I have played about 15 games of Seven Wonders now.

When I ask the winning player why they won, they tend to tell me what they did rather than why they did it, and rarely does it involve anything clever. The smartest thing I've seen a winning player do was start with the board with Glass as a resource and bury to Glass cards to build up his wonder for the first two phases of his wonder. But winning often is related to things out of your control, such as

• Your neighbor builds up lots of resources so that you can use them for trading.
• No other player goes for the same strategy as you so they don't build the cards you want.
• Your neighbors build up little military, so you don't need to waste resources contending with them and can still get lots of points from beating them.
• Your neighbors pick the same strategy as each other, so you can get a valuable guild.
• You get access to resources needed to progress through building your wonder early.

In contrast, Dominion and Race for the Galaxy, both games that I really enjoy, a skilled player can exert a lot of control over the game. I readily admit luck is a factor in both games, but there is a lot of room for skill to influence the outcome. Whether its from picking a better strategy from the initial board setup and picking appropriate card counters as the game progresses in Dominion, or building a tableau to mitigate advantages in probable phase selections and choosing actions to counter opponents selections in Race, there is a big return on skill for both of those games. I just don't see the same room for planning, strategic decisions and maneuvering in Seven Wonders.

What am I missing?