7 Wonders

7 Wonders Overview

7 Wonders is about ancient history.  Your goal is to accumulate points by building the wonder that you have been given, increase science of your civilization, war, culture, and coins.  At the start of the game, you are given a board that is an ancient wonder of the world that can be completed in 3 phases, a resource that corresponds to the wonder and some coins.

The game has 3 ages, in each age, players are given a deck of cards and they choose a card to play and then pass the rest of the deck to the person beside them.  All the players will then reveal the card they wish to use at once. Players can buy resources off the people directly beside them using coins.  These game mechanics allow for each player to feel like it is always their turn, which helps everyone stay engaged.  It also ensures the that the game runs for around 45 minutes no matter what the player count is (as long as you don’t have to refer to the player manual too often).

How to play in class (Difficulty: Hard)

Since the game lasts 45 minutes, you can run this game in one class.  To run the game, I would play the game with 5 students in the class before the day they play the game.  This will allow those students to run the game, you can assess them on an observation rubric to help with triangulation in your classroom.

The game plays 2-7 players. 2-3 players feels forced so the higher player counts help the game stay engaging.  I wouldn’t pair students for each player to increase the amount of students per game since the board is pretty busy and the discussion that players may have will slow down the flow of the game.  The game could also run as a carousel with other games/ activities.

I don’t suggest playing this game over a document camera, there is way too much happening in the playing area to be able to run the game.

Courses you may consider for this game

• Building and Urban Planning
• World History
• Travel and Tourism
• Classical Civilization

Assessments Exemplars

• Grade 11 Travel and Tourism: A Geographic Perspective
  • 7 Wonders CGG3O Assignment
• Grade 12 World Geography: Urban Patterns and Population Issues
  • 7 Wonders CGU4M Assignment
• Grade 12 Classical Civilization
  • 7 Wonders LVV4U Assignment