7 Wonders Architects

01Discover the game

7 Wonders Architects offers a race to build a wonder. In your turn, you take a single map of three possibilities: the visible top on the left, the top on the right, or a map hidden in the centre. Maps can provide resources, points, science or military force. Some trigger new catches and speed up construction.

This tutorial follows the basic game Repos Production ©2021, with no Medals extension. It is a separate game of 7 Wonders: here there is no hand of seven cards that circulates nor trade payments to neighbours. Two to seven players participate for about 25 minutes. The overall difficulty is Medium: the choice is simple in appearance, but combinations, the end pressure and the opportunities left to neighbours require attention.

02Equipment

The notice shows 235 cards with eight different backs, seven Wonders in five elements each, seven card hoofs and eight storage boxes. There are also fifteen Progress chips, six Reversible Conflicts Peace/Battle chips, twenty-eight Military Victory chips, a Chat pawn with its base and the rule sheet.

The 35 elements of Wonder show a construction site on one side and a stage built on the other. The cost and the supports indicate what can be returned. The cards of each Wonder form their associated package; the neutrals make up the eighth type of back. Do not mix these packages into one at the beginning. Frames, words and symbols make it possible to distinguish grey, yellow, blue, green and red.

03The goal

Get the most victory points when a Wonder is completely built. The person who finishes his fifth step triggers the end, but is not automatically winning. Blue cards, the Cat, military victories and Progress can give the advantage to someone whose Wonder is less advanced.

Grey resources and yellow coins are mainly a means of building. Green maps provide Progress; reds are used in battles. You build in front of you, but your two neighbours influence your choices by sharing accessible packages and comparing their military strength.

04Prepare the table

Each player randomly chooses or receives a Wonder Box. Assembles his five elements face Building by following the drawing of the box. Mix his associated package and put it face up in his hoof between you and your left neighbour. Range Wonders and unused packages. Each player will thus access two visible adjacent packages.

Mix the neutral cards and put their hidden Stock in the center, with a waste next to it. Mix the fifteen Progresses face hidden; reveal three next to their stack. One of these three or the hidden top, four possibilities can be chosen.

Set up the Conflicts Against Peace: three to two or three players, four to four players, five to five players and six to six or seven players. The others return to the box. The Military Victories are in reserve and the Cat is in the center. The youngest one starts, then we play in the clockwise direction.

05Taking a card and resolving its consequences

The three sources

Take the top of the package visible directly to the left, the one directly to the right or the first central hidden card, then put it in front of you. If a package is empty, it remains: you do not recycle the waste to fill it. The effects of your cards, Progress and constructions solve during your turn in the order of your choice, with their obligations. Keep the frames visible by superimposing the cards of the same color.

Resources and compulsory construction

A grey card represents a resource: wood, stone, brick, papyrus or glass. A yellow is a room that replaces a missing resource; it is not a reserve of money to spend on a neighbour. As soon as you have the resources to allow a stage available, you must build it during your turn.

A step requires a number of identical or different resources, depending on its icon: two identical, two different, three identical, three different or four different. Defeats exactly the cards used, then returns the element face Built. The parts necessarily replace the necessary resources that are missing. Respects the supports: a step is only available if all the ones on which it rests are built. Some Wonders therefore allow two orders Intermediaries.

A building can trigger a Wonder effect or a Progress that still gives maps. Checks then if a new step is possible: several can be built in the same tower. This is not an action limited to a single building per map taken.

Blue Cards and Chat

The blue cards stay in front of you and will give the points indicated at the end. When a blue card carries the cat, take this pawn from its holder or the center. As long as you have it, you can secretly look at the top of the central Stock at the beginning of your turn, before choosing your card. The Cat is also worth two points at the end; it does not allow you to search or mix the center.

Science and Choice of Progress

With two identical scientific symbols or the three different ones, you have to discard the corresponding green cards and take a Progress: one of the three visible or the hidden top. Immediately replace a visible chosen by the next hidden. The token remains in front of you and its effect is available immediately. Each Progress can be used at most once per turn, except the effects reserved for the final count.

The effects of the basic game are as follows, explained by function:

• Urbanism gives an extra grip when you get a Grey Wood or Brick; Craft reacts to Papyrus or Glass; Jewellery to a Grey Stone or a Yellow.
• Science gives an extra take for a green one. Propagande gives one for a red one or two cors. Architecture gives one when you build a stage. The additional map is chosen from among the three accessible peaks.
• Economy counts a yellow card as two pieces. Engineering removes identical/different constraints for constructions, but not their number of resources.
• Tactical adds two permanent shields. Decoration gives four points if your Wonder remains unfinished, or six if it is complete.
• Politics gives one point per Chat icon on your blue cards. Strategy adds one point per Military Victory token. Education adds two points by Owned Progress, including him.
• Culture exists in two copies: one is worth four points, the two together twelve.

An additional card may trigger another effect still available. However, do not react for the second time the same Progress in this round. Keep the chips in a provision to track what has already served.

Red, horns and battles

The reds give shields. When you take a red with one or two horns, return so many Peace Conflicts to Battle; ignore the horns that would exceed the last token still in Peace. When all show Battle, a general battle takes place at the end of your turn.

Compare your strength, cards shields and permanent bonuses, to each of your two neighbors. For every strictly won comparison, take a three-point Military Victory token. A tie does not earn anything. Then, all of them discard their reds carrying horns; the reds without horns remain. The Conflicts all return to face Peace.

On two, compares only the two opponents: the strongest wins a token; he wins two if his strength is at least double that of the other. Against zero shield, at least two shields are needed to get two tokens. A zero-to-zero tie gives nothing.

The Effects of the Seven Wonders

A step with power acts when it is returned. Alexandria takes the top of a pick to choose from on the whole table. Ephesus takes the central summit. Babylon chooses a Progress from the four possibilities. Rhodes adds a permanent shield. Halicarnasse looks at the five maps of the top of one of its two neighboring packages, keeps one and then repels the others in this package. Olympia takes the top of each of its two neighboring packages. Giza has no particular power but offers more points of construction.

06Resources and a Battle as an Example

One step requires two identical resources. You own two Wood and one Stone cards: discard the two Wood to build; keep the Stone. For a step requiring two different, one Wood and one Stone agree. These are two alternative examples of payment, not an authorization to reuse already defeated cards.

In another situation, you take a green and already own a green of the same symbol. You trade this pair against Science. Later on in this same turn, another green catch can benefit from this new Progress, since it has not yet been used for any catch since its acquisition.

In battle with three, Alice has four shields, Bob two and Chloe four. Alice beats Bob but equals against Chloe: one token, so three points. Chloe beats Bob and doesn't beat Alice: she also takes a token. All the horned reds are then removed, even among the players who won nothing. The permanent shields of Rhodes or Tactics remain available.

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07Finish and Count

When someone returns the fifth stage of his Wonder, complete his turn completely, with its consequences and a possible end-of-turn battle. The game then stops; the others do not benefit from a last turn of answer.

Add the points of your built stages, your blues, your Military Victories, your Progresses and the Cat if he is in front of you. Independent example: ten points of Wonder, seven on the blues, two military tokens of six, four of Culture and two of the Cat give 29. The remaining grey and yellow cards do not add points by themselves.

The biggest total wins. On equal terms, compare the number of stages built; if equality continues, share the victory. Ending the Wonder gives a split advantage, but never replaces the total comparison.

08Frequent errors

• Play like 7 Wonders by passing a hand of cards to the neighbors.
• Keep resources for later while a step needs to be built.
• Build a stage whose supports are still under construction.
• Use twice the same Progress during a turn.
• Forget the battle or also discard the hornless reds.
• Give two military victories to each stronger player during a duel, without checking the doubling.

09Tips for starting

First look at the available step and the resources you have. A top that allows you to build can also give an effect leading to a new take. Small chains often make the difference with a simple immediate point.

Monitor the progress of all Wonders. If a neighbor approaches his fifth step, the immediate points become more valuable than a Progress that would serve only several laps later. The Cat is useful to compare the three offers, but it can change owner; do not build your plan on the certainty of keeping it.