Rules
This is a plain-language summary written for this app, not a copy of the printed rulebook. It covers enough to play and to understand the score sheet. For full rules and edge cases, read the official rulebook from the publisher.
Goal of the game
Each player leads one of seven ancient cities, building structures and wonder stages over three ages. At the end of the third age, points from every category are added up and the highest total wins.
How a round works
Each age deals a hand of cards to every player. Everyone chooses one card from their hand at the same time, plays it, and passes the rest of the hand to a neighbor: left in age I and III, right in age II. This repeats until the hand runs out, so every card that was ever in your hand passes through your view once.
Playing a card means one of three things: build it if you can afford its cost, build the next stage of your wonder using it as the payment, or discard it for three coins from the bank.
Wonder boards
Each player has a wonder board with its own resource, its own stages, and its own bonus per stage. Building a stage means paying the cost printed on that stage and tucking a card from your hand under the board, whose own cost and effect are ignored. Stages are built in order.
A completed stage can grant points, coins, a military shield, resources, or a special ability, depending on the wonder and the stage.
Resources and production
Seven resources exist: wood, stone, clay, ore, glass, loom, and papyrus. Brown and grey cards, and some wonder stages, produce resources for free every turn. You always have your own production available.
A structure that costs resources you do not produce can be bought from a direct neighbor who does produce them, paying that neighbor 2 coins per unit, or 1 with a matching trading post or marketplace. You can never buy from the far side of the table.
Coins
Everyone starts with 3 coins, more with Leaders or Cities (see the setup guide). Coins come from discarding a card, from yellow commercial structures, from some wonder stages, and from a few card effects. Coins are spent buying resources and never expire; they also count directly toward your final score.
Military conflict
Red military structures give shields. At the end of each age, every player compares total shields with each direct neighbor separately. The side with more shields wins a victory token for that comparison (worth more in later ages); the side with fewer takes a defeat token worth -1. Equal shields means no token either way.
Science
Green structures show one of three symbols: compass, gear, or tablet. At the end of the game, identical symbols are squared (1 symbol = 1 point, 2 = 4, 3 = 9, and so on), and 7 points are added for every complete set of all three different symbols. A few effects grant a wild symbol that counts as whichever type helps you most.
Guilds
Purple guild cards only appear in age III. Each guild scores points based on cards your direct neighbors (or sometimes you) have built, such as points per brown and grey card, per military card, or per wonder stage.
Final scoring
Add up: wonder stage points, treasury (1 point per 3 coins held), military tokens, civilian blue points, guild points, and the science total. The highest sum wins; ties are broken by remaining coins.
- Blue civilian structures: printed points, no other condition.
- Yellow commercial structures: mostly coins during the game, a few give points.
- Brown and grey cards never score points directly; they only produce resources.
Expansions
Leaders
Adds a fourth card type: leaders. Before age I each player gets four leader cards and drafts them, keeping one and passing the rest, until everyone holds four. Each age opens with a leader turn: recruit one leader by paying its cost in coins, use it to build a wonder stage, or discard it for three coins.
Leaders grant a wide range of one-time or ongoing effects: extra income, cheaper construction, bonus points, or an ability that changes how you draft or build.
Cities
Adds black cards, debt tokens, diplomacy tokens and two new wonders. Some black cards make every other player lose coins; a player who cannot or will not pay takes debt tokens instead, one negative point each at the end of the game.
A diplomacy token keeps you out of the next military conflict: your two neighbors then compare shields with each other instead.
Armada
Adds a shipyard board per player with four fleets, one per card color, that advance as you build. At the end of each age, naval conflict compares strength across the whole table, not only with neighbors: the strongest fleets score, the weakest takes a defeat token.
Edifice
Adds one shared edifice project per age. When you build a wonder stage you may also pay the project's cost to place a participation pawn on it. Once enough pawns are placed the project is built: participants get its reward and every other player takes its penalty.
This page is a summary in our own words, not the official rulebook. For full rules and edge cases, see https://www.rprod.com/en/games/7-wonders