7 Wonders: a teaching aid - v1

Feedback and suggestions are appreciated - eadred on BoardGameGeek. Frequently forgotten rules/tips are are bolded.

[Assign 3 coins and wonder boards, turn to side A.] [Prepare decks, put guilds to one side.] In 7 Wonders, you win the
game by having the most points at the end. There are many ways to score points.

There are 3 Ages in the game. At the beginning of each Age, you will receive a hand of 7 cards. You will select a card, and
put it facedown on your board. When everyone has done this, you all use your card at the same time. There are 3 ways to
use your card. I will explain this in a moment.

Once this has been done, everyone passes all the cards in their hand (rst clockwise - indicate to arrow on back of Age I
deck). You do the same thing again, this time you have a choice of 6 cards. Eventually, you will have a choice of 2 cards,
and then you will choose one and discard one, face down. So you will use 6 cards in an Age.

The rst, and most common thing you do with a card is build it. You turn it over, pay any cost in the top left, and put it near
your board. Important: you can never build two buildings with the same name.

Brown cards provide you with a resource that you can use in future turns, to pay a cost. When you use it, it is spent for
that turn, but it doesnt go away. You can use it again next turn. Grey cards provide you with rare resources. When you
build a brown or grey card, put in the corner of your wonder board. [Demonstrate building a free building, a building with
resources you have, and building with the help of a neighbour.] Neighbours cannot refuse use of their goods, and they can
still use them themselves. You may only use brown and grey cards that your neighbour has, and only if you pay 2 coins
per resource. Note: there are no cards producing resources in Age III.

Yellow cards do a mixture of things. [Demonstrate Tavern, Trading Post, and Forum.] If a card ever gives you coins, you
take the coins immediately.

Sometimes, with cards of any colour, you will see alternative building cost in the top left. This means you can either pay
the resource cost, or you can have it for free if you have the prerequisite building. [Demonstrate with Trading Post and
Forum.] If a card lets you build something for free later in the game, it tells you this in the bottom right. This is chaining.

Blue cards give victory points at the end of the game - the laurel wreath logo means points in this game.

Green cards give victory points at the end of the game. 7 points for each set of 3 different symbols, plus the square of the
number of each symbol. [Demonstrate, and check understanding.]

Red cards are military cards, and each sword and shield icon is one military power. At the end of each Age, you compare
your military power to your two neighbours. If you lose, you gain -1vp token. If you draw, nothing happens. If you win, you
get a +1, +3, or +5 token depending on the Age. [Demonstrate.]

[Explain that purple cards, guilds, appear in Age III and can be explained before that Age.]

So, when you select your card, one of the things you can do is build it, if you dont already have a card of that name. You
will be doing this most of the time.

The second thing you can do is use it to build a stage of your wonder. You build from left to right, always. You must be
able to pay the cost. You take the card, but dont turn it over, and place it underneath. You have now built that stage, and
you get the corresponding bonus. You can build any stage of your wonder in any Age, as long as you do it in the right
order. As you can see, your wonder might give you points at the end of the game.

The third thing you can do with a card is discard it face down to get 3 coins.

You score 1 point for every 3 coins left over at the end of the game. There is a reference sheet that anyone can look at if
they want an explanation of any icons. Note that a resource printed on a wonder board is not considered to be a card.

[Any questions?] [Start play.] [Explain guilds before Age III. There are 10, n+2 will be in play, where n is the player count.]