(Photo credit to Grey Fox Games)
The mysterious city of gears has been dormant for years and your company wants to make it come alive! But you are not the only one; other companies are wanting the prestige of activating this magnificent wonder as well. Do you have what it takes to be the most prominent as the opening day draws closer?
City of Gears is a 2-4 area control resource management game from Grey Fox Games. Players roll dice gaining resources and using those to activate the city and earn prestige. The player with the most prestige at the end wins!
To start, shuffle all of the city tiles and draw nine, placing them face-down in a 3×3 grid. Place a 2 point prestige token on top of the 9 tiles. Give each player a factory board, control tokens, 4 dice, 6 worker automatons, and a converter gear in their chosen color. Each player places their factory board on an outside edge of the tiles. Place 3 workers in the active area and 3 in the 3 activation slots. Set one die aside for later.
Place the movement, gear, steam, zap, and prestige tokens aside as well as the 4 white opening day tokens aside (they will be used later) take the remaining gears and place them in the gear bag. Determine the first player and deal out the starting bonuses to the remaining players according to the rule book.
Turns are separated into 4 phases; produce resources, activate city tiles, perform actions, and spoil overages. Players produce resources by rolling their three dice; using the symbols as the matching resources to spend. There are three types of resources; Steam, zaps, and gears.
The current player will roll their 3 dice earning the resources indicated. They spend them to take actions and activate city tiles. Players can spend one Zap, Steam, or movement token to move one of their automatons. If a player moves to an unrevealed tile, they take the 2 point prestige token and reveal it. They have a choice of paying the cost to activate it. They can use dice resources or any tokens they have. Once they have activated all the tiles they want to, they collect the link bonus for all unactivated tiles they connect to and are connected to an activated tile. They then take actions with the remaining resources; move, overcharge, draw gears or activate remaining workers.
Automatons can only move on a path connected by gears they control. One space for each steam resource or movement token. A zap will allow a player to move to any connected tile. A zap can also be overcharged. When a player and an opponent are occupying the same tile, a zap can return an opponent’s automaton back to their factory board. Two zaps and a player can remove an opponent’s gear link to that tile. Any unspent zap can be exchanged for 1 prestige at the end of their turn.
A gear is used to draw gears from the bag. A player can draw as many gears rolled and tokens they have, but can only keep two. They can use one as a connection and the other as a development. To use as a connection, select a tile that you have an automaton on, and place the gear to connect to another tile, and place a control marker on the gear. The development side gives them a continuing benefit once per turn that they place in a development slot on their factory board.
A player has 3 unactivated automatons; each costing prestige to activate. Going from left to right, starting with the least expensive, you pay the cost and activate a worker. You can only activate one worker per turn.
Once a player has used all the resources they choose, they receive a token for any unspent dice. They then can store one unused token of each resource and one wild (any resource); movement tokens are unlimited. Any additional unspent resources are returned to the supply as spoilage and lost.
Play is then passed to the next player and continues until the ninth and final tile is revealed. This starts the end rounds until opening day. Players now add their fourth dice to their dice pool and the 4 white gears are added to the bag. If a player draws a white gear on their turn, they set it aside and draw a replacement. The game ends when the third white gear is drawn. The active player immediately ends their turn and final scoring is made.
Players earn prestige for every tile they control with the total automatons and gear links they have on the tile. Ties are determined by the player with the most gear links. After tiles are awarded, the player who has earned the most prestige is the winner.
This is a beautiful looking game; lots of color and the use of the gears enhance the steampunk theme. This game really pops with its multicolored gears connecting to the tiles; it really looks like a clockwork city when revealed. The dual-use of gears is a unique mechanic that fits very well with the steampunk theme. The game time lasts on average 45-60 minutes so not too long, but long enough to provide a rich experience.
Steampunk fans will definitely be interested in it as well as fans of area control and resource management. The luck element of dice is nicely mitigated with developments and tokens; It is definitely a Euro-style hybrid like Champions of Midgard. A good solid game that really captures its theme in gameplay and design.
Written by Ed Carter
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