7 Wonders

Have you ever thought that playing board games also require critical thinking and creativity? 

Today, I am going to talk about a board game – 7 Wonders. It is designed by Antoine Bauza, with gorgeous illustrations by Miguel Coimbra. The cards and design are very beautiful and details. 7 Wonders contains seven ancient civilizations, with military conflicts and commercial activities. 

Background

Each player represents a different ancient civilization to build the framework that will advance society. The game usually goes through three rounds or ages. Then everyone tallies their points, and the person with the most points wins. 

When the card has been chosen, the player must use it for one of three things: 

1. Play the card.
2. Discard the card to build a piece of your Wonder.
3. Discard the card to get three coins

Different color on the card represents different benefits:

• Brown and grey cards (Raw and Manufactured Goods) give resources.
• Yellow cards (Commercial Structures) are varied, but usually, give you coins or reduce other costs.
• Blue cards (Civilian Structures) are worth points at the end of the game.
• Green cards (Scientific Structures) are worth end-of-game points, but they’re also a set collection mini-game. There are three different symbols on these cards and players are awarded points both for collecting matching symbols and for each set of three different ones.
• Red cards (Military Structures) offer another mini-game. At the end of each Age, everyone compares how many military icons are shown on their red cards. If you have more than your neighbor, you gain points and they lose a point.
• Purple cards (Guilds) only appear near the end of the game, and each will award players points differently based on other cards in their tableaus.

“Sometimes a little controversy is a great catalyst."

While playing 7 Wonders, I can more understanding of their gaming design and experience design. 7 Wonders is a critical thinking and creative gaming, it needs different strategies and ways to build its own civilization’s Wonder. 7 Wonders may like an individual playing however it includes cooperation with others. While playing 7 Wonders, there may have some conflicts between the players as it works in the real world. Playing board games can understand more about our own personality and it reflects how we deal with problems. 

In conclusion, 7 Wonders is a great board game as it has a great design and illustrations. Also, it provides real experience of building own civilization’s Wonder with ancient civilization, military conflicts and commercial activities.