World Wonders Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review World Wonders, a tile laying and city building game published by Arcane Wonders. In World Wonders, players are trying to create the best city in the ancient world.

World Wonders has been hot on the BGQ radar since Brian B first demoed it at Gen Con 2023 and subsequently made it his Staff Pick of the convention. Since that time, it’s been making the rounds and generating quite a bit of buzz.

Thanks to Arcane Wonders, I’ve finally got my hands on a copy of World Wonders and have put it through the paces. It’s an action point and tile-laying game that will have you trying to make the best city in the ancient world.

World Wonders is played out over 10 rounds (or fewer if someone zooms up the population track). Each round, players will have 7 coins (action points) to spend on acquiring items for their city. Different things they can buy include polyomino-shaped tiles at varying costs (2-5 coins), road tiles, tower tiles, or a monument.

After drafting said item, it needs to be placed in your city. New city tiles need to be placed either next to a road, or a previously played tile of matching color. Roads can connect to the sidewalk edge of the board or a previously placed road. And towers can go anywhere and let you start a new road.

Monuments, though, are a bit unique. They don’t have a set cost but require you to spend all your remaining gold. So it may cost you 1 coin if you buy it as your last action of the round, or all 7 coins if it’s the first thing you purchase. They also have building restrictions. For example, they may need to be placed next to a road tile and a farm district. Or perhaps next to water and a temple. In the end, they will grant you a few VPs to go along with a cool looking piece in your city.

Each city tile will also produce one or more goods (3 different types). After placing the tile, you increase your good tracker, which will grant population points at specific benchmarks. You want to keep these three goods somewhat level as you’ll