7 Wonders Duel

First, place the game board in the center of the playing area. The conflict token is placed on the middle space of the conflict track. The four military tokens are placed on their designated spaces on the board. Shuffle the 10 progress tokens and randomly select 5 to be placed face-up on their spaces on the board; the remaining 5 are returned to the box. Each player receives 7 coins. Shuffle the 12 wonder cards, deal 4 face-up, and the first player chooses one. The second player chooses two, and the first player takes the last one. Repeat this process, but the second player chooses first. Each player should have 4 wonder cards. For the Age cards, shuffle the 23 Age I cards and remove 3 random cards without looking at them. Repeat this for the 23 Age II cards and the 20 Age III cards. Then, shuffle the 7 special cards (purple) into the Age III deck and remove 3 random cards from this combined deck. Finally, arrange the Age I, II, and III cards into their specific layouts as shown on the helper card, with some cards face-up and others face-down.

The primary objective of 7 Wonders Duel is to achieve victory through one of three paths: military supremacy, scientific supremacy, or by accumulating the most victory points by the end of Age III. Military supremacy is achieved by moving the conflict token to the opponent's capital. Scientific supremacy is achieved by collecting six different scientific symbols. If neither of these conditions is met, the game proceeds to a final scoring phase where the player with the highest total victory points wins.

The game is played in turns, starting with the first player. On your turn, you must choose one accessible card from the current Age structure. Accessible cards are those not partially covered by other cards. Once chosen, you have three options for using the card: 1) Build the building by paying its cost in resources and/or coins and placing it in your city. 2) Construct a wonder by paying its cost and placing the chosen Age card face-down under one of your wonder cards. 3) Discard the card for coins, receiving 2 coins plus 1 additional coin for each yellow card already built in your city. After your action, if any previously covered cards become fully visible, they are flipped face-up and become accessible.

If the game reaches the end of Age III without a military or scientific supremacy victory, final scoring occurs. Players calculate their total victory points from several sources: the position of the conflict token on the military track, victory points printed on small building cards, victory points from constructed wonder cards, points from any progress tokens acquired, and points from their remaining coins (1 victory point for every 3 coins). The player with the highest total score wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most victory points from blue small cards wins. If still tied, the players share the victory.

The game can end in three ways. The first is military supremacy: if a player moves the conflict token to the last space on their opponent's side of the military track, they immediately win. The second is scientific supremacy: if a player collects six different scientific symbols, they immediately win. The third is at the end of Age III: if neither military nor scientific supremacy is achieved by the time all cards from Age III have been played, the game ends, and players proceed to calculate their victory points.