7 Wonders game analysis

30 March 2013

A couple of notes on the 7 Wonders board game. Two main aspects to be considered are on the one hand effectiveness of different victory strategies and the other hand the resources required to pursue different strategies. This is not meant as a complete guide but rather as collection of observations to feed into a more knowledgeable game plan.

Resource distribution

Starting city Each starting city gives one resource: 4 cities for one of each raw material and 3 cities for manufactured goods.

Production cards For a three player game in age one each resource (raw materials and manufactured goods) is represented on one resource card. In addition, there are two cards with a choice between two resources, which have a building cost of one coin. So for all raw materials there are two sources in age one (excluding cities) and one source for each manufactured good.

In age two a two resource production card, costing one coin, exists for each raw material. The manufactured goods are again represented with one production card each. Finally, there are two commercial structures offering a choice between all the raw materials on the one and all the manufactured goods on the other card. In summary in age two each resource is available from exactly two cards.

Victory points

There are a couple of fundamental paths to victory in 7 Wonders.

Note that in general more points are achieved if neighbouring cities choose complementary strategies and resources to build. In particular, for the arms race of military points the most cost effective way is for one player to build a few military structures and the opponents not to build any and instead focus on scientific and civilian structures. In a larger game this particularly important since screwing over the two cities next to you may not help you to win against a player on the other side of the table, who is more cooperative with his neighbours. So in larger games undermining your neighbouring players should be limited to cases when doing so is necessary to prevent them from winning outright.

Notes on individual point sources

1. Military The total number of points available by military are 1+3+5 per opponent, so a total of 18 points. Also, to consider is the negative points accumulated by opponents. In a three player game the differential would be 18 points plus the negative 3 points accumulated by the opponents, giving a total point difference of 21 points.

One consideration about the military strategy is that essentially this is an arms race. The strategy works best if your opponents do not build any military structures. As soon as they start building defences of their own, more resources have to be invested for the same total points. If your opponents try to match these new structures, the cycle repeats ...

2. Treasury Contents At the rate of one point for every three coins, monetary is at most a small supplement to other victory conditions. Generally, coins are more useful to acquire resources.

3. Wonders Except for Gizah side A offers 10 points from wonder construction, Gizah having no special features offers 15 points. Since wonders are uncontested and predictable in that they don't depend on the cards dealt, they form a stable component of a winning strategy.

4. Civilian structures Civilian structures, like the 8 point palace card, have the highest direct point ratio and are unconditional (although some involve building chains. For this reason in a mixed strategy that is not focussed on maximising military or scientific points civilian structures like wonders are a key element.

5. Scientific structures Despite the quadritic growth of points for accumulating just a single structure, below 6 of the same it is generally more advantages two build sets of three distinct structures. However, as shown below the difference is not substantial.

Much more important than the consideration of what to build is the consideration of how many to build. Basically, scientific structures become more effective the more get build at one point for every three cards:

6. Commercial structures In a three player round there are three point generating commercial structures, which also generate coins making them more useful overall. Each of these have prerequisites as well, which predominantly don't generate points at all. Generating an expected three or four points each, commercial structures again are just a supplement to victory in a mixed strategy.

7. Guilds All guild cards, even though situational, are very potent generating in excess of five points, potentially as much as 12 points for the startegists' guild with both opponents haven taken full military damage. For this reason guild cards are at a premium to use early or potentially even deny for the opponent.

Construction chains

From the earliest stages it is necessary to keep track of construction chains to position your own city to be able to make maximum use of later cards (in particular age III where about half the cards have pre-conditions. Moreover, the construction chains chosen should also influence the resource deployment as later structures are now available for free and resources can be deployed targeted to structures or wonder extensions not covered by the free construction chains. Also, note that an large number of Age III buildings are expensive to build without the appropriate construction chain.

Changes for more players

By and large the set of cards remains the same as in the basic 3-player version, with a mixture of the existing cards being added at each stage (usually in a reasonable mix of resource, commercial, scientific and military structures so as not to create an imbalance). Some cards, particularly in the economic branch (tavern, chamber of commerce) are unique games with a higher number of players.

Solitaire games

A couple of illustrative games. The following assumptions are made:

  1. No guilds are used that depend on other players cards. In a real game these could add a couple of extra points
  2. No money is earned via other people buying resources. In a real game additional coins could be obtained here that allow better constructions, particularly in stage II and III.
  3. Without military 6 defeat tokens will be accumulated.
  4. The order of cards is freely determined, i.e. best cards are chosen and opponents don't interfere with the cards needed.
  5. Resources can be bought from neighbours within reason (i.e. at most one per resource).

All-in scientific route

Builds all twelve scientific structures (most of which are free from the construction chain) plus a few civilian structures also in the scientific trees (rather than Wonder L2 or Scientists' Guild, which would require more resource deployment and field less points). Note that in this setup each of the twelve scientific constructions yields an amazing 6 1/3 points. Also, note that in the construction chain strategy with the right starting city (one that offers one of the manufactured goods) only two resource cards need to be deployed, everything can be paid from that (leaving one resource for School to be paid for with coins) or comes for free.

Civilian route

Builds the majority of civilian structures (only eschewing the late game expensive Townhall and Palace). The remaining building slots are filled with synergistic scientific structures. Only a single resource deployment is needed with the appropriate starting city (Éphesos). Overall this strategy yields noticeably fewer points then the scientific all-in strategy, predominantly because the lower civilian structures (and the scientific buildings) have a point yield below 5.

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