7 Wonders Duel Rules: Setup, Turns, Ways to Win
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7 Wonders Duel at a glance
- Players
- 2
- Play time
- 30 min
- Age
- 10+
- Complexity
- Medium
- Mode
- Competitive
- Publisher · Year
- Repos Production · 2015
- Works for
- 2 players
- Less suited to
- 3 or more players, Under 10
7 Wonders Duel is a card game for exactly 2 players, ages 10 and up. A game takes about 30 minutes. Over 3 ages you take cards from a shared layout to build your city and your wonders. You can win on the spot by military or science, or by points after Age 3.
This guide follows the Repos Production rulebook. It covers the wonder draft, the 3 things a card can do, trading costs and all 3 ways to win, with a full final score.
How do you set up 7 Wonders Duel?
- Put the board between you with the conflict pawn on the center space.
- Place the 4 military tokens on their spaces, face up.
- Shuffle the 10 progress tokens. Put 5 face up on the board and return the rest to the box.
- Each player takes 7 coins from the bank.
- Draft the wonders (below).
- Prepare the Age 1 deck: remove 3 cards unseen, then lay out the other 20 in the Age 1 pattern.
How does the wonder draft work?
Shuffle the 12 wonders and reveal 4. The first player picks 1, the second player picks 2, and the first player takes the last one. Reveal 4 more. This time the second player picks 1, the first player picks 2, and the second player takes the last. Each of you now has 4 wonders.
Only 7 wonders can be built in a game. When the 7th is built, the last unbuilt wonder goes back to the box.
How are the 3 ages laid out?
Each age uses 20 cards in its own shape. Age 1 is a pyramid, Age 2 is an upside-down pyramid and Age 3 is a taller shape. Some rows are face down. You may only take a card that no other card overlaps. When a face-down card is uncovered, flip it up at once.
For Age 3, remove 3 Age 3 cards and add 3 guild cards drawn at random from the 7 guilds. That keeps the deck at 20.
What can you do with a card?
On your turn you take 1 accessible card and do exactly 1 of these:
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Construct the building | Pay its cost and put it in your city |
| Discard for coins | Take 2 coins, plus 1 more for each yellow card in your city |
| Construct a wonder | Pay the wonder's cost and tuck the card under it |
Some buildings show a chain symbol. If your city already has the building with that symbol, you build the new one for free.
Some wonders have a replay symbol. Building one gives you a second turn right away.
How much do resources cost?
You pay a card's resource cost with your own brown and grey cards. If you're short, buy the missing units from the bank.
Each unit costs 2 coins, plus 1 coin for every unit of that resource your opponent makes with brown or grey cards. Yellow cards can fix some prices at 1 coin.
Say you need 2 stone and have none. Your opponent's brown cards make 1 stone. Each stone costs 2 + 1 = 3 coins, so you pay 6. If your opponent made 2 stone, you would pay 8.
What are the three ways to win?
Military supremacy
Each red shield moves the conflict pawn 1 space toward your opponent's capital. If it reaches the capital, you win immediately. On the way, the pawn crosses 2 military tokens. Your opponent loses 2 coins at the first and 5 at the second.
Scientific supremacy
There are 7 science symbols on green cards. Collect 6 different ones and you win immediately. Each time you hold a pair of the same symbol, you take 1 of the progress tokens on the board.
Civilian victory
If nobody wins by military or science, the game ends after the last card of Age 3. Count victory points. Most points wins. A tie goes to the player with more points from blue cards. If that's tied too, you share the win.
Who starts Age 2 and Age 3?
The player who is behind on the military track chooses who starts the next age. If the pawn sits in the center, the player who took the last card of the previous age chooses.
How does final scoring work?
| Source | Points |
|---|---|
| Military track | 0, 2, 5 or 10, by the pawn's zone |
| Blue, green, yellow and guild cards | As printed |
| Wonders | As printed |
| Progress tokens | As printed |
| Coins | 1 point per full set of 3 coins |
A worked example
Sam ends with 18 points from blue cards, 6 from green, 3 from yellow and 4 from a guild. Sam's wonders score 12 and one progress token scores 4. The pawn sits in Sam's 5-point zone. Sam holds 11 coins, which is 3 full sets of 3, so 3 points. That's 18 + 6 + 3 + 4 + 12 + 4 + 5 + 3 = 55.
Is there a solo or team mode?
The base rulebook is for exactly 2 players. It prints no solo mode and no team mode, so we don't describe one here.
How does it compare?
| Game | Players | Play time | Age | Complexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Wonders Duel | 2 | 30 min | 10+ | Medium |
| Backgammon | 2 | Varies | Not printed | Light |
| Carcassonne | 2–5 | 30–45 min | 7+ | Light |
Backgammon is a pure race with dice. Carcassonne at 2 is calm and open. 7 Wonders Duel has no dice and gives you the most decisions per turn of the three. For more 2-player options, see our card games for 2 players.
What do Pantheon and Agora add?
Pantheon adds gods from 5 mythologies that you can invoke during Age 2 and Age 3. Agora adds a senate where you place politicians to control 6 chambers. Both need the base game. Pantheon is the one most players add first.
If you like 7 Wonders Duel, try these
For another 2-player classic, read our backgammon rules. For a calm tile game that also plays well at 2, try Carcassonne. Everything else is in our board games section.
Sources
- Repos Production, 7 Wonders Duel rulebook (current printing)
- Repos Production, 7 Wonders Duel game page (players, age, play time)
- U.S. Backgammon Federation, Backgammon Basics
- Hans im Glück and Z-Man Games, Carcassonne rulebook (current edition)
How we check rules and build the intro card: our methodology.