Antoine Bauza created the 7 Wonders board game in 2010 and it quickly became one of the best selling board games of that year. It even won the Kennerspiel des Jahres Game of the Year in 2011.
Since then, 7 Wonders has created several expansions that added a variety of new details to the base game. We’ve put together a list of the best expansions for 7 wonders based on customer reviews, sales data, and our own personal rankings.
The 8 Best 7 Wonders Expansions
1. Armada Expansion
In this version, players have naval vessels that they can use for combat or to explore islands where they can find resources to aid the construction of their wonders. Your ship can also earn you coins or victory points. The rewards earned by your ship depend on its color and the color of the track along which you move it on the naval board. The color of the ship in your shipyard determines whether it is a military vessel, a merchant ship, a civilian boat or an explorer’s vessel.
If you move your merchant ship (yellow), you will earn gold coins. And if you were the first merchant ship to set out, you can collect taxes from other players’ vessels. If you move your green ship, you get to explore different islands. These also avail various bonuses to their owners. Moving a red (military) ship, pits players against their fellow players and whoever has the most victory points at the end of the age wins the conflict.
2. Cities Expansion
This expansion first made an appearance eight years ago and introduced a number of city cards to the three decks of age cards. Though there are nine city cards in total, the number of them shuffled into the age deck will depend on the number of players.
The city cards create new ways for players to earn points or derail the ambitions of other players.
Over and above the city cards, this version of the game introduced two more wonders along with support for an extra player above the original maximum of seven. The rules in this expansion were also tweaked to accommodate team play.
The 7 Wonders Cities expansion also brought in three more guild cards and six more leader cards (in addition to the four introduced by the Leaders expansion).
3. Babel Expansion
Released towards the end of 2014, Babel was the third major expansion of 7 Wonders. It is a two-in-one expansion which players can either use simultaneously in the game or individually.
Tower of Babel is the first installment of this double-treat and it allows players to build this historical skyscraper using tiles. The tiles are additional rules to the game that can benefit or disadvantage players in certain ways. For instance, you could draw a tile that gets you a discount when buying resources from other players. Conversely, you can draw a tile that shuts down all the markets and makes it impossible for you to buy resources.
Great Projects is the other addition this expansion brings and it comes with a set of cards that looks like the age deck but which are much bigger. The illustrations on the face of the cards depict projects that players can participate in to earn different kinds of rewards. If you don’t participate, there is a chance you will get some kind of disadvantage.
4. Leaders Expansion
In addition to the normal cards distributed to players from the three ages, the Leaders expansion issues players with four leader cards at the beginning of the game. You will draw a leader card from the deck and pass the rest to the other players, who do the same in sequence. Leader cards can be used in two ways. You can either use them to build the wonder you chose or trade them in for gold. Each card can earn you three pieces of gold.
Introduced in 2011, this expansion brought an additional wonder to the original seven; the Roman Coliseum. Along with the new wonder board, this expansion introduced four additional guild cards.
5. Wonder Pack Expansion
Unveiled in May 2013, this expansion added four more wonders to 7 Wonders. In addition to the seven boards depicting the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Wonder Pack added boards for The Great Wall of China, the Stonehenge, the Manneken Pis and Abu Simbel of Egypt. Each of these helps players earn points and coins in unique ways.
The Abu Simbel’s magic is only unlocked when the Leaders expansion comes into play. It allows players to earn bonus victory points by burying their leaders. The Stonehenge helps you to add to your victory points in two ways using the two sides of its board as you build your stone resources. Side A will earn you two victory points for every stone you produce. You will earn one victory point and one coin for the same on Side B. Side B also allows you to earn extra points when neighboring players build with cards of a certain color.
6. Leaders Anniversary Pack
This is among the more recent expansions to 7 Wonders and was released to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the game. It adds 15 leader cards to the gameplay that depict 15 women who made a mark on history in the ancient world. Each of these cards offers players different advantages depending on the age the game is in. Note that some of these leaders cards can only be used in tandem with the Cities Anniversary pack.
7. Cities Anniversary Pack
This pack was released alongside the Leavers Anniversary pack in celebration of 7 Wonders’ seventh birthday. The fictitious cities on the cards include Bandit Recoubt, Opium Cache, Bandit Camp and Stock Exchange. There is a total of 15 cards, five for each age. Depending on the city card a player draws, they could suffer a disadvantage or gain a benefit.
8. Celebrity Leaders Promotional Expansion
This promotional expansion pack contains six cards depicting celebrities and historical leaders of different ages. They include musical greats Stevie Wonder and Louis Armstrong and Star Trek star Wil Wheaton as well as Nimrod the brains behind the biblical Tower of Babel.
Each of these cards offers different advantages to players and some of them apply only to extended versions of 7 Wonders. Nimrod, for instance, is only useful with the Babel expansion. The same applies to Wheaton, who can only help you revive and use a discarded leader in the Leaders expansion.
