Furnace
Furnace Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 36 double-sided Company cards
- 5 single-sided Start-up cards
- 5 Capitalist cards
- 4 different-colored sets of 4 Capital discs. Each set contains 4 discs of one color with the values "1", "2", "3", and "4".
- 1 neutral-colored Capital disc with the value "2"
- 40 Coal cubes
- 20 Iron bars
- 15 Oil drums
- 4 Multiplication tokens
- 12 Upgrade tokens
- 61 Money tokens
- 1st player token
- 4 Players' Color tokens
- 1 Round counter (consists of 2 pieces)
- 1 die (for a 2-player game)
- Game Rules
Company Card Anatomy
All Company cards are double-sided: the first side is considered basic and the other one is upgraded. The cards enter the game with the basic side up and can later be upgraded (flipped over) during the game.
Basic side:
- Compensation effect
- Basic effect
- Additional effect (not active)
Upgraded side:
- Basic effect
- Additional effect (active)
Unlike Company cards, the Start-up cards are single-sided. They show:
- Player's starting resources
- Basic effects
Company Effects
During the game, the players will gain resources from their companies and use them to obtain other resources and money by resolving the effects of their cards. There are 2 types of effects: extraction and processing. Each effect is shown within its own line.
Extraction — the line states the number and the type of resources the owner of the card must gain. All extraction effects are mandatory and the players may not refuse to extract resources or extract them partially.
Processing — if there is an arrow within a line, the player may choose to discard the resources listed to the left of it in order to gain the resources listed to the right. The number above the arrow indicates the limit of such transactions in each Production Phase. All processing effects are optional. The player may refuse to resolve their processing effect or they may resolve it fewer times than listed above the arrow. In order to resolve an effect, a player must have the required resources (listed to the left of the arrow) before resolving it.
Example: This effect allows processing 1 Iron into 1 Oil up to 2 times. It's up to the player whether they want to refuse processing or process 1 Iron into 1 Oil, or process 2 Iron into 2 Oil. Obviously, they must have enough Iron for it.
Also, there are basic, additional, and compensation effects. A compensation effect is resolved by the players who bid on the card but didn't get it. A basic effect is resolved by the owner of the card during the Production Phase. An additional effect is also resolved by the owner of the card during the Production Phase, but only if they upgraded it (flipped it over).
Setup
- Each player receives a random Start-up card, a random Capitalist card and a set of Capital discs with the Player's Color token of one color of their choosing. Each Capitalist card changes the game rules for its owner in a certain way described on the card. If any player gets the Capitalist card that gives its owner an additional Capital disc, the player also takes the neutral-colored disc.
- Each player gains the resources at the top of their Start-up card. (Note: This happens only once!)
- Place the Round counter in the middle of the table and set it to "1". Shuffle the Company deck and place it on the Round counter with the upgraded side up.
- Choose the 1st player randomly and give them the 1st player token.
If you're playing for the first time…
We recommend playing your first few games without Capitalist cards in order to get accustomed to the game. We also recommend resolving the Production Phase (see further) for each player separately in order to oversee each other's actions and prevent possible mistakes. If you wish, you may play 3 rounds instead of 4 for a shorter game.
Game Round
Each round has 2 phases: Auction and Production.
Auction Phase
At the beginning of the round the 1st player takes the Company deck, randomly cuts it to shuffle the top card in, and then deals a row of cards with the basic side up. These cards will be offered to the players at an auction. The number of cards depends on the number of players:
- 2 players — 6 cards (see the 2-player game section)
- 3 players — 7 cards
- 4 players — 8 cards
When all cards are dealt, place the deck back on the Round counter.
All players starting from the 1st player and going clockwise take turns bidding on the cards with their Capital discs. During their turn, a player must place one of their discs on any available Company card, following two rules:
- There can't be 2 discs belonging to the same player on one card;
- There can't be 2 discs with the same value on one card.
The bidding continues, with each player placing one of their remaining discs in clockwise order, until there are no more discs to place. The players then proceed with resolving the results of the auction.
The cards in the auction are resolved one by one in order from left to right. If there is no disc on a card, it is discarded in the box. If there is at least one disc on a card, the player with the highest bid receives the card and places it in front of themself with the basic side up. All other players who had their discs on the card get compensated.
Important: The one who gets the card doesn't get compensated for it!
For your convenience
The values of the discs differ with their sizes which makes it easier to see what values are placed on the card already. What's more, we recommend you stack the discs into a pyramid, putting the smaller ones on top of the bigger ones. Then, it will be easier for you to review the players' bids: first, all smaller discs will get compensated and then the owner of the highest bid will receive the card with their one disc remaining on it.
If you are out of certain resources or tokens, use Multiplication tokens. Just place the token in front of you with the corresponding side up and put the resource you need to multiply on it. For example, a Coal cube on a "×5" token represents 5 Coal.
Compensation
There is a compensation listed at the top of each Company card. It is received by all players who placed their Capital discs on the card but did not get it because they were outbid.
As well as with the other effects, there are 2 types of possible compensation effects: extraction and processing. However, the compensation effect depends on the value of the player's disc on the card. If extracting, the player gains the indicated resources multiplied by the value of their disc. If processing, the player may resolve the effect up to as many times as the value of their disc.
Example: There are a white "4" and a red "3" placed on a card with a compensation effect of extracting 2 Coal. The owner of the "4" receives the card, but first, the owner of the "3" gains 2 Coal three times, meaning 6 Coal total.
Example: There are a red "4", a black "2", and a yellow "1" placed on a card with a compensation effect of processing 1 Iron into 1 Oil. The owner of the "4" receives the card, but first, the owner of the "2" may process 1 or 2 of their Iron into 1 or 2 Oil respectively and the owner of the "1" may process 1 of their Iron into 1 Oil. They may also refuse to resolve this compensation effect if they can't spend any Iron or don't want to.
It's crucial to resolve the cards in the row one by one in order from left to right as a player may gain resources by one compensation effect and then spend those resources by another compensation effect. In order to do this, they must gain the resources before spending them. In other words, the extraction card must be to the left of the processing card.
When all cards from the auction row are resolved, the players take all of their discs back and proceed with the Production Phase.
Production Phase
During this phase the players resolve their Company cards which allows them to gain and/or process resources. In order to save time, all players may resolve the cards simultaneously since there is no interaction between the players in this phase.
The Company cards must be resolved one by one. Each card can only be activated once per Production Phase. The cards can be activated in any order, but once the player starts resolving the next card, they can't get back to the previous ones, even if their effects weren't resolved completely.
If a card is placed with its basic side up (the same way it was placed during the auction), the player may resolve its basic effect only (the one with the fully colored symbols). Transparent symbols show the additional effect that will become available once the card is upgraded, but it can't be resolved while the card is placed with its basic side up.
If a card is placed with its upgraded side up, the player may resolve both the basic and the additional effects of the card since they are both fully colored. In this case, the effects are resolved from top to bottom.
Important: No effect can be "inserted" between the two effects of one card. The player must first resolve all effects they want or can from one card before proceeding with the next one.
For your convenience
At the beginning of the Production Phase, it's better to line up the cards in the order you wish to resolve them. When a card is resolved, slide it up a little bit (or rotate it 90 degrees) to show that it can't be resolved again during this phase.
Start-up cards and Upgrading
Start-up cards are resolved in the same way as all Company cards. Its topmost effect allows the player to gain an Upgrade token. Its last effect allows the player to upgrade (flip over) as many of their Company cards as they want at a price of 1 Coal and 1 Upgrade token each.
- Receiving an Upgrade token
- Upgrading any number of cards
The Start-up card can't be upgraded. If the player resolves a basic effect of their Company card and then upgrades it during the same Production Phase, they can't go back to its additional effect, even though it is available now. However, if they upgrade it before resolving its effect, they may resolve both of its effects during that same phase.
Round End
When all players are done with the Production Phase, the round is over. If it was the 4th round, the players proceed with scoring. Otherwise, the 1st player token passes to the left, and a new round begins. Advance the Round counter one space.
Game End
Each player adds up their money, and whoever has the most, wins. In case of a tie the player with the most cards wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the most resources wins.
Variant Rules
Experienced players may try to play with a production chain. The rules are modified as follows:
- All of the player's cards (including their Start-ups) must form a horizontal Chain.
- After each Auction Phase the players must assign places for the newly received cards in their Chain by placing them either on the left of it, on its right, or somewhere in between.
- The relative order of the cards in the Chain must stay the same.
- In the Production Phase, the cards in the Chain are resolved one by one, in order from left to right.
2-Player Game
At the beginning of the game, assign a set of Capital discs that wasn't chosen by the players to an Agent (a dummy player). During the Auction Phase, roll a die after each second player's bid. The roll shows the number of the card in the row that the Agent will bid on. The Agent tries to place their disc on the card, following the regular placement rules, choosing the lowest possible disc to do that. If the Agent can't place any of their remaining discs on the card, they will try to place their disc on the next card instead, following the same rules, and so on (in case they can't place it on the sixth card, they will try to place it on the first one). Thus, during the Auction Phase, the Agent will always be the third to place their disc. At the end of the Auction Phase, discard all cards that should've gone to the Agent, but let the players be compensated for them first.
Example: The Agent has 2 discs left: a "2" and a "4". The die shows a "2", but there is one of the Agent's discs on the second card already. The Agent looks at the third card instead, but there are other players' "2" and "4". They move on to the fourth card. There is a "3" on it, so the Agent places their "2" on the card. If there had been a "2", the Agent would've had to place a "4" on it.
Credits
Game Designer: Ivan Lashin Game Producer: Petr Tyulenev Lead Artist: Oleg Yurkov Artwork: Vadim Poluboyarov, Marta Ivanova, Egor Zharkov, Ilya Konovalov, Sergey Dulin Design and Retouching: Sergey Dulin Design and Layout: Kristina Soozar
Publisher: Hobby World
© 2020 Hobby World. All rights reserved. Rules version 1.0.