7 Wonders Duel Rules

Challenge an opponent in 7 Wonders Duel to see which of you two will have the most amazing city. Learn the rules of this game to make your city the most militarily and scientifically advanced.

Contents of the Game

The 7 Wonders Duel game box contains:

1: 1 game board
2: 66 cards divided into 3 ages
3: 7 guild cards
4: 12 wonder cards
5: 4 military tokens
6: 10 scientific progress tokens
7: 1 conflict pawn
8: 31 coins of different values
9: a score book
10: a helpsheet

Goal of the Game

The goal of 7 Wonders Duel is to dominate your opponent, to triumph militarily or scientifically over them during the course of 3 ages.

Setup

• Arrange the game board between the two players.
• Place the 4 military tokens face up on their spaces.

• Place the conflict pawn on the neutral zone in the center of the board.

• Shuffle all the scientific progress tokens (green tokens) and randomly place 5 of them face up so that they’re visible on the game board.

• The rest of the green tokens will not be used during the current game.
• Each player receives 7 coins from the bank.

Selection of Wonder Cards

• Choose who’s to be the first player.
• Shuffle all 12 of the wonder cards.
• Place 4 of the wonder cards face up between the two players.
• The first player chooses 1 wonder.
• The second player chooses 2 wonders.
• The first player takes the last remaining wonder.
• Repeat these actions a second time, but this time the second player starts.
• Each player thus has 4 wonders that they will try to build during the game.

Setting Up the Age Cards

• The game takes place over 3 ages.
• The cards are placed on the table according to a layout that changes at each age.

• Before starting the game, randomly place 3 cards from each deck in the box (without seeing them).
• For age III, randomly draw 3 purple guild cards without looking at them beforehand.
• Add them to the age III deck and shuffle them.

Characteristics of an Age Card

• The age cards represent buildings. They consist of a name, an effect, and a construction cost.

• The colored area at the top of the card indicates what type of building it is and what effect it produces.

Brown cards: raw materials

Gray cards: manufactured goods

Blue cards: civilian buildings

Green cards: scientific buildings

Yellow cards: commercial buildings

Red cards: military buildings

Purple cards: guilds (used only during the third age)

• The construction cost of each card is at its bottom. (If the bottom of the card is empty, then the construction of this building does not require any resources.)

Note:

• In Age II, some buildings have, in addition to their normal cost, a free construction condition called “chaining”.
• It is possible to construct this building for free provided you have another building in your city with the corresponding symbol.

Characteristics of a Wonder Card

• Each one of the wonder cards represents a wonder of the ancient world.
• They are composed of a name, an effect, and a construction cost.

The first image constitutes the name, the second image the effect, and the third the construction cost.

• They function in the same way as the age cards, but cannot benefit from the principle of “chaining”.

Note: As soon as a player constructs the fourth wonder of their city, their opponent can only construct 3 more.

Gameplay

• The game starts with the 20 cards from age I, followed by the 20 cards from age II, and ends with the 20 cards from age III.
• Once the Age I cards are in place, the first player must choose a card from the available structures (i.e. not covered) and play it.
• One card can be played in 3 different ways: build it by paying its construction cost, discard it to gain coins, or use it to build a wonder.

Constructing a Building

• If the card is not free and if chaining isn’t possible, then you must pay its construction cost.
• If you have the necessary resources in your city, you can add the card to your city without discarding the used resource cards.

• If you do not have all the necessary resources, you can buy the missing resources from the bank.
• The price varies depending on whether or not your opponent has the resource you want.
• Each resource costs you 2 coins + 1 coin per symbol of the same resource produced by the opponent’s city.

Example:

-A stable card costs one wood, yet you have no wood.
-You therefore pay 2 coins.
-If your opponent has wood, then you must pay 1 more coin.

Receiving Coins by Discarding a Card

• Discard the card you don’t need and take 2 coins in exchange from the bank + 1 coin for each building in your city.
• Discarded cards are placed face down next to the game board and can be consulted at any time.

Constructing a Wonder

• Pay the cost of the wonder card (not the one of the age card).
• Place the age card face down under the wonder card partially covered.

• The age card has no effect, it is simply used to remind the players that the wonder has been constructed.

The Red Cards (Military)

• Each shield symbol present on a red card added to your city allows you to advance the conflict pawn one space towards the opponent’s capital.
• If a player brings the conflict pawn into an area containing a military token, their opponent immediately loses the number of coins indicated on the token.

• The token in question is immediately discarded.

The Progress Tokens (Green Tokens)

• Each time you collect two identical scientific symbols in your city, immediately take one of the 5 progress tokens from the game board.
• You now get to apply the token’s effect.
• You keep this token until the end of the game.

End of an Age

• Play in the fashion described above until the 20 cards of the current age have been played.
• Now prepare the structure of the next age with the corresponding cards.
• The player who has the weakest military (the conflict pawn is on their side) decides which player begins the next age.
• If the two players are tied militarily (the conflict pawn is exactly in the middle of the two players), the last player to have played gets to decide.

End of the Game

There are 3 ways to win a game of 7 Wonders Duel, they are as follows:

Military Victory

If the conflict pawn reaches the capital of a player, their opponent immediately wins the game with a military victory.

Scientific Victory

If a player succeeds in bringing together the 6 different scientific symbols, they immediately win the game with a brilliant scientific victory.

Civilian Victory

This is a victory that’s determined by counting the points of each player.

If the players reach the end of age III and neither of them was able to achieve a military or scientific victory, they start counting their points to find out who’s the winner.

The following are the points the players count:

• The military victory points according to the position of the conflict pawn.

• The victory points of the blue buildings.

• The victory points of the green buildings.

• The victory points of the yellow buildings.

• The victory points of the purple guilds.

• The victory points of the wonders that have been built.

• The victory points of the wonders.

• The points earned by the city’s treasury (each set of 3 coins earns 1 victory point).

The winner is the player who manages to obtain the most points by the end of age III.

In the event of a tie, the winner is the player who managed to have the most points on the blue buildings.

If there is still a tie, the two players share the victory!

Official rules in PDF

Explore the official 7 Wonders Duel rules in PDF.