7 Wonders

## Overview

*You are the leader of one of the 7 great cities of the Ancient World. Gather resources, develop commercial routes, and affirm your military supremacy - wait, that's the wrong game! If you ever wanted to play 7 Wonders, but actually wanted to play Smash Up, this is the faction for you!*

The minions and modifiers of this faction contain resource symbols, which are used to increase the power of your cards' abilities. Build the Wonders and increase the might of your empire!

### Details

#### General

* Name: 7 Wonders
* Author: LordMewtwo73
* Complexity: 4/5
* Last updated: February 01, 2023

#### Mechanics

* Resource Symbols
* Subtypes

### Breakdown

This faction has 10 minions and 10 actions, with 29 total minion power and an average minion power of 2.9. Out of their 10 minions, 7 minions have the Wonder subtype. Among their actions, they have:

* 3 play-on-minion actions: Brickyard, University, Training Ground
* 5 play-on-base actions: Town Hall (x2), Sawmill, Shelf Quarry, Chamber of Commerce
* 2 standard actions, 0 of which directly affect one or minions (in **bold**): Builders Guild (x2)
* 2 actions that directly increases a minion's power: Brickyard, Training Ground

### Minions (10)

* 1**x Colossus of Rhodes (4) - Wonder [Brick | Military | Military]:** You may destroy a minion here with power less than or equal to 1 plus the number of [Military] you have here. Ongoing: At the start of each turn, if you have three or more [Military] here, you may place a +1 power counter on this minion.
* **1x Statue of Zeus (3) - Wonder [Stone | Wood | Wood]:** You may play an extra minion of power 3 or less or an extra action.
* **1x Temple of Artemis (4) - Wonder [Stone | Gold | Gold]:** Talent: Look at a number of cards off the top of your deck equal to the number of [Gold] you have here. Reveal one and draw it, then shuffle the rest back into your deck.
* **1x Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (3) - Wonder [Wood | Brick | Brick]:** Ongoing: Once per turn, after you play another card here, you may return a random card from your discard pile to your hand. If the card you played has a [Brick], you may choose a card in your discard pile instead.
* **1x Lighthouse of Alexandria (2) - Wonder [Brick | Wood | Stone]:** Talent: Choose [Brick], [Wood], or [Stone]. This minion gains +1 power for each of the chosen symbol you have here until the end of the turn.
* **1x Great Pyramids of Giza (2) - Wonder [Brick | Stone | Stone]:** Talent: If you have three or more Wonders here, gain 1 VP. You may only use this ability once per game.
* **1x Hanging Gardens (2) - Wonder [Wood | Science | Science]:** Ongoing: At the start of your turn, you may return another one of your cards here to its owner's hand. If you returned a card with a [Science], you may play it as an extra card.
* **1x Apothecary (3) [Brick | Science]:** You may place a +1 power counter on another minion here. If you have two or more [Science] here, place an additional +1 power counter on that minion. Talent: Return this card to its owner's hand.
* **1x Fortifications (3) [Stone | Military]:** Place a +1 power counter on this minion for each of your other cards here with a [Military].
* **1x Tavern (3) [Wood | Gold]:** Special: Before this base scores, you may reveal cards off of the top of your deck equal to the number of [Gold] here. You may play one of them here as an extra card and discard the rest, otherwise draw all revealed cards.

### Actions (10)

* **2x Builders Guild:** Play a Wonder as an extra minion, OR search your deck for a Wonder and draw it, then you may play an extra action.
* **2x Town Hall:** Play on a base. Draw a card. Talent: Choose two different symbols. This card gains the chosen symbols until the start of your next turn.
* **1x Brickyard [Brick]:** Play on a minion. Ongoing: This minion has +1 power for each of your actions here. If you have three or more [Brick] here, this minion has an additional +2 power.
* **1x Sawmill [Wood]:** Play on a base. Talent: Discard a card to draw a card. If you have three or more [Wood] here, draw a card.
* **1x Shelf Quarry [Stone]:** Play on a base. Ongoing: Your minions here are not affected by other players' actions. If you have three or more [Stone] here, your cards here are not affected by other players' cards.
* **1x University [Science]:** Play on a minion. Choose a symbol. This minion gains that symbol until the start of your next turn. Talent: Return this card to its owner's hand.
* **1x Training Ground [Military]:** Play on a minion. Talent: Place a +1 power counter on this minion, OR if this minion has the most power here, draw a card. Ongoing: If you have two or more [Military] here, you may use both parts of this card's talent.
* **1x Chamber of Commerce [Gold]:** Play on a base. Talent: Choose [Brick], [Wood], or [Stone]. Reveal cards off the top of your deck until you reveal a card with the chosen symbol. Draw it and shuffle the rest of the revealed cards back into your deck.

### Bases

* **(25) Marketplace (5 3 2):** On your turn, you may place one of your cards here into its owner's discard pile to play a card here.
* **(21) Temple (4 2 1):** When this base scores, if there are exactly seven other cards here, the winner gains 1 VP.

## Clarifications

* **[Multiple cards]:** The symbols on a card can and do count for that card's abilities. For example, Temple of Artemis has two Gold symbols, so even without any other cards there, its ability would allow you to look at the top two cards of your deck.
* **Colossus of Rhodes:** The Ongoing occurs at the start of every turn, including your opponents' turns!
* **Great Pyramids of Giza:** You can only use this ability once per game, even if you copy the ability to another minion with a card like Potion of Redundancy Potion. Another player can use this ability even after you have used it, but they can also only use it once per game.
* **Fortifications:** This minion gets a +1 power counter for each card with a Military symbol, not each Military symbol.
* **Tavern:** After revealing the cards, you may choose to play one of them. If you choose not to, you draw all revealed cards.
* **Builders Guild:** The extra action is contained in the second part of the OR ability.
* **Training Ground:** Using both parts of the card's talent works the same as using the Fairy titan's ability. Treat the "OR" as if it said "and" instead.

## Strategy

### General

Similar to 7 Wonders, this faction wants to build up your civilization, and specializing in something is more powerful than being a jack of all trades. Try to load up cards with the same symbols on one base to maximize the value you can get from their abilities. Use cards like *Builders Guild*, *Temple of Artemis*, and *Chamber of Commerce* to search for cards with the symbols you need; otherwise, cards like *Town Hall* and *University* can give you useful symbols in a pinch. Chain extra plays with *Builders Guild* and *Statue of Zeus* to burst out big plays and take advantage of your resource symbols!

### Partner Suggestions

The resource symbols make 7 Wonders a fairly insular faction, with enough power to win bases on their own. They're best matched with a support faction, capable of drawing lots of cards and giving extra plays. This allows for the best of the 7 Wonders to shine through, rather than having to compete with their partner faction for plays. They also have a greater than average number of play-on-base actions, opening up combos with other similarly-focused factions.

#### Published

* **Steampunk:** A high quantity of play-on-base action recursion allows you to continuously retrieve useful cards like *Town Hall*, which can keep your symbol abilities active, or *Chamber of Commerce*, which can search for cards you need.
* **Zombies:** Since 7 Wonders has 10 unique minions, it is easy to draw the wrong minions at the wrong time. Zombies allow you to retrieve your minions from earlier in the game so you can play them again for extra value.
* **Killer Plants:** *Sprouts* can find 5 of the 7 Wonders, as well as all thre non-Wonder minions. Killer Plants also give consistent draw power with *Water Lily* and multiple actions that give extra minion plays. *Killer Kudzu* provides some useful minion recursion, allowing you to squeeze out extra value from your best Wonders.

## Author Notes

* This faction uses the Possum Saltare NF font (though the dots in the Os were hand-placed!)
* Every card name is either a Wonder or regular card in 7 Wonders or 7 Wonders Duel. The art is also all from 7 Wonders cards.
* LordMewtwo73 has only played the original 7 Wonders once, and he wasn't a fan. He much prefers 7 Wonders Duel for a competitive game, or 7 Wonders Architects for a casual game with friends.
* This faction was created as part of the Board Game Bonanza custom collaboration.
* The bases for this faction were created by Jim Price, designer of Erudia: Battle of Birthrights.

## Artist Credits

Miguel Coimbra

*Note: These images were found through Google. If your art appears in these cards and you would not like it to, or if your art is uncredited (as for some images I could not find the source), please contact me through discord (user: lordmewtwo73) and I will be happy to square that away for you!*