Is 7 Wonders Duel good for kids? Age and difficulty

How do you set up 7 Wonders Duel?

Checked against the Repos Production English rulebook for 7 Wonders Duel (US version, 2015). Page numbers are the printed numbers; the cover is unnumbered and the welcome page is page 2.

1. Put the board between the two players. Put the Conflict pawn on the middle space and the 4 Military tokens face up on their spaces (page 6).
2. Shuffle the 10 Progress tokens. Put 5 at random face up on the board and put the other 5 in the box (page 6).
3. Each player takes 7 coins from the bank (page 6).
4. For each of the three Age decks, put 3 cards in the box without looking. Then draw 3 Guild cards at random without looking, add them to the Age III deck, and put the other Guilds in the box (page 7).
5. Choose a first player. Shuffle the 12 Wonders and lay out 4. The first player takes 1, the second player takes 2, and the first player takes the last. Lay out 4 more and repeat, but the second player starts. Each of you ends with 4 Wonders, in a column on your left (page 7).
6. First game only: skip the Wonders selection. Player 1 takes the Pyramids, the Great Lighthouse, the Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus. Player 2 takes Circus Maximus, Piraeus, the Appian Way and the Colossus (page 7).
7. Shuffle the Age I deck and lay out 20 cards in its shape, some face up and some face down. The shapes are pictured on page 20. The first player begins Age I (pages 10 and 20).

How do you teach 7 Wonders Duel to kids?

The box says 10 and up. We suggest 9 and up with an adult helping, and 10 and up on their own. It is a two-player game only (page 2).

Say this

1. We each build a city. A city is the buildings and Wonders we put in front of us.
2. The game has three Ages. Each Age has its own deck of 20 cards laid out in a shape.
3. On your turn, take a card that is not covered by other cards. You can build it, throw it away for coins, or use it to build one of your Wonders.
4. To build something you need its resources or coins. Resources are never used up, so what you make works every turn. If you are missing one, you can buy it from the bank.
5. There are three ways to win. Push the army pawn all the way to the other player's capital. Or collect 6 different science symbols. Or have more points after Age III.

The rulebook suggests one thing for a first game: use the Wonders it lists and skip the Wonders selection (page 7). It has no other beginner variant, so the rest below are house rules.

First-game simplifications

• Official variant Use the set Wonders for each player and skip the selection (page 7).
• House rule Let a grown-up work out the coin price for any missing resource the first few times, and say it aloud.
• House rule Let a grown-up read out what each new card does the first time it comes up, and keep your buildings sorted by colour in front of you (page 10).

Watch-outs for kids ages 9 to 10

• You can only take a card that is not partly covered. After you play it, flip any cards that are now uncovered (page 10).
• Resources are not spent when you build. Your production counts every turn for the whole game (page 8).
• Buying a missing resource costs 2 coins plus the number of that resource your opponent makes with brown and grey cards. The coins go to the bank, not to your opponent (page 8).
• If you have the building named by the white symbol in a card's cost, you build the card free (page 9).
• Building a Wonder uses the Wonder's cost, not the card's. The card goes face down under the Wonder and does nothing else (page 11).
• Only 7 Wonders can be built in the whole game. When the 7th is built, the last one goes back in the box (page 11).
• You win at once if the army pawn reaches the other capital, or if you collect 6 different science symbols, even in the middle of an Age (pages 12 and 13).

Back for another game?

• Setup: board, pawn on the middle space, 4 Military tokens, 5 random Progress tokens, 7 coins each, Wonders chosen in two rounds of four (pages 6 and 7).
• Each Age: shuffle that deck, lay out 20 cards in the Age's shape, some face down. The player with the weaker army picks who starts the next Age. If the pawn is in the middle, the last player to play a card picks (pages 10 and 11).
• Your turn, take an uncovered card and either build it, discard it for 2 coins plus 1 per yellow card you have, or use it to build a Wonder (page 10).
• Costs: free, coins to the bank, resources, or coins and resources. A missing resource costs 2 plus the number your opponent makes with brown and grey cards (pages 8 and 9).
• Army: each shield moves the Conflict pawn one space toward the opposing capital. Entering a new zone triggers its Military token (page 12).
• Science: a pair of identical symbols lets you take a Progress token. Six different symbols win at once (page 12).
• After Age III: add military points, building points, Wonder points, Progress points and 1 point per 3 coins. Most points wins. A tie goes to the player with more points from blue cards, and a tie after that is shared (page 13).

How do you score 7 Wonders Duel?

If nobody won by army or science during the three Ages, add up five things: military points, points on your buildings (blue, green, yellow and purple cards), points on your Wonders, points from Progress tokens, and 1 point for each complete set of 3 coins (page 13). The board shows how many military points your side of the pawn is worth, so read it there; the rulebook says only that it is 0, 2, 5 or 10 (page 13). Most points wins. If you tie, the player with more points from blue cards wins, and if that ties too, you share the win (page 13). Blue cards are counted in their own box here so the tie-break is ready.