Knight
51 of 52 gamers found this helpful
“Alternative 2-Player Variant (Without Free City)”

This variant makes the game much more fluid and shorter.

SETUP:

Take all cards needed to play in 3 players game set up

At the beginning of each phase, give 10 cards to each player (one card is discarded without knowing what it was)

Each player selects four cards and gives the other ones (6) to his opponent.

Each player selects 3 cards and discards the other, making a starting hand of 7 cards for each player.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES:

All the cards with two arrows on the side applied to your opponent but also to yourself

Each player can buy from the bank the resource of his choice for 3 coins (one coin reduction made by yellow cards is also applied to purchasing from bank)

The fighting phase at the end of each phase is considered as a one to one fight. During the last fight the winner recovers 5 points of victory but the loser takes as many -1 taken than the difference of shields during this battle (for example, if you win with five shields against 1 shield, the loser takes four -1 tokens)

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6
Platinum Supporter
Mythic Kingdoms Backer 2020
I play blue
58 of 60 gamers found this helpful
“Plan Ahead Based on Your Neighbors' Resources”

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.

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4
I Am What I Am
Comic Book Fan
Basketball Fan
Pet Lover
21 of 21 gamers found this helpful
“For Science!”

There are so many approaches and ways to win at this game, part of it’s great design and appeal. But in my experience, going the Science route seems to guarantee competing for finishing 1st, if not usually finishing 1st.

Be sure to keep a balanced support engine of Military, Commercial, Civic, etc. But if you can get that Science train rolling, go with it!

If you can’t develop a decen Science foundation after the 1st Era, then don’t concern yourself w/ it too much in subsequent Eras. But just a couple good Science cards at the get-go can make a good start and make all the difference.

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7
Marquis / Marchioness
Advanced Reviewer
Professional Advisor
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
56 of 58 gamers found this helpful
“Don't overdo military”

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.

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6
Mythic Kingdoms Backer 2020
Video Game Fan
Miniature Painter
The Gold Heart
76 of 79 gamers found this helpful
“Making it last”

[update] I’ve tried out both Mayday Games’ “Premium 65x100mm” and “Magnum 65mm x 100mm” sleeves. The Premium sleeves are 125% thicker, and in my opinion the better way to go. They make the cards feel much more sturdy, and more easy to shuffle.

Being new to putting sleeves on cards, I think I’ll continue to go the route of using thicker sleeves. It can cost more up front, but will save having to re-sleeve the cards later since for me, the thin sleeves seem to bend and wrinkle too quickly, and then make viewing and shuffling the cards mor difficult.

[original tip] I recommend putting sleeves on the cards of this game. One reason is that if you play a lot of games with 2-4 players, the 6 and 7 player cards won’t get used much, so you’ll have some cards really worn out, and some almost new. Also, your passing cards constantly, and if you play this game as much as I do, sleeves will just make the game last longer.

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9
USA
I play blue
Paladin
Master Grader
51 of 53 gamers found this helpful
“Shock & Awe”

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.

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6
I'm Completely Obsessed
Viscount / Viscountess
Champion
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
33 of 34 gamers found this helpful
“The Profits of War.”

Although military can be a source of points if you manage to win by a narrow margin, there will come times when your neighbors get into arms races and you can tell fairly early on that they’re going to be building large militaries regardless. In these cases, a better option is to simply accept your negative points and focus on using the situation to your advantage.

Since your neighbors are building militaries, they are using opportunities they could have used to produce resources. So what’s a good neighbor to do? Do it for them! Build resources they don’t have, and profit when they both turn to you to purchase what they need.

War may be a dirty job, but since someone’s going to use it anyway, you may as well make the best of it.

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3
I'm a Real Person
42 of 44 gamers found this helpful
“Draft wisely, deny cards from your opponent”

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.

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8
Legend of the Five Rings Fan
Advanced Reviewer
Tactician
Guardian Angel
28 of 29 gamers found this helpful
“3rd Age: Pure mathematics”

3rd Age drafting is tricky. With no additional Resources being added, you need to figure out what it is possible for you to build, and also what it is possible for your neighbors to build. Simple calculations, such as “how many Victory Points will building this get me?” are useful, but you should also be aware of how many VP your neighbor will get from something you passed (don’t build a 5VP card and pass him an 8), and what the opportunity cost is. Remember that if you give money to your neighbors for resources, you lose 1VP for every 3 gold you spend and give it to them, for a net change of 2VP. This can apply if you go under an exact multiple of 3, or if you push them into or above a multiple of 3.

Calculating the potential of each card in your head will let you best decide whether a 3rd Age build of your last Wonder stage is worth the turn — combining the denial of 5-8VP to your neighbor with building into a 7VP finish is a very strong move. Last stage military builds can take your neighbors by surprise as well, leading to a potential 9VP swing (+10 for double victory, -1 per neighbor for their defeats), but are trickier to pull off.

When you get used to these tactics, you can even attempt to plot ahead a couple of passes and consider denying cards to your neighbor’s neighbor based on likely draft picks along the way.

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8
Count / Countess
Senior
Went to Gen Con 2012
I play black
41 of 43 gamers found this helpful
“Don't try to outrun the bear”

We all know the old joke about two campers running from a bear. The nut of it is that you don’t have to outrun the bear; you just have to outrun the other camper. Well, a variation on that will help you with the military aspect of 7 Wonders.

You have two neighbors. There is no need to beat both of them militarily. If one of your neighbors is going all Mars on you, just take the beating. As long as you’re at least tied with your other neighbor, you should be fine. Ideally, you’d beat the lesser neighbor and end up +6 for the game.

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9
USA
Platinum Supporter
Petroglyph
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
55 of 58 gamers found this helpful
“Don't Make it Easy on Them! ~ A 7 Wonders Tip”

Even though I highly recommend not focusing too much on one thing… you don’t want to let your opponent have it too easy. For instance, with the military, you might only win one round (maybe none), but you don’t want to let anyone just take the points. So, buy a military card here and there to force them to work for the win.

This may not seem important, but if you let the opponent off easy, not only will they win at the military strategy they are focused on, but have more cards to work with in their other areas of focus.

Don’t let them off easy!

Happy Gaming!

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3
Amateur Reviewer
Strategist
Amateur Advisor
40 of 42 gamers found this helpful
“Military is only worth it if you win with little effort”

It can be tempting to get into an arms race with an opponent because negative points are no fun to get. However, heavy investment into military just doesn’t pay off, especially early in the game.

If you win military victories, you want to BARELY win. Crushing your opponents doesn’t earn you any more points than squeeking out a win. In fact, it means you wasted resources on military cards that didn’t do you any extra good.

Above all, don’t get into an arms race. If your neighbors are busy building the roman legion, let them win the fight. Unlike science (which increases exponentially the more you invest) every military card you have to play diminishes the points you are earning for the investment. If you win every military victory (worth 18 points) and only played 2 military cards then each of those cards is effectively worth 9 points(TOTALLY WORTH IT). If you win every military victory and had to play 6 military cards then each of those cards is really no better than a straight 3 point blue card (TOTALLY NOT WORTH IT).

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7
Marquis / Marchioness
Advanced Reviewer
Professional Advisor
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
52 of 55 gamers found this helpful
“Take advantage of free builds”

Some cards will let you build next age cards for free. Take advantage of this. These free cards are usually worth a lot of stackable points. Cards even say what they allow you to build for free so you can plan ahead. This is how I managed a win in a 7 player game with no trading cards and only two resource cards.

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7
I play blue
Book Lover
Intermediate Reviewer
Smash Up: Ninja Faction Fan
38 of 40 gamers found this helpful
“Bury what your opponent wants! Develop your Wonder!”

If your partner is clearly building one aspect of their “wonder”–their culture (blue cards) or their sciences (green cards), and you see that they have a clear chain in development (where one card from the 1st age allows them to build a card in the same category during the 2nd age for free), and you see that card in your hand, and you can’t pay for that card, or don’t want to, and you really don’t want your opponent to get that card in their next hand, then “bury” it under your board by paying to develop your city’s Wonder and using that card as the marker.

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8
Intermediate Reviewer
Paladin
Tinkerer
Novice Advisor
37 of 39 gamers found this helpful
“No resources in epoch 3”

If you plan to finish your wonder, make sure you or your neighbours have all the needed resources at the end of the second epoch. There are no additional resource cards in the last deck, so pay attention! The same goes for being able to use all the resources/commodities. In the third epoch there are many cards that cost many different resources, and if you or your neigbours dont have for instance parchment you will NEVER be able to grab those cards. Making sure that you have access to at least one of every available resource before epoch three begins is good.

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1
49 of 52 gamers found this helpful
“Bury those cards!”

When planning to build a section of your Wonder, keep an eye out for cards that are much more valuable to your opponents than to you. When you “bury” such a card in your wonder, this denies your opponents the opportunity to get the card – and they may not realize it’s gone for a while.

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6
I'm Completely Obsessed
Viscount / Viscountess
Champion
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
36 of 38 gamers found this helpful
“The best thing to randomize is the seating.”

There are certain games in which seating has a profound effect upon the gameplay itself. Stone Age comes to mind, where sitting to the right of someone you know will always purchase the “Roll 1 die per player” cards can be a horrible experience, where you’ll always get last choice of stuff.

7 Wonders can be even worse, if you don’t think ahead. Some players tend to always choose Military strength. Others will always go science, or always go nuts over blue cards. Rather than fight over who gets to sit across from the Warmonger, just take a moment and roll some dice to see who sits where. Or, better yet, take out some blue cards in numerical order, and draw them randomly for seat selection.

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1
My First Heart
43 of 46 gamers found this helpful
“Resources, Resources, Resources”

Don’t forget to get a variety of resources early on because you’ll need all or most of them later and buying from your neighbors is expensive. Some people try to use the gold cards to compensate, but if you don’t have resources, then you don’t have income, so you will need more gold cards to get money. Gold cards don’t give you points, and that’s a lot of gold cards when you could have been getting resources and point cards.

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7
Miniature Painter
Intermediate Reviewer
Master Grader
54 of 58 gamers found this helpful
“Watch who you pay!”

Choose wisely which opponent to pay. It can come back and bite you if you rush to get what you want without regard for the ramifications later.

Any money given early will only buy your opponent resources that help him grow! You can try to balance your opponents or you can pour your payments into the wealthier opponent and keep your poorer opponent away from resources!

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3
My First Game Tip
42 of 45 gamers found this helpful
“Plan for Forum and Caravansery”

Forum and Caravansery are two great cards (of Phase 2) that can help you beat your enemies. For example: having a Caravansery allows me to get all complex resources, and deny my neighbors to buying them from me!

Since most players love them, you will most likely only have one chance to build it. For that I recommend you have the resources to build either. For that plan to have either 2 wood & 2 bricks (or save the money to buy the resources) or trading post/marketplace (that allows you to build them for free). My favorite is planting the trading post and making sure that I can buy the resources, but it depends on the game.

Good Luck!!

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