7 Wonders (board game)

This expansion introduces the white-backed leader cards, which can be recruited to aid a player's city. The 36 leader cards are based on real historical figures or legends: Amytis, Alexander, Archimedes, Aristotle, Bilkis, Caesar, Cleopatra, Croesus, Euclid, Hammurabi, Hannibal, Hatshepsut, Hiram, Hypatia, Imhotep, Justinian, Leonidas, Maecenas, Midas, Nebuchadnezzar, Nefertiti, Nero, Pericles, Phidias, Plato, Praxiteles, Ptolemy, Pythagoras, Ramesses, Sappho, Solomon, Tomyris, Varro, Vitruvius, Xenophon, and Zenobia. A brief biography of each leader is featured in the rulebook.

Playing with the Leaders expansion changes the game mechanic, as the second thing done in the game after choosing a Wonder board is to choose leaders. Four leader cards are dealt to each player, and the cards are drafted. At the start of each Age, players may recruit one leader, paying its coin cost and putting it into play. To compensate for this extra expense, with the Leaders expansion, players start with six coins instead of three. As with the Age cards, instead of recruiting a leader, a player may choose to discard the card to gain three coins or build a Wonder stage with it.

The leaders grant various abilities, including additional means of gaining victory points, resources, or coins, resource cost reductions, commerce benefits, additional shields, and scientific symbols. For example, the "Caesar" card grants two shields and "Midas" grants one extra victory point per three coins held at the end of the game.

The expansion comes with four additional guild cards and one extra Wonder board – the Colosseum of Rome, which grants abilities related to the new leader cards.

The Cities expansion introduces nine city cards (with a black background) to each of the Age card decks. The number of city cards that are shuffled into each age's deck is equal to the number of players. This means that each age now consists of seven play of cards.

The city cards can have quite an impact on gameplay, as many of them are more powerful but expensive versions of existing cards; for example, the Age III "Contingent" card provides five shields as opposed to the three provided by Age III red cards. The cards also introduce some new concepts such as diplomacy, which allows a player to avoid military conflict for one Age, and monetary loss, which forces the player's opponents to either pay coins to the bank or lose victory points if they cannot or will not pay.

The addition of city cards takes the total number of cards playable in each age to 56. This means that eight-player games – or team games with four teams of two – are possible. In the team game, partners are allowed to see each other's cards and discuss which ones to play, and the effect of diplomacy is modified.

The Cities expansion also contains three new guild cards, six leader cards (Aspasia, Berenice, Caligula, Darius, Diocletian, Semiramis), and two Wonder boards (the Hagia Sophia of Byzantium and Al Khazneh of Petra). Many of these new additions have abilities specific to city cards or to the new concepts introduced.

This expansion adds four Wonder boards: Abu Simbel, the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge, and the Manneken Pis of Brussels (the hometown of the game's creators).

Babel consists of two expansions that can be added separately or together. The first expansion is Tower of Babel, in which players can choose to construct the tower. By discarding a card, players can place a tile on the tower that affects play (for example, taxing the construction of Wonders or granting a monetary bonus for building certain cards) until it is covered by a subsequent tile. Players score points for the number of tiles they play. The second expansion is Great Projects of Babel. A building of a certain color is put into play. Whenever a player plays a card of the same color, they may choose to pay a cost to participate in the building of the Great Project. If the project succeeds, all players who participated get a reward, and non-participants get nothing. If the project fails, participants get nothing and non-participants receive a penalty.

These expansions add new Leaders cards and new Cities cards, with new effects. The new Leaders are all powerful women of history: Aganice, Agrippina, Arsinoe, Cornelia, Cynisca, Enheduanna, Eurypyle, Gorgo, Makeda, Nitocris, Octavia, Phryne, Roxana, Telesilla, and Theano.

Armada adds a naval board for each player and four ships: red, blue, yellow, and green. When playing a card of one of these colors, players may pay an additional cost to advance the corresponding ship along the board. Advancing each ship grants different bonuses: the red ship grants naval strength, which is compared to all players at the end of the Age, not just neighbors; the yellow ship grants money; the blue ship grants victory points; and the green ship allows players to discover islands, which grant extra bonuses.

The second edition of 7 Wonders was released in 2020. The graphics, wonders in the base game, and cards cost and chains were slightly modified. Most notably in the base game, the Strategists' Guild was replaced by the Decorator's Guild, which grants 7 points if all of a player's wonder steps are built by the end of the game. Olympia and Babylon received the biggest changes in terms of abilities. Leaders, Cities, and Armada also received changes in the second edition in terms of graphics and abilities.

7 Wonders: Duel is a two player version of 7 Wonders in which players alternate drafting from an overlapping pyramid of cards.[5] A version of the game for iOS and Android was released by Repos Digital in 2019.[6] An Ars Technica review stated that "[the] game's three win conditions—civilian, scientific, and military—ensure that you're always juggling several plates, and the whole thing plays like a lightning-quick, board-less match of Civilization".[7] The game also appeared on a New York Times list, with the reviewers praising its multiple ways of victory, the game arc, complexity, replayability, and strategy, but was criticised for its difficult learning curve.[8] Dicebreaker also considered it to be one of the best card drafting games.[9] IGN considered it to be superior to the original, and was complimentary to the new draft system.[10]

The expansion to 7 Wonders: Duel added new abilities to the game via a rotating pantheon of gods, as well as two new wonders.[11]

Adds a Senate with new play mechanics based on new senator and "conspirator" cards. The expansion includes two new tokens and two new Wonders based on this while introducing a new "political victory".

• Messe Essen (2015)
• Statue of Liberty (2016)
• Stonehenge (2017)
• Sagrada Familia (2018)

A whole new game based on multiple decks and wonders of different bits and pieces which the players construct.[12] The publishers stated that it was more family-friendly than its predecessor but still deep enough for "gamers" to enjoy.[13] The game was recommended for the 2022 Spiel des Jahres.[14]