For teachers
Take e-course for free logo of ensoed

7 Wonders

45 min | Team | Board game Activate Resources Initiative

6hats

The Challenge

Each participant in the Ancient World has to gather resources, develop commercial routes, affirm their military supremacy, build the city and erect an architectural wonder which will transcend future times through three eras.

Resource management is very important in this game because each resource structure played is a point-giving structure.

List of required equipment

Use the official 7 Wonders board game created by Antoine Bauza and published by Repos Production OR register to www.boardgamearena.com to play online.

Max. number of players is 7.

What can students learn from this?

Through the Ancient World ages, the students have to develop a strategy in order to collect and combine different resources that will allow them to empower their city and build their wonders.

There is in fact any specific strategy to win and each player is responsible for developing their own strategy and making decisions on how to collect and use resources based on goals they plan and on the resources they are able/lucky to gather.

It is a 30 minutes case study where the students obtain what they want or need when every other player is trying to do the same thing, but the key is controlling resources and making a strategy to win.

How can I do this in class?

7 Wonders lasts three ages. Players have individual boards with special powers on which to organize their cards.

In each age, players receive seven cards from a particular deck, choose one of those cards, then pass the remainder to an adjacent player. Cards are passed left-right-left over the three ages, so that the player needs to keep an eye on the neighbors in both directions.

Players reveal their cards simultaneously, paying resources if needed or collecting resources or interacting with other players in various ways.

Some cards have immediate effects, while others provide bonuses or upgrades later in the game. Some cards provide discounts on future purchases.

Some provide military strength to overpower your neighbors and others give nothing but victory points.

Each card is played immediately after being drafted, so one player will know which cards his/her neighbor is receiving and how these choices might affect what it has been already built up.

Each player then chooses another card from the deck they were passed, and the process repeats until players have six cards in play from that age.

After three ages, the game ends.

In order to organise this game in class:

  1. If using the board game, it is possible to create 7 couples of students to play together following the rules and instructions.
  2. If using the online version on www.boardgamearena.com you can organise with students different tournaments where winners have to play with other winners.

Reflection tips

BEFORE THE GAME

  • Be sure that the teacher has fully understood the rules
  • Take time with all students to clearly explain all the rules. A trial run before starting can be useful to become confident with all cards and their powers and with the game dynamics.

AFTER THE GAME

This game is about delicate balances and efficiency of resources: students need to have just enough resources as possible to build the structures they need at the right times.

Therefore, ask the students about:

  • The decision-making process they applied in order to choose/discard the card
  • The planned goals at the end of each Age
  • The resource management strategy adopted to choose the “Resources” cards in Age I
  • The cost/benefit of gathering as many resources as possible in Age I
  • The impact of other players’ resource management strategy
  • The change/adaptation of initial strategy from Age I to Age III

Relevant useful material

GreekDutchEnglishFrenchGermanItalianRomanianSpanish