Arcane Wonders | Furnace | Board Game | Ages 14+ | 2-4 Players | 30-60 Minutes Playing Time Multicolor,AWGAW08FN

Product Information

The Auction is so unique and immensely enjoyable that the more common Production phase is entirely forgivable. Especially if the game just opens with bidding and new players don’t have any clue what things are actually worth. In this Auction phase, you will be looking to acquire resources that you need to run your other cards.

I rarely purchase games based on the artwork, but this is one of those that drew me in from first sight. The components are decent without being amazing, and the box is perhaps a bit bigger than it should be whilst also still being small enough to fit in a rucksack or hand-luggage style case. Nor can they ever place a disc onto a card with a number that is the same value as one of the discs already placed onto that card. Engine builders are popular for this reason, but often the mechanism is buried within a much more complex rule structure or mixed in with other mechanisms.

Additionally, every player starts with 1 coal in addition to the other resources on their Startup card. With a splash of indicative color, a manufactured glow emanates from what would be his heart were he not governed by the drive to build a prosperous empire. Despite the whole game of Furnace revolving around the all-mighty dollar, auctions use a different resource altogether. I say often and not always because it’s also entirely possible to place that lowly one anticipating a loss, only to then accidentally win the Auction and be stuck with a less-than-desirable bottom effect and no compensation.

It doesn't only matter what your optimal play is; what matters is that your play, whatever it is, is better than that of your opponents.

The art is great across all the components, echoing the technical illustrations of the era in which it is set. You want to avoid running an engine that overproduces a resource that you cannot then use for something else. Up to eight cards (based on player count) are drawn from a deck that is – perhaps a bit like Res Arcana’s – a bit too small. There is also an advanced variant which I enjoy, but perhaps is not suited for game one whereby players cannot rearrange the placement of the cards once they have them. Engine-Building is the process by which you will develop your powers or abilities in a game by collecting cards, resources or other powers.

Furnace is an engine-building Eurogame in which players take on the roles of 19th-century capitalists building their industrial corporations and aspiring to make as much money as they can by purchasing companies, extracting resources, and processing them in the best combinations possible. Once a player has finished resolving a card (or an effect, for that matter), he cannot go back to it. Depending on your play style, Auctions can range from a lively phase with a lot of talking to dead serious poker-like affairs where nobody talks. The players that bid for a Company but did not win it get compensated for their effort, as per the Company's instructions.Once you’re comfortable with the basics, players can use the unique player cards that are included in the game. The Auction phase is easy to resolve: every player has to place his next bid ten seconds after the previous player.