7 Wonders - Card Drafting Game

7 Wonders is a card drafting game which was first published in 2010. I've heard about this game quite a lot and seen it in a lot of places but whenever I wanted to try it out I couldn't find people to play it with. I usually asked some people at conventions were board games were played but the concept was too alien for most. When in a local game store I usually heard TCG players saying that the game is good and quite simple and does not take long to play. So with a group of Magic players we finally got to play it.

Few days ago I finally found out what the game is about. You take on the role of one great city of the Ancient World and you develop it in a certain way. The city is represented by (double-faced) board on which there is a resource you get by default and special abilities you can use during the game.

The game is divided into three ages. In each age a player receives seven cards from a corresponding Age deck. He or she then picks a card from those seven cards and passes the rest to the player on the left (for age 1 and 3, to the right for the second age). Picked cards are revealed simultaneously. Some cards have immediate effect (like gain X gold for [certain condition]), some cards can be used every turn (like resources) and some cards give you a victory points value at the end of the game. When the effects are resolved players pick another card. The age ends when all players have 6 cards in play. The seventh card is discarded. After this a military power is compared with military power of the neighboring cities. For each win a player gains victory points according to the current age. A player who loses gets -1 point for each loss no matter the age.

There are several actions a player can do. The most common one is playing the picked card (get resources, build a trading place, erect a architectural wonder etc). Playing a card costs something and for that a player needs resources. There are cards that do not cost anything, there are cards that cost gold pieces (you start the game with three) and there are cards that cost you resources (each city has one resource by default other resources have to be collected). Certain cards can be played for free if you have a certain card in play already. A player can also use a special ability that is depicted on the board. In that case he or she has to put a drafted card underneath the ability slot. If you ran out of gold (anytime you want) you can discard your pick and get 3 gold pieces.

At the end of the third age victory points are counted and the player with most points wins the game.

The game can be played relatively fast and is set up quickly as well. If you like card drafting and you are looking for something not so complicated you'll probably enjoy this game.