7 Wonders is my new favorite game to play during our Family Time. After three games, I am still undefeated. Booooooooooyah!!!!
I’m a noob, but these strategies seem to be working:
1. In the first Age, focus on resources. Get as many free resources as possible as early as possible, especially ones my neighbors do not have (then they have to buy from me to purchase structures). Also, I buy resources needed to facilitate the building my Wonder.
2. Build Wonders early, if it is beneficial to so. While it may sound glorious to build a Wonder, sometimes the benefits from doing so are more easily obtained in acquiring the right cards.
3. Opt for cards that support other future cards. For example, I choose the “Baths” card over “Pawnshop”. During the first Age, these foundational cards are often free.
4. Don’t spend resources on military unless my neighbor’s military is going to drastically make me lose points. No matter how many military cards I have, I can only get 5 points for a win against my losing neighbor per round. If a neighbor only has one military card, my having six military cards will give me the same number of victory points as if I would have two military cards.
5. Choose Scientific Structures wisely to rack up points. Because points are scored twice and based on sets, opt for a card that will add to a set or a match. If a Scientific card is not attached to a set, it’s only worth one measly victory point.
6. Pay attention to the cards in hand. I often forget to look my cards carefully to make sure I don’t have duplicates (which are illegal.) My eyes tend to get big over the victory point value, and I fail to see I already have that card in my pile. I then end up having to “burn” the card for coins, only slightly better than forfeiting my turn. Also, don’t forget to look at Commercial Structures before purchasing new resources. Some Commercial cards are only used once, where others give resources throughout the game. To prevent these victory-point-costing-mistakes….
7. Keep cards neat! Just long division, sloppy columns lead to mistakes. It is important to see all of the information on the cards, so arrange them in columns accordingly. Also, by keeping the cards around me neat, I don’t accidentally lose my cards to my excited, grabby kids. When we play at our house, we put our chosen cards above our city cards to signify we are ready for the next phase of the round. One person, chosen at the beginning of the game, always flips their chosen card first. Each flip is settled one at a time. Coins are placed in hands during purchases, not thrown on boards. When cards are sloppy or people go out of turn, valuable cards get shuffled to the next player or end up in the burn pile… not that the other players mind!
What are your 7Wonders strategies?