Here are 10 beginner tips to help you build a strategy to win more at the 7 Wonders board game.
New to 7 Wonders? Check out our How to Play guide.
1. Best Age I Cards
Age I is about building up your resources. You’ll want to keep an eye out for duel resource brown cards (cards 2 resources divided by a slash). They will cost you 1 coin but it’s worth the investment.
The East/West Trading Post and Marketplace (Yellow cards) are also good choices as they reduce trading the relevant resources to 1 coin.
2. Best Age II Cards
The Caravansary is a very strong card as it gives you one of each of the basic resources. Remember how the duel brown resources cards in Age I are good. Well this is like combining two of them.
On the same note the Forum is also a very good card. It gives you one of each of the grey resources. Grey resources are needed for science cards, many of the purple guild cards as well as some of the higher VP blue cards. Consider picking it especially if you didn’t grab a Marketplace in Age I.
The double resource cards are also good choices. Although you may want to be a bit more selective and pick ones that are useful to your wonder and/or ones that make up for resources you are lacking from Age I.
3. Best Age III Cards
The last age is all about VP. Anything card that gives 7+VP is a solid choice here. Examples are the 7/8VP Blue Cards and Wonder based Purple Guild Cards.
Also don’t forget about the Red Military Cards. In Age III each military victory rewards 5 points, winning both conflicts will give 10VP.
4. Try Side B
Don’t be afraid to try Side B of your civilization board. It often provides stronger benefits for upgrading your wonder.
5. Don’t Forget Military
Losing all military conflicts will cost you 6VP. However keep in mind your opponents are rewarded VP for winning their conflicts which further widens the gap.
Taking an early Age I military card is more powerful than it may first seem. Players will often want to prioritize resource cards in Age II and VP cards in Age III. Having that single military advantage from Age I means your opponent will need to invest more cards in later Ages to beat you.
For instance if you and your neighbor both take a military card in Age II you will still be ahead with 3 military strength had you have invested in a single military card in Age I.
Breaking even isn’t bad as it not only prevents you from losing points but also denies your neighbors points.
6. Investing in Military
You may want to heavily invest in Military when your Wonder provides military bonuses. On the same note if your neighbor has military wonder benefits then you may not want to compete.
7. Investing in Science
Science is great as it can be a source of many VP. However it’s less effective when more players contest the science cards.
If you have a civilization with a grey resource you may consider investing in science as you may be able to quickly snap up some science cards.
If you aren’t playing science then consider denying your opponents by using science cards when constructing wonder stages or when you need to sell a card for coin.
8. Make Use of Upgrade Paths
Building certain cards will allow you to construct later cards for free (like a free upgrade). It can save you valuable resources which can be spent on other cards.
This can be especially powerful if chained early on. For example obtaining the Age I green science cards can make getting additional science cards in Age II for free which in turn can get you Age III cards for free.
Another path to note would be the Age II Temple 3 VP blue card which upgrades to the Age III Pantheon 7VP blue card.
As for the green science cards the compass upgrades to (2) Stables and gear upgrades to (2) Archery Range and/or 3x Siege Workshop. Whilst the tablet Scriptorium and Library chains to 4VP Courthouse and 6VP Senate blue cards respectively.
Finally we cannot forget the Marketplace (trade any grey resources) which can upgrade to the Caravansery (one of any basic resource) and the East/West Trading Post (trade any basic resource) which can lead to the Forum (one of any grey resource).
Any free upgrades are written on the bottom right hand corner of the base card.
9. Discarding Cards
When you have no good cards to pick and build you’ll be left with 2 options in the Action phase:
- Discard for 3 coin
- Build Wonder
In both these options your chosen card is essentially discarded and you will not receive its benefit. Instead of picking any card to discard you can take this opportunity to deny other players from good cards.
Examples of this are discarding military cards to help maintain your military strength advantage and discarding science cards to deny your opponents.
10. Avoid Too Many Resources
You can construct any card if you have 3 of each of the brown (basic) resources and 1 of each of the grey resources.
Obtaining 1-2 of each of the brown resources plus 1 grey resource is often sufficient as buying 1 resource when building isn’t bad.
