Game Objective

In 7 Wonders: Cities, players explore a new aspect of the great cities of the ancient world. The goal is to develop your city by constructing new structures, hiring Leaders, and founding Guilds. The victory condition is to accumulate the highest total of Victory Points at the end of the game.

Setup

To set up the game, follow these steps:

• City Cards: Add to each of the three Age decks (I, II, and III) a number of black cards (from the corresponding Age) equal to the number of players. Choose them randomly and without looking; the remaining cards are set aside and not revealed.
• Guilds: The new Guild cards are added to the old ones. The total number of Guilds used must be equal to the number of players + 2.
• Central Components: Place the Debt tokens, Diplomacy tokens, Coins, and Conflict tokens in the center of the table.
• Wonders: The Al Khazneh in Petra and Hagia Sophia in Byzantium boards are added to the existing Wonder boards.
• Scoring: Use the score pad to sum the Victory Points from certain City cards and team points.

Game Flow

The game follows the structure of the base game, with the following change at the beginning of each Age:

• Hand of Cards: At the beginning of each Age, each player receives a hand of 8 cards (instead of 7). This allows players to play one extra card per Age.
• Turn Resolution: Monetary losses are always resolved at the end of the turn, after players have played their cards and performed trades.
• Conflict Resolution: Occurs at the end of each Age. If a player possesses a Diplomacy token, they must use it during this phase.

Actions and How to Play

In addition to the base game actions, the expansion introduces new mechanics and card types:

Debt

When a card causes the loss of Coins, affected players must pay the amount to the bank. For each Coin not paid, the player receives a Debt token. It is possible to pay part in Coins and the remainder via Debt tokens. Incurred Debt cannot be paid off later.

Diplomacy

When playing a card with the Diplomacy symbol, the player receives a Diplomacy token. During the next Conflict resolution, the player MUST discard this token and does not participate in the resolution (they receive neither Conflict victory nor defeat tokens). Their neighbors are then considered adjacent to each other to dispute military supremacy.

Card Types and Abilities

• City Cards (Black): A new category of cards with varied effects.
• Mask: Allows copying the scientific symbol of a green card from one of the two neighboring cities at the end of the game.
• Special Resources:
  • Smuggler's Dock: Grants a discount of one Coin on the first resource purchased from the indicated neighbor.
  • Secret Warehouse: Produces a resource of your choice among those already produced by brown or grey cards, or the starting resource of the Wonder.
  • Black Market: Produces a resource of your choice among those not produced by brown or grey cards, or the starting resource of the Wonder.
• Leaders: Cards with permanent abilities (e.g., Berenice increases Coins received from the bank by 1; Caligula allows building one black card for free per Age).
• Guilds: Cards with end-game scoring or immediate effects (e.g., Forgers' Guild grants 5 Victory Points and removes 3 Coins from other players).

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends at the end of Age III, after the resolution of Conflicts.

Point Counting:

• Sum all Victory Points from the city.
• Coins and Debt: Debt tokens are subtracted from the points obtained from Coins (e.g., 5 Coins [1 point] minus 3 Debt tokens results in -2 points).
• Black and White Cards: Points from black cards are summed together with those from Leaders (white cards).

The player with the highest total points is the winner. In team mode, the scores of teammates are summed to determine the winning team.

Tips for Winning

• Resource Management: Use the Architect's Office to build stages of your Wonder without paying the resource cost (though Coin costs must still be paid).
• Diplomacy Strategy: Use Diplomacy to avoid Conflict resolution when your military power is low, avoiding Defeat tokens.
• Card Synergy: Combine the Smuggler's Dock with the Market or Trading Post to make the purchase of the first resource free.