Recently, the website Paste published a list of the 25 best board games of the 2010s. The list was filled with reminders that my own taste in games is far afield from that of others in the hobby, but no reminder was as stark as the number one game. Antoine Bauza’s 7 Wonders, originally published in 2010, has become a perennial favorite, but it doesn’t do much for me at all. I like the idea of a very light civilization game, but it pulls back too many layers for my taste. In spite of some clever mechanisms, to me the actual play of the game is sorely lacking. There are numerous ways to score points, but none of the cards really do anything besides score points. The result is a civilization game that feels bloodless and neutered. When a two-player version co-designed with Bruno Cathala was published in 2015, I was understandably skeptical.
But to my surprise, 7 Wonders Duel improved on its big brother in just about every way possible. It made good on the promise of a stripped down civilization experience by tweaking the card draft and adding some new ways to win the game. The response was positive enough that it’s proven to be a hit in its own right. (Tellingly, it also placed in the Top 10 on Paste’s list.) There were always strengths to the design of 7 Wonders, but now those flourishes are in service of a much richer experience that still doesn’t feel overwhelming.
The original 7 Wonders did have a two-player variant, but that was never its niche. While it could function with groups of 3-4, my experience with it was always with groups of 6-7 players. This has no doubt contributed to my antipathy to the game, because while it plays 7 players smoothly, it’s so frictionless that it disappears completely. In the interest of creating a more robust two-player experience, Duel rethinks the original game’s card draft. Now instead of passing a hand of cards back and forth, a series of cards are set out in the beginning of every round, randomized but in a set shape. Half of the cards in every round begin the game face down, and are only revealed when the cards that cover them are drafted.
This changes the draft considerably, making it a much more interesting decision than it ever was in the original game. Both players know the same information, so it’s easier to think a few moves ahead toward what your opponent might want. The face-down cards are the most interesting element here, because they make you think twice about taking a card you really need. There’s always the chance that you might uncover a card your opponent really needs, so timing those reveals becomes a consideration. While card drafting can be used well in a design, 7 Wonders Duel finds a much more interesting implementation than its predecessor.
While most games of 7 Wonders Duel amount to scoring after three rounds, this version adds a couple of new ways to win. The first is a science victory. The science cards each have an icon on them representing a different technology, and if you collect six of them you win automatically. There is a similar approach to military. Whenever a player gains military might it moves a little shield along a track. If the shield ever reaches one end of the track, that spells victory for the player who pushed it there.
No design decision has as big an impact as these new victory conditions. They provide a new decision point that wasn’t present in the original game. Now you need to monitor how close your opponent is to one of these victories. Single-minded focus on your own economic engine can easily result in an easy victory for your opponent if they push toward military. A science victory is harder to pull off, but it still shapes the decision-making process. More importantly these strategies add some much-needed thematic flavor to the 7 Wonders formula. Military in the original game was a value calculated relatively with your immediate neighbors, and only ever resulted in some extra points. Science had its own squirrely scoring system that I always found a little too convoluted for what was ostensibly an easy game. But neither felt very distinct, just another way to score points. Here they do feel distinct from each other, and up the stakes by providing a way to auto-win. Even without victory, the provide a material impact within the game. Military success will cause your opponent to lose money, and science cards can be used to gain the use of specific powers that can be a game-changer.
Duel’s success ensured expansion content, and the Pantheon expansion is worth exploring for anyone who liked the original game. It adds the ability to call upon various pantheons of gods, who will then provide powerful abilities to the players. It does gum up the smooth play of the original game a bit, and it makes the game swingier. I am not wild about the first change, but the increased variability in scoring makes this a nice change for people who have played the base game a lot. Co-designer Bruno Cathala has always had a propensity for cards with special player powers, and this is on full display here. Pantheon is hardly necessary to get the most out of the game, but it’s still a worthy addition.
Truthfully, although I much prefer 7 Wonders Duel to the original, it has softened my attitude toward a game I have disliked for years. There is a lot of clever design at the heart of 7 Wonders Duel that was there from the beginning. Perhaps the most impressive design feat is its sheer accessibility, which Duel maintains in spite of a couple of wrinkles. Like many games these days, my 9-year-old is my primary opponent for this game, and it’s generated in him an interest in civilization games of all stripes. Both games deal with resource production, trade, and wonders in a way that keeps everything clean and simple, while still generating some good decision points. Duel also maintains the high production quality and intuitive graphic design that made the original so accessible. Any successful game will generate alternate versions, and Duel is a great case to be made for this practice. Anyone who liked the original game will almost certainly like Duel, and those who were skeptics might find themselves won over by this smaller, better version.
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