7 Wonders and Duel Openings: Age I and the Wonder Draft

Neither game has a fixed opening the way chess does. The cards come out in a different order every time. But the first Age follows patterns in both, and players who win often treat it the same way: build the economy first, and let the points come later.

7 Wonders: read your board before your first pick

Your Wonder board is your plan for the game, and it is printed in front of you before a single card is dealt. Look at three things:

• Your starting resource. That is one resource you never need to build or buy.
• Your stage costs. Which resources do they call for, and how many of each? A stage that needs three of one resource tells you what to collect.
• Your stage effects. Some stages are plain points. Others give coins, shields, or science, and some bend the rules: building a card from the discard, building certain cards for free, or playing the card that is usually discarded at the end of an Age. A board with a strong rule-bending stage wants that stage built early, so it pays off more often.

7 Wonders: resources first

Age I is the cheapest time to build resources. Many brown and grey cards are free or cost a single coin, and every one you build saves you 2 coins each time you would otherwise buy it.

A few habits help:

• Build what neither neighbor makes. If both neighbors produce wood, you can buy it. If nobody near you makes glass, build it yourself.
• Prefer cards with a choice of two resources. Flexibility is worth more than quantity early.
• Think about your neighbors’ needs too. A resource you make and they lack is coins in your pocket all game, since they pay you to use it.

Do not take resources to the exclusion of everything else. Two or three good resource cards in Age I is a strong start. Seven is a city with nothing to build.

7 Wonders: coins are a resource too

You start with 3 coins. You will need them to buy resources from neighbors, and yellow cards are how most players keep coins flowing. Some yellow cards give coins outright. Others let you buy common or rare resources from your neighbors for 1 coin instead of 2, which pays back every time you trade.

If you have no good card to play, selling for 3 coins is not a wasted turn in Age I. It pays for a resource from a neighbor later, with a coin to spare.

7 Wonders: cheap shields, early

Shields stay in your city all game, so a red card built in Age I keeps counting in Ages II and III. One early shield that beats a neighbor with none is a point now, and it is a head start on the Age II and Age III battles, which pay 3 and 5.

Watch both neighbors. If one is already building military, do not race. Win the other side.

7 Wonders: chains start here

Many Age I cards carry chain symbols that make later cards free. The Theater chains to the Gardens, for example. The List of cards and chains sheet in the box shows every chain. A cheap Age I card that makes an expensive Age II or Age III card free is a resource card in disguise.

7 Wonders: what you pass matters

Age I passes left. Everything you do not take, your left neighbor sees next. If they lack stone and you hold a stone card you do not need, consider building it, burying it under a Wonder stage, or selling it rather than handing it over.

Duel: the Wonder draft is your opening

In Duel, the game starts before the first card. You draft four Wonders each, in two rounds: one player picks 1, the other picks 2, the first takes the last. Then the order flips.

Things to weigh:

• Play-again Wonders. The Appian Way, The Hanging Gardens, Piraeus, The Sphinx, and The Temple of Artemis each give you a second turn right away. Two cards in a row is powerful in a game about taking cards before your opponent can.
• Denial. When you take 2 of the 4, you also decide which one your opponent gets. Leave them the Wonder that fits their plans least.
• Resource fit. Once built, The Great Lighthouse and Piraeus each produce one resource of your choice every turn. They do not raise your opponent’s prices, but they fill gaps in yours.

Duel: resources do double duty

Every brown and grey card you build in Duel does two jobs: it gives you the resource, and it raises your opponent’s price for that resource at the bank. Two stone symbols on your brown cards make stone cost your opponent 4 coins each.

Build resources early. The Age III deck has no brown or grey cards at all, so the brown and grey cards you have by the end of Age II are the ones you finish with.

Duel: the first pick of Age I

Age I starts with 6 accessible cards along the bottom. Each card you take may uncover a card above it. Taking a card that opens a face-up card hands your opponent a known option; taking one that opens a face-down card is a gamble for both of you.

Early on, favor picks that uncover little, or that uncover cards you would be happy to see your opponent take.

For more on reading the draft in the big game, our 7 Wonders strategy guide has a full section on Age I priorities.