Board Game Arena

The tiebreaker should go to the player with fewer coins left. They have been managing their resources more efficiently.

Interestingly enough, a very strong 7 wonders player from the past (pistolero) wrote the same thing about the original 7 wonders game (old edition).
I don't think I agree but I get your point.

To me, in both games, coins in the very end game don't do much, and there's not always anything you can do about it. When the games are close, being sure oyou stay rich is a sound strategy because of that very rule. I don't see how it would be fairer if the strategy was actually to spend it all, at all cost. It would be even weirder and, paradoxically, ultimately not efficient. The current rule rewards strong economy when everyone scored a lot. Economy being an important part of what you should, even if you need to be parcimonious, I think it's a good rule. It's also easier to understand for everyone ("less is more" being hard to compute for a lot of people).

Good point about it being weird if players were incentivized to lose money at all cost. In all 7 Wonders games, good moves often give you
coins as a bonus (yellow structures, Ephesus, etc.) and it would be arbitrary to punish that. And thematically, it makes sense that the "richer" city-state is the better city-state, all else equal. There is no IMF in this era keeping score for austerity. Though on the other side of the coin, it would be more "wondrous" if a wonder of the world was built with very little money very quickly (with few turns, which parsimonious strategy usually calls for).

Actually that is still the same side of the coin. Building a wonder for less coins leaves you with more money in the end.

Indeed, the game rewards point efficiency and then, if tied for that... being most efficient in generating coins. To suggest the opposite... seems to reward bad play. If you gamble on a low econ / coin strat and win on VP points, fantastic, hats off to you. Otherwise, if you tie...

(Thus, my opinion, the tie breaker is well written and germane as written in the rulebook). It is very much in line with other games / heavy euro games etc.