Designers:  Antoine Bauza & Bruno Cathala

Final Score:  (2.5 out 5 Stars)

When 7 Wonders the card game originally released it did so to great acclaim and positive reviews. It was the talk of the town and it seemed like it was being played everywhere, all the time. When I finally got around to trying it, it sort of landed flat with me. It had some interesting mechanics and all together not a bad game but it just didn’t stir a whole lot of interest in me or my group. Hence when the opportunity to try 7 Wonders Duel I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of it. Today we take a quick peek at this alternative two player version of 7 Wonders and see if its anymore interesting then the original.

Overview

In 7 Wonders players will be trying to build 4 Wonders by drafting cards from a structured card pyramid as part of a general effort to score the most points and/or win the game with an immediate victory by completing one of two objectives. It’s effectively a game about gathering resources then applying those resources to building things that either directly score or lead to scoring points. It’s the same premise as the original, but designed specifically for two players with some altered mechanics to make the core concept of 7 wonders work better as a two player game.

There are three different ways to win the game. The first is scoring the most points at the end of the game which is how most games will finish. The second and third is a science or military victory in both cases its effectively just about building sufficient amount of science or military cards to overwhelm your opponent. More difficult, but very possible alternatives.

The game shares many of the mechanics and concept from the original game so 7 Wonder players will take to the iconography and mechanics very quickly and of course being a two player game it’s much, much faster. There are however sufficient changes to the mechanics, most notably the way card drafting works that really make the game significantly different enough that liking its big brother doesn’t necessarily mean you will like this one and of course vice versus as was the case with me.

Components

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros: Good components made to last, nice clear art eases and streamlines play, good use of Iconography.

Cons: No complaints, they got it right in 7 Wonders and simply copied the same success to 7 Wonders Duels.

In essence the component quality is almost identical to that of 7 wonders, which is to say it’s built to last, shares the same art and maintains that bright eye candy feel. That said there is nothing particularly spectacular about the components, it’s clear that the design is largely geared towards clear functionality rather than anything else. Which is a good thing, since the game is so abstract it’s far more important to be able to identify and grasp the iconography and colorization of the cards then to be able to identify its thematic meaning.

I always look at component grades and ask myself, what could have been done better and the truth is outside of perhaps more focus on aesthetically appeal, this is effectively a card game with tokens and what is here is well thought out, organized, easy to identify and despite fairly heavy iconography actually very simple to deduce and adapt to. Easily a passing grade, but it’s not going to blow you away.

Theme

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros: The theme is mostly irrelevant to the success of the game, but Civilization building aesthetically works well.

Cons: This is an abstract game, the theme is very thin.

It’s an abstract card game about Civilization building but the extent of its abstraction really renders it mostly irrelevant and really as you play the game you are never going to have any sense of a theme. The art is there just to be pretty but the game really could have been about anything. The fact that it is about Civilization building however actually works quite well at least in terms of the aesthetic appeal.

In the end though you are not going to focus on the theme when playing this game, it really is all about the mechanics and play here.

Gameplay

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros: Simple to grasp, plenty of tactical decisions, doesn’t over stay its welcome.

Cons: While it has no major flaws that I was able to note the game itself wasn’t good enough for my personal shelf.

This is really where all of the 7 Wonder Duel thunder is. The game is very simple in terms of mechanics and the choices are never terribly hard but as a light card game it has some smarts and gamers and casual gamers alike are going to find plenty to contemplate.

The removal of the round robin card drafting in place of the pyramid drafting mechanic I think is golden, it’s actually the core reason I didn’t really care for the original 7 Wonders. I actually wish the original used this mechanic because it’s really a significant improvement. Memorization games are really not my thing and in the original game it was so vital to be able to keep track of what is in each deck that is passed around, in a 3 or 4 player game this became increasingly difficult to the point where you really almost ignore it and just pick the card you want dissipating any strategic intention of the card draft. In Duels with the pyramid drafting you are making decisions on information you have and that makes this a much smarter game.

The resource management, combat and science portion of the game works similar though not exactly as it did in 7 Wonders and these mechanics are really just straightforward and intuitive. The military and science victories are difficult to achieve because they are fairly easy to block, but often simply by threatening someone with one or the other victory forces their hand which can disrupt their plans and open up opportunities for you. This is a really clever system and it works well to create tension and tactical choices. In essence you often take cards you don’t need or absolutely have to take to block or slow down an opponent. It can sometimes get a bit mathy but usually decisions are driven by your strategy and/or by trying to block your opponent’s strategy. Same principle as 7 Wonders except you aren’t punished for having the memory of a gold fish, you make decisions based on what’s in front of you.

The game is also quick, I think we finished our first play in under 20 minutes, though I suspect as you become more skilled at the game your speed will actually reduce as you start to understand and ultimately analyze the information you’re presented with. Speed is important for card games, slow card games usually don’t work particularly well for me, especially abstract ones, so Duels really falls into that sweet spot of tactical choices and speed.

I have to admit, I’m at a loss to point out any major faults with the game, it really just comes down to how much I like it rather than a comparison of the good vs. the bad elements. I don’t think Duels is a game going into my collection but I certainly don’t mind playing it. The fact that it’s not going into my collection however is not the result of any portions of gameplay being bad, just that while interesting and fun, doesn’t really reach for the stars and I like to keep my collection tight. The only thing going in there are things that absolutely blow me away and Duels really didn’t ever hit that high. For fans of 7 Wonders though, I think this is going to be well worth the cheap retail price to get into.

Replay ability And Longevity

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros: Great dynamic game with plenty of strategies to explore.

Cons: It’s a simple card game, it got boring after just a few replays.

This is the mecha for Euro and abstract games especially, they really have to have solid replay ability and I actually think Duels does quite well here. Each game is going to be quite unique given the mixtures of Wonders, Cards and science tokens. Each game has to be approached with a “let’s see what we got” kind of approach, there is no puzzle to solve here, or at least not as far as the game is concerned as a whole goes. You certainly solve plenty of puzzles for each specific game, but that puzzle is very different every time.

The first time we played it I immediately wanted to play again and then again, so the game  starts out with that addictive Euro game nature, though its simplicity and speed make this a far better candidate for a phone app or online version rather than a game night type game. When we were done however, I feel fairly certain if I never play it again I won’t feel it’s absence which is not to say it doesn’t have replay ability, but definitely lacks longevity.  It just didn’t have anything particularly special about it that you would want to pull it out with any frequency. It’s a pretty decent 2 player filler for those nights when friends show up late.  In the end however we got bored really fast with it, I was tempted to give it 3 stars and I would have if I had any desire to play it again, but the magic is just not there.

Conclusion

7 Wonders Duel is 7 Wonders for 2 players, they have captured the same concept and made clever alterations to the existing 7 Wonders game for two players. I think you can say mission accomplished here because I’m pretty sure that is exactly what they were going for with this design. It’s a simple card game and while that really isn’t my thing, I do think most 7 Wonders fans are going to appreciate it. I did enjoy it a great deal more than 7 Wonders and more than I thought I would, in fact I will go out on a limb here and say that if you didn’t like 7 Wonders mechanically but liked it conceptually, Duels is a far better implementation and you might really enjoy this version of 7 Wonders. I think that’s largely due to the change in the drafting mechanic going from memorization style to the pyramid, decision, style mechanic.

It’s always hard to review simple card games because there isn’t much to say about them other than “yes I like it” or “No I don’t”, in the case of 7 Wonders Duel, it’s definitely a “Yes”, but no so much that I would clear shelf space for it.