How to Teach 7 Wonders and 7 Wonders Duel

7 Wonders has a reputation for icons. A host picks up a card, starts explaining every symbol on it, and loses the table before the first pick. Duel has the same trap, with a layout of twenty cards to explain on top.

The fix for both is to teach the loop, start playing, and let the cards explain themselves. Below are two scripts in the order you would say them. Print the 7 Wonders teach sheet and set it in the middle of the table. It covers both games on one page.

Before anyone sits down

Set up first, so the teach starts with the game ready.

• Sort the Age decks by player count and shuffle the guilds into Age III (players plus 2).
• Give out Wonder boards, Day side up, with 3 coins on each.
• Put the Description of Effects sheets where everyone can reach them. They explain every symbol, so you do not have to.

Minute 1: the goal

Say: “Each of you runs an ancient city. Over three rounds, called Ages, you build it one card at a time. Most points at the end wins.”

Point to the two players beside each person. “These two are your neighbors. You trade with them, you fight them, and you pass them cards. Everyone else at the table barely matters to you.”

Minutes 2 to 4: the loop

Deal 7 cards to everyone. Then:

1. “Look at your hand. Pick one card and put it face down.”
2. “When everyone is ready, we all flip at once. You can do one of three things with it: build it in your city, tuck it under your Wonder board to build the next stage, or sell it for 3 coins.”
3. “Then pass the rest of your hand. This Age, to the left.”

Then the one twist: “On the sixth turn you’ll have 2 cards. Play one, and the other is discarded.”

Minutes 5 and 6: paying

Hold up a card and point at its cost.

• “This costs one stone. Your board makes one resource, and brown and grey cards make more. You never use them up. They pay every turn.”
• “Don’t have it? Buy it from a neighbor for 2 coins. They can’t say no.”
• “See this little symbol? If you already built the card it points to, this one is free.”

Minutes 7 and 8: war and points

• “Red cards have shields. At the end of each Age, compare shields with each neighbor. Win and you get 1, 3, or 5 points, more in later Ages. Lose and you get minus 1.”
• “Blue cards are plain points. Green cards are science: collect matching symbols and sets of three different ones. The score pad does the math.”
• “Purple cards show up only in the last Age. Every 3 coins is a point.”

Minutes 9 and 10: play the first hand slowly

The rulebook has a good suggestion for a first game: reveal and play cards one player at a time, so everyone sees each action. Do that for the first two or three turns of Age I, then speed up to everyone at once.

What to leave out of the first teach

• Night sides. Day sides first.
• Every card effect. The sheets cover them, and they make sense when a card is in your hand.
• Guild details. Explain them when Age III is dealt.
• Strategy. One tip only: “Resources early make everything else cheaper.”

At the start of Age II, say it again: “This Age, pass to the right.” It is an easy rule to forget.

Teaching Duel in five minutes

Set up first, layout and all. For a first game, skip the Wonder draft and use the rulebook’s fixed sets: The Pyramids, The Great Lighthouse, The Temple of Artemis, and The Statue of Zeus for one player; Circus Maximus, Piraeus, The Appian Way, and The Colossus for the other. The box also has a helpsheet with every symbol on it.

Then say:

1. “This is 7 Wonders for two. Same card colors, same idea: build a city over three Ages.”
2. “We take turns. On your turn, take any card that nothing else is covering. Build it, sell it for coins, or use it to build one of your Wonders.”
3. “If you take a card and uncover a face-down one, flip it. Careful: whatever you uncover, I can take next.”
4. “Missing a resource? Buy it from the bank. It costs more if I make that resource.”
5. “There are three ways to win. Push this pawn into my capital with shields. Collect six different science symbols. Or have the most points after Age III.”

Stop there and start. Teach Progress tokens the first time someone makes a science pair, and the Military tokens the first time the pawn crosses a line.

Coaching during the first game

Help with costs and icons, not choices. “That card needs a glass; your neighbor makes one” is helpful. “Take the red card” is playing for them.

For bigger groups learning together, our guide to running a learn-to-play event covers teaching one game to a whole room.