7 Wonders: Duel

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7 Wonders Duel
Game data
author Antoine Bauza & Bruno Cathala
graphic Miguel Coimbra
publishing company Repos Production ,
Asmodee (sales in Germany)
Publishing year 2015
Art Card game
Teammates 2
Duration about 30 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Awards

On the recommendation list for the 2016 Kennerspiel des Jahres
International Gamers Award 2016, Category: Strategy
Tric Trac d'Or 2015
Swiss Gamers Award 2015
Golden Geek Best Card Game 2015

7 Wonders Duel is a card game by the two game designers Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala from France . The visual design was done by the Portuguese illustrator Miguel Coimbra . In 2016 it was listed on the recommendation list for Kennerspiel des Jahres 2016 and won the International Gamers Award in the strategy category in the same year. Last year it was awarded the Tric Trac d'Or , the Swiss Gamers Award and the Golden Geek for the best card game.

Many of the game mechanics are taken from the board game 7 Wonders . However, since this only contains a rudimentary version for two players, the authors decided to develop this offshoot for only two players.

Game idea and victory conditions

The two players each assume the reign of a civilization from ancient times. In the course of the game the player expands his city (= totality of the collected playing cards and built wonders) in the form of playing cards that are taken from the card display. In addition, miracles can be built that give players different bonuses. The game takes place over three rounds - so-called ages - in which the playing cards are displayed in a different way each time after all cards from the previous age have been taken from the players.

The game can be won in three different ways:

  • Military superiority - a player has advanced to the last space of the opposing city on the military track
  • Scientific Superiority - A player has collected six of the seven research symbols available during a game round.
  • Civil Victory - At the end of the third age (and if no player previously met the criteria for military or scientific superiority), the player with the most victory points has won. These are awarded for cards collected, wonders built, military and economic advancement, and coins collected.

content

The game includes the following content:

  • 1 game board with military and research track
  • 23 playing cards for the first age
  • 23 playing cards for the second age
  • 20 playing cards for the third age
  • 7 guild cards
  • 12 world wonder cards
  • 4 military tiles
  • 10 science progress tiles
  • 1 pawn for displaying the status of the military conflict (conflict marker)
  • 31 game coins (7 pieces with value 6, 10 with value 3 and 14 with value 1)
  • 1 scoring block (to evaluate the civilian victory)
  • 1 rulebook
  • 1 game help / quick reference

The playing cards

The playing cards in 7 Wonders: Duel are called building cards . These are marked in different colors at the top of the card and - depending on the color - represent a different type of building with different functions and bonuses.

The different building types and their functions are:

  • Raw materials (brown cards, are required to pay construction costs, produce wood, clay or stone).
  • Manufactured products (gray cards, are required to pay construction costs, produce glass or papyrus).
  • Profane buildings (blue cards give you victory points at the end of the game).
  • Research building (green cards give you victory points at the end of the game, if you have collected two cards with the same research symbol printed on them, you can take a research tile from the display; these are a prerequisite for victory through scientific superiority).
  • Trade buildings (yellow cards, occasionally bring you victory points at the end of the game, produce resources and give you coins if you discard drawn cards for income).
  • Military buildings (red cards, increase the player's military strength by the number of military symbols printed on them, are a prerequisite for victory through military superiority).
  • Guilds (purple cards give you victory points at the end of the game, depending on whether and to what extent the requirements of the guild card have been met).

procedure

At the beginning of the game, a starting player is determined and then the world wonder cards are shuffled and four are drawn at random. These are now available to the two players, whereby the starting player first takes one card, the following player takes two and the start player takes the last card. This is repeated once with the other player starting, so that each player has four wonder cards. These are then laid out vertically in front of the players.

Now the cards of the first age are shuffled (recognizable by the imprint on the back of the cards) and laid out according to a fixed scheme. Some cards are face up, others face down and the cards overlap in the display. This is also an important game mechanism for the later drawing of cards, as only those cards may be drawn that are not covered by another card. There are three cards left after the display in each age - these are returned to the game box.

The players now take turns taking turns, each beginning by drawing a card that is not covered by other cards from the display.

The following is then possible:

1.) Erect the building

If the building is to be erected on the map, the player has to pay the building costs printed on the top left of the map and then places his card in the city display in front of him. Some cards do not require building costs and can therefore be built for free. Some buildings can either be built using the construction costs or free of charge by owning another card, this is indicated by a white symbol, which is printed on both cards under or next to the construction costs.

The construction costs are paid by paying coins to the bank and / or owning resource cards ( brown building cards with the raw materials wood, clay and stone, gray building cards with the manufactured products glass and papyrus, yellow building cards and some wonders of the world with raw materials or Manufacture product symbols) of the amount printed on the building card. If the player does not have enough resource cards himself, he can buy them from the bank for a fee.

The price for raw materials to be bought depends on the sum of the resource symbols on the opponent's brown and gray building cards. To do this, two coins are added and the sum is paid to the bank. The opposing player cannot forbid this purchase of raw materials.

2.) Discard the card and take coins for it

If the player discards the card, it is put on a discard pile. This can be viewed by both players at any time. The player then receives two coins in addition to the trading buildings in his city ( yellow building cards ).

3.) Build a miracle with the card

If the player wishes to build a miracle with the building cards drawn, the building costs for the miracle must be paid and this must be rotated 90 ° in the horizontal orientation to indicate that it has been built.

The drawn card is pushed under the built wonder of the world in such a way that the printed Roman numeral of the age remains visible. It should be noted that during the entire course of the game a maximum of 7 world wonders may be built by both players in total. (So ​​a player will not be able to build one of his miracles).

It is played until all cards from an age have been drawn. Then the cards of the next age are shuffled and laid out as shown in the rulebook. The militarily weaker player decides who is the starting player in the coming age. If there is a tie, the player who played the last card in the last age decides.

The third age is special in that after three of the 20 building cards have been put down in front of the display, three guild cards drawn at random are mixed in.

If the conditions for military or scientific superiority are reached during an age, the game ends immediately with victory for the superior player. If this is not the case, the third age is played to the end and the winner is finally determined by adding up the victory points.

Promos

At the game in Essen, two wonder cards have been given away to visitors to the fair as a free expansion for the game. These were later also sent to selected retailers for free distribution as part of the Asmoplay program. In addition to the wonder cards, this also contains metal coins as a substitute for the cardboard coins contained in the game and a metal replacement for the conflict marker.

The following promo cards have been distributed so far:

  • Fair (2015) - The player who builds the fair may set up one of the cards from the top row of the card display free of charge, even if it is not yet regularly available. At the end of the game, the mass is worth two victory points.
  • Statue of Liberty (2016) - If the Statue of Liberty is built, the player may take the three cards that were put back in the game box after the age was displayed and may erect one of them free of charge. Another card must be placed on the discard pile, the last card, the opponent may build free of charge. The Statue of Liberty is worth five victory points at the end of the game.

The Stonehenge promo card was distributed at the UK Games Expo 2017 - apart from the nine victory points, it has no other function.

Extensions

7 Wonders Duel: Pantheon
Game data
author Antoine Bauza & Bruno Cathala
graphic Miguel Coimbra
publishing company Repos Production ,
Asmodee (sales in Germany)
Publishing year 2016
Art Card game
Teammates 2
Duration about 50 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Awards

BoardGameGeek best Board Game Expansion 2016

Almost a year after the main game was released, the first expansion 7 Wonders Duel: Pantheon was released in 2016.

This introduces gods of the pantheon as an additional game mechanism - and thus also as an additional level of complexity. In the course of the first era, players can win these for themselves using mythology tiles that are positioned on the cards in the card display of the first era that are specified in the game board.

The three god cards contained in each area are thematically divided into five categories:

If you draw a card that has a mythology tile on it, you can look through the god card deck that matches this tile and place a card from it face down in the new Pantheon board, which is placed over the military track of the main game. Depending on which slot of the pantheon the card was placed in, the player can either activate it from the second age for more or less gold and thus gain the influence of the god and thus activate the card effect. The opponent can do this too. So it is important to place the gods in the right slots, but also to activate them at the right time.

Additional offering tiles can reduce the cost of activating a god.

The expansion also contains two new wonder cards (The Divine Theater and the Sanctuary) as well as three new science progress tiles. These are added to those of the main game at the beginning of the game and are distributed according to the instructions above.

In the third age, the guilds contained in the main game will be replaced by large temples. These have the same or similar card effects as the guilds, but also take into account the presence and effects of the gods.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prize winners archive | Spiel des Jahres eV from 2016. Accessed June 2, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Prize winners archive | Spiel des Jahres eV from 2016. Accessed June 2, 2017 .
  3. ↑ 2016 Winners - International Gamers Awards. Retrieved June 2, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Le Tric Trac d'Or 2015 est ... In: Tric Trac . ( trictrac.net [accessed June 2, 2017]).
  5. ↑ Results 2015 | Swiss Gamers Award. Retrieved June 2, 2017 (fr-fr).
  6. ↑ 10th Annual Golden Geek Awards Winners for 2015! | Geekdo . In: BoardGameGeek . ( boardgamegeek.com [accessed June 2, 2017]).
  7. ↑ Interview: Bruno Cathala - 7 Wonders Duel. Retrieved June 2, 2017 .
  8. ↑ For a first game, the authors recommend which wonders of the world the two players should start with.
  9. ↑ Asmoplay. Retrieved June 22, 2017 (English).