- For each player:
- Choose a wonder tray (or pick randomly).
- Construct your wonder as diagrammed on your tray with the "under construction" side face up.
- Shuffle your deck of cards and place them face up in the holder.
- Place your deck between you and the player on your left.
- Shuffle the common cards and make a central deck face down. Leave space nearby for a discard.
- Shuffle the progress tokens and make a face down stack. Flip the top 3 face up near the stack. If you are playing with the Medals expansion, you should shuffle the 4 new tokens in with the rest.
- If playing with Medals, shuffle the medals and place 1, objective
side up, between each player.
- If playing with the Expert Variant, place 2 additional medals face up in the middle of the table. These are available to all players.
- Place a number of conflict tokens face up based on player count:
- 2-3 players: 3 tokens
- 4 players: 4 tokens
- 5 players: 5 tokens
- 6-7 players: 6 tokens
- Make a supply of military victory tokens.
- Place the cat pawn anywhere
- For each player:
The game is played over a number of continuous rounds until someone completes their wonder, after which the game immediately ends.
- Your turn consists of selecting the top card of the deck to your
right, left, or the central face down deck and placing it in your
tableau.
- If you have the cat token, you can look at the top card of the central deck before choosing.
- Your turn consists of selecting the top card of the deck to your
right, left, or the central face down deck and placing it in your
tableau.
- Grey Cards
- Grey cards provide resources used to build stages of your wonder.
- If you ever have the resources to construct a wonder stage, you must construct it. This includes the use of available yellow cards.
Wonder Construction
- You must construct your wonder top to bottom. All stages of a level must be completed before building anything on the next level.
- Some wonders give you an option for what to build at a level.
- Yellow cards (coins) are wild resources that can/must be used as any resource to build your wonder.
- Resource requirements:
- "2≠": 2 different resources are required
- "2=": 2 identical resources are required
- Yellow Cards
- Yellow cards (coins) act as a wild resource.
- The must be used as soon as you can build a stage of your wonder.
- Blue Cards
- These cards provide victory points.
- If take a card with a cat symbol, immediately take the cat token.
- The cat token will allow you to look at the top card of
the central deck before selecting a card at the beginning of
your turn.
- Note that the cat cannot be used for any additional card draws you may get on your turn. It can only be used for the first draw of your turn.
- The cat token is also worth 2 points if you have at the end of the game.
- The cat token will allow you to look at the top card of
the central deck before selecting a card at the beginning of
your turn.
- Green Cards
- These cards provide science symbols.
- When you have either 2 identical or 3 different science symbols,
you must discard them and take a progress token.
- You may select any of the 3 face up tokens or the top token in the face down stack.
- If a face up token is taken, immediately replace it.
- Keep the progress token in front of you after taking it.
- Red Cards
- These cards provide shields that are used in military conflicts.
- If you take a card with horn symbols, flip over the matching number of conflict tokens to their red side. e.g. if you take a red card with 2 horns, flip over 2 conflict tokens.
- When you flip the last conflict token to it's red side, a battle occurs at the end of your turn.
Battle
- Each player counts the number of shields on cards, wonders, etc. that they have.
- Each player compares the number of shields with their neighbors
and if they have more than a neighbor, they take 1 military
victory token (3 points).
- If players are tied, no one takes a token.
- All players discard any cards with a horn icon. Red cards without horns are kept in front of players.
- Flip all conflict tokens to their white side.
- Medals (expansion)
- You only have the 2 medals next to you that you can achieve.
- The 1st player on either side of medal to achieve the objective takes the medal and scores 4 points at the end of the game.
- If playing with the Expert Variant, the 1st player to achieve either of the medals in the center area can claim them.
- The number of elements for an objective is a minimum. You can have more than what is shown.
Medals
Symbol Objective 
Have 3 blue cards. 
Have 3 green cards. 
Have 3 grey cards. 
Have 3 red cards. 
Have 1 green, 1 yellow, 1 blue, and 1 red card. 
Have 1 yellow card, 1 blue card with a cat icon, and 1 red card with a horn. 
Have 7 cards (color doesn't matter). 
Construct 3 stages of your wonder. 
Construct 2 stages of your wonder and have the cat pawn. 
Have 2 progress tokens. 
Have 1 progress token, 1 military victory token, and the cat pawn. 
Win 2 military victory tokens in a single battle.
The game ends at the end of a player's turn in which they have completed their wonder.
Scoring
Count VP on the following:
- Constructed wonder stages
- 2 points if you have the cat pawn
- Blue cards
- Military victory tokens
- Progress tokens
- 4 points per medal (Medals expansion)
The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, the player with the most constructed wonder stages wins. If there is still a tie, the victory is shared.
- You obtain these by discarding green cards.
- You may use each progress token you have once per turn in any order of your choosing.
Symbol Description 
When you take a wood or brick resource, take 1 extra card from the available 3. 
When you take a paper or glass card, choose 1 extra card from the available 3. 
When you take a stone or coin card, choose 1 extra card from the available 3. 
When you take a green card, choose 1 extra card from the available 3. 
When you take a red card with horn icons, choose 1 extra card from the available 3. 
When you construct a wonder stage, choose 1 extra card from the available 3. 
1 yellow card is worth 2 coins instead of 1. 
When you construct a wonder stage, you can use any resources, without adhering to the "identical" or "different" restrictions. 
Add 2 shields to your total shields. 
At the end of the game, gain 4 points if your wonder is not complete or 6 points if it is complete. 
At the end of the game, gain 1 point per cat icon on your blue cards. 
At the end of the game, gain 1 point per military token you have. 
At the end of the game, gain 2 points per progress token you have. 
At the end of the game, gain 4 points if you have 1 of these tokens or 12 points if you have both. If you are playing with Medals, there are 3 of these in the game. If you get all 3, claim 16 points. 
At the end of the game, gain 2 points for each grey card in front of you. 
At the start of each of your turns, you can look at the top card of the central deck before choosing your card (as if you had the cat pawn). 
At the end of each battle, keep your red cards with horns on them.
Symbol Wonder Description 
Alexandria Take the top card from any deck anywhere on the table. 
Ephesus Take the top card from the central deck. 
Babylon Choose 1 progress token from the 4 available. 
Rhodes Add 1 shield to your total shields. 
Halicarnassus Take the top 5 cards from the deck to your left or your right, choose 1, and shuffle the others back into its deck. 
Olympia Take the top card from the decks on your left and right. 
Giza There is no special effect, but the wonder provides more points than other wonders. 
Rome Take 1 card in front of any opponent. Trigger the effect of any cat or horn icon, if applicable. Give that opponent the top card from the central deck face down. They will reveal it and place it in front of them on their next turn in addition to their normal turn. 
Ur Take the cat pawn. Use its ability immediately to choose 1 of the 3 available cards.