1
Other Games / article: a diversity strategy for 7 Wonders (cross-post with BGG)
« on: January 28, 2014, 02:59:38 pm »
(I went to type up some notes for a friend and realized I might as well write an article on how I play 7 Wonders. This article doesn't get into any expansions in particular but holds well for any combination of the game, I think.)
Generally, the diversity strategy is based around the idea that in Age III, a successful strategy will be able to use many different kinds of cards to generate maximum points per turn.
The key goal of this strategy, then, is to develop a tableau (my word for the sum of all your built cards and stages) that will be able to make use of military and science in Age III so you are not limited to blue and purple cards to generate points. I focus on Age III because it’s when most of the points are earned; at least some part of Age II and most of Age I should be focussed on developing a position that will allow you to exploit Age III. (I think this should be true of most strategies but is especially true for this one.)
Of course, everyone would love to be strong in every category. I suppose what I’m suggesting is that it is better to be weak in military and science than to be strong in only one or the other, or certainly better than focussing on blue and purple cards instead.
If it seems strange to you that it might be better to be weak (but not entirely out of the race) in two things than to be strong in only one, consider that playing military and science cards, even when they are marginal for you (3 points, etc.), can often rob an opponent of points if they are focussed on science or military themselves. Moreover, if you completely ignore one or the other, it opens great possibilities for your opponents.
This is one of the most deceptive things about military especially. With military cards, not only are you building up your own threat by playing military, but you are denying opportunities to your opponents. In this light, you can think of a military victory in Age II (for example) as worth more than 3 or 6 points to you, and even more than the -1 points you can serve to your losing opponents: By winning even one conflict (of the two you engage in), you have also ensured that at least one of your opponents can’t get 3/6 points themselves (by definition, since only one of you can win the conflict). I suspect this is why military tops out at 18 points possible for winning all conflicts, even though on paper this is less than what you can get by focussing on science; if military were any stronger, it would just be too powerful.
This is all based on my experience and some reasoning, so some readers are bound to disagree with my points, but I think it’s a fairly coherent system and I’ve done pretty well by it in a rather competitive group that plays 7 Wonders almost exclusively these days.
For details, I’ve come up with a few principles I tend to follow, along with justifications for each.
1. Don’t get locked out of any one resource, but don’t build too many resources.
This might mean you have access to one of every manufactured good (gray) and two or three of every natural resource (brown). But by attempting to build more, you’ll be wasting turns on resources you won’t use. A special warning, though, is that if any of your stages require 3 or 4 of a single resource, you could easily find yourself at the end of Age II unable to build your stages. In that case, you might want to make a conscious decision not to bother spending a turn building resources that you will only use to build one of your stages.
2. In Age I and II, try to find a balance between building your own resources and building cards that allow you to buy others for cheap.
Again, too many resources means you’ve wasted turns building resources you won’t need and no one will need to pay you for. On the other hand, too many commerce cards (yellow cards and the Clandestine Docks cards) mean you won’t ever get paid for your resources and will still have to pay some (albeit reduced) amount to get resources. Also, keep in mind that while a discount card (a trading post or clandestine dock card) can be great, you’ll need some source of money to use it, money you won’t be getting from a resource you might have played instead.
3. In Age II, you should only play a double-resource card hesitantly and with great purpose.
In my experience, you won’t need many of Age II’s double-resource cards if you’ve done Age I correctly (following the principles above). Instead of a double resource in Age II, I would almost always play either the Caravansery or Forum instead (any brown resource or any gray resource), get some cash from another yellow, or build up science or military, unless maybe I had no access to the resource provided or knew I needed to build a stage with 3 or 4 of the same resource.
4. Age II should be as much about getting into military and science as possible.
Yes, Age II could be a time to fix any resource problems left over from Age I, but mostly I think you ought to focus on developing both science and military in Age II, so that you can be a threat to others in these areas. You may need to turn to a yellow card for cash flow, however, or for a weak hand, a blue card could also be an alternative.
5. Toward the end of Age II, consider building your stages with bad hands.
You might find that you seem to have no better play than those double-resource cards in the second half of Age II, but that means it might be a great time to build your stages. If you wait to build your stages in Age III, you’ll most likely be passing up some cards that could give you 3 or more points, whereas at the end of Age II, you’ll only be passing up the opportunity to play resources you don’t need anyway.
6. In Age III, especially early on, play big blue cards.
This might seem puzzling given that I just recommended becoming a threat in military and science. But if you focus on the high-scoring blue near the beginning of Age III, you’re denying those cards to people who can’t use military or science cards. The Palace (8 points) is great for anybody who can build it, but only some people are going to get 5 or more points from another science symbol or military card. So deny them the high-scoring blue card, knowing that the science or military card might well come back to you anyway later in Age III. This strategy is only really possible if you did the work of building science and military in Age II, however.
7. In Age III, look at purple cards and do a quick analysis of how much like a big blue card they are.
Purple cards are harder to eyeball and make a quick decision on. But just remember, if it’s a 5 or 6 pointer for you but an 8-12 pointer for somebody else -- especially somebody who looks strong -- consider playing it. (I’m not sure about those numbers in particular, but you get the idea.) As a bonus note, consider that by being diverse and not having a lot of any one color, it’s less likely a purple card that relies on big mono-color buildups among its neighbors will be valuable to your opponents.
8. If you have too much coins, you might be doing something wrong.
Consider that the coins score relatively little at the end of the game, so if you have more than 5 at a time, they’re not doing you much good. It might mean you built too many resources or cash-producing yellow cards. In Age III, sometimes a rich neighbor will flood you with coins, so maybe you’re not doing anything wrong, although if you can anticipate this at all, that might mean you can forego a turn devoted to getting coins.
Generally, the diversity strategy is based around the idea that in Age III, a successful strategy will be able to use many different kinds of cards to generate maximum points per turn.
The key goal of this strategy, then, is to develop a tableau (my word for the sum of all your built cards and stages) that will be able to make use of military and science in Age III so you are not limited to blue and purple cards to generate points. I focus on Age III because it’s when most of the points are earned; at least some part of Age II and most of Age I should be focussed on developing a position that will allow you to exploit Age III. (I think this should be true of most strategies but is especially true for this one.)
Of course, everyone would love to be strong in every category. I suppose what I’m suggesting is that it is better to be weak in military and science than to be strong in only one or the other, or certainly better than focussing on blue and purple cards instead.
If it seems strange to you that it might be better to be weak (but not entirely out of the race) in two things than to be strong in only one, consider that playing military and science cards, even when they are marginal for you (3 points, etc.), can often rob an opponent of points if they are focussed on science or military themselves. Moreover, if you completely ignore one or the other, it opens great possibilities for your opponents.
This is one of the most deceptive things about military especially. With military cards, not only are you building up your own threat by playing military, but you are denying opportunities to your opponents. In this light, you can think of a military victory in Age II (for example) as worth more than 3 or 6 points to you, and even more than the -1 points you can serve to your losing opponents: By winning even one conflict (of the two you engage in), you have also ensured that at least one of your opponents can’t get 3/6 points themselves (by definition, since only one of you can win the conflict). I suspect this is why military tops out at 18 points possible for winning all conflicts, even though on paper this is less than what you can get by focussing on science; if military were any stronger, it would just be too powerful.
This is all based on my experience and some reasoning, so some readers are bound to disagree with my points, but I think it’s a fairly coherent system and I’ve done pretty well by it in a rather competitive group that plays 7 Wonders almost exclusively these days.
For details, I’ve come up with a few principles I tend to follow, along with justifications for each.
1. Don’t get locked out of any one resource, but don’t build too many resources.
This might mean you have access to one of every manufactured good (gray) and two or three of every natural resource (brown). But by attempting to build more, you’ll be wasting turns on resources you won’t use. A special warning, though, is that if any of your stages require 3 or 4 of a single resource, you could easily find yourself at the end of Age II unable to build your stages. In that case, you might want to make a conscious decision not to bother spending a turn building resources that you will only use to build one of your stages.
2. In Age I and II, try to find a balance between building your own resources and building cards that allow you to buy others for cheap.
Again, too many resources means you’ve wasted turns building resources you won’t need and no one will need to pay you for. On the other hand, too many commerce cards (yellow cards and the Clandestine Docks cards) mean you won’t ever get paid for your resources and will still have to pay some (albeit reduced) amount to get resources. Also, keep in mind that while a discount card (a trading post or clandestine dock card) can be great, you’ll need some source of money to use it, money you won’t be getting from a resource you might have played instead.
3. In Age II, you should only play a double-resource card hesitantly and with great purpose.
In my experience, you won’t need many of Age II’s double-resource cards if you’ve done Age I correctly (following the principles above). Instead of a double resource in Age II, I would almost always play either the Caravansery or Forum instead (any brown resource or any gray resource), get some cash from another yellow, or build up science or military, unless maybe I had no access to the resource provided or knew I needed to build a stage with 3 or 4 of the same resource.
4. Age II should be as much about getting into military and science as possible.
Yes, Age II could be a time to fix any resource problems left over from Age I, but mostly I think you ought to focus on developing both science and military in Age II, so that you can be a threat to others in these areas. You may need to turn to a yellow card for cash flow, however, or for a weak hand, a blue card could also be an alternative.
5. Toward the end of Age II, consider building your stages with bad hands.
You might find that you seem to have no better play than those double-resource cards in the second half of Age II, but that means it might be a great time to build your stages. If you wait to build your stages in Age III, you’ll most likely be passing up some cards that could give you 3 or more points, whereas at the end of Age II, you’ll only be passing up the opportunity to play resources you don’t need anyway.
6. In Age III, especially early on, play big blue cards.
This might seem puzzling given that I just recommended becoming a threat in military and science. But if you focus on the high-scoring blue near the beginning of Age III, you’re denying those cards to people who can’t use military or science cards. The Palace (8 points) is great for anybody who can build it, but only some people are going to get 5 or more points from another science symbol or military card. So deny them the high-scoring blue card, knowing that the science or military card might well come back to you anyway later in Age III. This strategy is only really possible if you did the work of building science and military in Age II, however.
7. In Age III, look at purple cards and do a quick analysis of how much like a big blue card they are.
Purple cards are harder to eyeball and make a quick decision on. But just remember, if it’s a 5 or 6 pointer for you but an 8-12 pointer for somebody else -- especially somebody who looks strong -- consider playing it. (I’m not sure about those numbers in particular, but you get the idea.) As a bonus note, consider that by being diverse and not having a lot of any one color, it’s less likely a purple card that relies on big mono-color buildups among its neighbors will be valuable to your opponents.
8. If you have too much coins, you might be doing something wrong.
Consider that the coins score relatively little at the end of the game, so if you have more than 5 at a time, they’re not doing you much good. It might mean you built too many resources or cash-producing yellow cards. In Age III, sometimes a rich neighbor will flood you with coins, so maybe you’re not doing anything wrong, although if you can anticipate this at all, that might mean you can forego a turn devoted to getting coins.