Gear & Piston Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
  • 1 Game Board
  • 42 New Part Tiles
  • 42 Junk Part Tiles
  • The Parts & their Types
  • 20 Scrap Part Tiles
  • 6 Back Tiles & 6 Front Tiles
  • 14 Investor Tiles
  • 1 First Player Tile
  • 36 Action Tokens in Six Colors
• Setup
• How to Play the Game
  • Round Sequence and Phases
  • I. Plan Actions
  • II. Resolve Actions
    • 1. Adjust Volatility and Discard a Blueprint
    • 2. Back Alley
    • 3. Patent Office
    • 4. Junk Yard
    • 5. Workshop
• A Few Good Rules For Mostly Safe Automobile Construction
  • The Requirements of a Complete Automobile
  • Automobile Building Example
• III. Refresh Patent Office and Junk Yard
  • Example of a Game Round in a Game with 2 Players
• Final Round and Ending of the Game
• Scrap Parts
  • Scrap Part Placement Example
• Scoring
  • Scoring Example
• Investors
  • Investor Stack 1 (4 investors)
  • Investor Stack 2 (6 investors)
  • Investor Stack 3 (4 investors)
• Variant Rules
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
  • Round Sequence and Phases
  • Final Round and Ending the Game
• Credits
• Quick Rules Reference
  • Round Sequence and Phases
  • Location Actions
  • Requirements of a Complete Automobile
  • Game End
  • Scoring

Game Components

1 Game Board

The game board is divided into several areas: the Score Track, the Volatility Track, the Action locations, and the Holding Box.

Score Track — The twisting golden gears on the side of the game board form the Score Track, which is used at the end of the game to count Victory Points. At the start of the Score Track there is a scoring aid demonstrating the three ways to score points.

Volatility Track — The Volatility Track measures the reliability of a player's automobile. A higher value means a less reliable vehicle. The Volatility Track is adjusted at the beginning of each round and is resolved before the locations.

Action locations — There are 4 different Action locations on the game board: Back Alley (2), Patent Office (3), Junk Yard (4) and Workshop (5). The players perform their actions in these locations. Each location has a number that determines the order in which it is resolved (2-5). In addition, the locations show a number of action token spaces that display the maximum number of action tokens that may be placed there. There are action token spaces that are used only in games for 3 players, in games for 4 to 5 players, or in games for 6 players, as indicated by the numbers marked inside the spaces.

Holding Box — All Action Tokens are returned to the Holding Box after an action has been taken in a location. The tokens may be used again during the next planning phase. Action Tokens in the Back Alley are moved first into the temporary holding area next to the Back Alley (2) action token spaces. They remain there for 1 turn before they are moved to the Holding Box.

42 New Part Tiles

New Parts are acquired from the Patent Office. Each part is of a part type that is indicated by a silver icon, which describes its function. All of the New Parts also have a bronze icon, which represents the Comfort, Power, or Range attributes, which are a source of Victory Points at the end of the game.

The bronze attributes are: Comfort, Power, Range.

42 Junk Part Tiles

Junk Parts are acquired from the Junk Yard. Each part is of a part type that is indicated by a silver icon on the left side of the tile, which describes its function. The majority of the parts have a darker Volatility icon on the right side of the tile, but there are some that do not. Volatility reduces Victory Points, but can be countered by some improvement parts.

The Parts & their Types

Both New and Junk Parts can be divided into three types of Motor (green for electric, red for gasoline, and brass for steam). In addition, there are gray tiles, which represent generic parts. Parts are also categorized by placement: top-row parts, with a curved wood panel, and bottom-row parts, with a straight wood panel and an outline of the ground.

Parts serve different functions, as indicated by the silver symbol on the left corner of the tile: Motors, Gears, Steering systems, Fuel supplies, Axles, Improvements.

20 Scrap Part Tiles

Scrap parts are used to replace parts or substitute missing parts to complete an otherwise incomplete automobile at the end of the game. There are Scrap Parts with 2, 1 or 0 Volatility.

6 Back Tiles & 6 Front Tiles

These tiles are cosmetic and do not affect gameplay, although they might be useful in tracking the two sections of the car under construction.

The Back tile outlines the minimum requirements for an automobile (see the AFGRFMSAC section) as well as a reference to each player's color.

The Front tile aids in remembering that Attribute icons give Victory Points, the Reliability icon reduces Volatility, and that Volatility icons reduce Victory Points.

14 Investor Tiles

Investors change the scoring conditions and are chosen randomly at the start of each game (see Scoring).

1 First Player Tile

The first player tile is used to indicate which player started the current round.

36 Action Tokens in Six Colors

Each player receives 6 Action Tokens of same color at the start of the game. Each player places one of his color tokens on the Volatility Track and one on the Score Track.

In games with 2 or 3 players, each player uses all four remaining tokens as Action Tokens during the game.

In games with 4, 5 or 6 players, each player uses three tokens as Action Tokens during the game, and returns one token to the game box.

Setup

1. After taking the correct amount of Action Tokens as noted above, setup continues as follows:

2. Place the game board in the center of the table and place each player's Action Tokens in the Holding Box area.

3. In a game with 2 or 3 players, remove any New Part and Junk Part tiles marked with "4-6," and return them to the game box.

4. Shuffle the New Part tiles and place them face-down in a stack on the space provided for them in the Patent Office. Draw six tiles from the stack and place them face-up on the side of the board next to the Patent Office.

5. Shuffle the Junk Part tiles and place them face-down in a stack on the space provided for them in the Junk Yard. Draw three tiles from the stack and place them face-up on the side of the board next to the Junk Yard.

6. Shuffle the Scrap Part tiles and place them face-down in a stack next to the game board. These will be used only at the end of the game.

7. Separate the investor tiles into piles based on their markings of "1", "2" and "3" and randomly draw one from each pile. Depending on your familiarity with the game, use the following number of investors:

   • Standard game: Two investors, one from Stack 1 and one from Stack 2
   • Advanced game: Two investors, one from Stack 1 and one from Stack 2 or Stack 3
   • Expert game: Three investors, one from Stack 1, one from Stack 2, and one from Stack 3

   Place the chosen investors face-up next to the board and return the rest to the game box.

8. The player who owns the oldest car goes first, and receives the First Player Token. If the players are unable to determine who that is, or if no players own cars, the players may use any method they choose to determine the first player.

How to Play the Game

The game is played in rounds, each consisting of three or four player turns, depending on the number of players in the game. On his turn, a player takes an Action Token from the Holding Box and places it on one of the action spaces in one of the locations. When all players have placed all of their available tokens, the actions in each location are resolved in order.

Blueprints and hand limit — The parts acquired from the Patent Office and the Junk Yard form the player's hand and are referred to as Blueprints while they remain in hand. The hand limit is five Blueprints at any time during the game. If the limit is reached, a player cannot resolve any action that would result in drawing additional parts in hand.

Secret Information during the game — The Blueprints in players' hands are secret, and players are prohibited from counting the parts remaining in the stacks.

Round Sequence and Phases

The game progresses over several rounds, each of which contains the following phases:

I. Plan actions. II. Resolve actions. III. Refresh Patent Office and Junk Yard.

I. Plan Actions

During the planning phase, each player in turn takes an Action Token from the Holding Box and places it on the first available circular space in any of the locations. The players do this in clockwise order, starting with the First Player. When all players have placed all of their available tokens, the planning phase is over.

II. Resolve Actions

All the actions planned in the first phase are now resolved. The actions in each location are completed before moving on to the next location, following the order of the numbers printed on the game board, from 1 to 5. In areas 2-5, where there are Action Tokens, the actions are resolved in placement order, i.e. the first player to have placed a token on a space takes the first action, and moves the token to the Holding Box.

This is repeated for each token at that location. When there are no more Action Tokens left in a location, go on to resolve the next location. When all actions have been resolved, proceed to the next phase.

1. Adjust Volatility and Discard a Blueprint

The players adjust their place on the Volatility Track to match the number of Volatility icons in their automobiles. Then each player may, in turn order, choose to discard any one Blueprint from his hand.

2. Back Alley

Players take underhanded actions in the Back Alley, paying off shadowy figures, using barely legal techniques to get an edge. As a consequence of the risk involved, an Action Token placed here cannot be used during the player's next planning phase.

When resolving the Back Alley location, do not move the Action Tokens to the Holding Box. Instead move them to the orthogonal temporary holding area next to the circular action spaces.

If, at the beginning of resolving actions in the Back Alley, there are any Action Tokens in the temporary holding area, move them to the Holding Box. Each player who placed an Action Token here must choose one of the following actions:

• Espionage: Choose a player and look at the Blueprints that player has in hand. Then take one Blueprint and add it to your own hand. You cannot take this action if you have reached the hand limit of five.
• Union Muscle: Change the position of one of your Action Tokens in any one location, in any direction that you like. There is no limit to how many steps you may move, but you must move at least one step. Slide any tokens already present to cover the vacated space, preserving their position relative to each other.
• Black Market: Look at the three top tiles of the New Parts stack, and place one of them into your hand. Then return both remaining parts to either the top or the bottom of the New Parts stack, in any order you choose. You cannot take this action if you have reached the hand limit of five.

3. Patent Office

Players obtain part designs in the Patent Office, deciding what direction their research will take.

With an Action Token here, a player must take one New Part. The player may choose to take one from the six available face-up parts, or draw one from the top of the New Parts stack. When a part is taken from the six face-up tiles, the empty space is not refilled.

4. Junk Yard

Players scavenge for used, damaged, possibly unreliable parts in the Junk Yard.

With an Action Token here, a player must take one or two Junk Parts. The player may choose to take one from the three available face-up parts, or draw one from the top of the Junk Parts stack. If a player takes two parts, he can take any combination of face-up or face-down tiles. When a part is taken from the three face-up parts, the empty space is refilled immediately so that there are always three available face-up Junk Parts.

5. Workshop

Players build their automobile in the Workshop, trying to combine gears, pistons and wheels into something that they can, ideally, pass off as a vehicle, and that will one day perhaps carry people to their destination.

Before resolving any actions here (and thus before removing any tokens to the Holding Box), the players should note who was the last player to place an Action Token in the Workshop. This player is given the First Player token, and will be the first to Plan in the next round. When resolving an Action Token placed here, a player may build, dismantle or upgrade parts.

A player may take up to a number of actions indicated by the numbers above the Action Tokens space where the player has placed action tokens. The same action may be taken several times. The available actions are:

• Build: A player may add a Blueprint from his hand to his automobile.
• Dismantle: A player may remove a part from his automobile and discard it.
• Upgrade: A player may replace any number of parts on his automobile with Blueprints from his hand. The parts to be replaced must be of the same type and color as the parts used for the upgrade.

Any removed parts are discarded in their respective (New or Junk) discard piles. If all players agree, Workshop actions can be taken simultaneously instead of in Action Token order.

A Few Good Rules For Mostly Safe Automobile Construction

(easily remembered by the handy AFGRFMSAC acronym)

Each player builds only one automobile. In an era of what can generously be described as lacking safety standards, players are not allowed to divide their attention between more than one prototype.

There are no limitations on the length of the automobile, but it can only be built in two rows of parts: a top row and a bottom row. This is indicated by the shape of the wood panel. A straight wood panel and a dark ground area must be on the bottom row, while a curved wood panel must be placed on the top. For example, and to the surprise of almost nobody, axles must be on the bottom row, and Steering systems must be on the top.

An automobile may be in the process of being built in a maximum of two separate sections. These sections can be merged together as a free action at any point during the game. After they have been merged they cannot be separated unless the player uses the Dismantle action to remove a part that divides the car into two sections again. It is far better for any separation to occur within the confines of a Workshop, preferably while the car is stationary.

The Requirements of a Complete Automobile

The requirements of a complete automobile are checked only at the end of the game.

1. Each automobile requires:
   • at least 1 Motor
   • at least 1 Fuel supply for each Motor
   • at least 1 Gear
   • at least 2 Axles
   • at most 1 Steering system
2. Each colored part requires a Motor and Fuel supply of the same color in order to work.
3. Each part on the top row requires a part on the bottom row and vice versa.
4. Each part must be supported by an axle. Each axle supports up to 5 parts which are directly adjacent to it, orthogonally or diagonally.
5. For an automobile with more than one propulsion type, each of the types requires a Motor and Supply in order to work.

Automobile Building Example

The players have retreated to their Workshops and are hammering and bolting their approximations of motor vehicles. Before performing a Workshop action, Green decides to merge his two sections as a free action (1). He has three actions and he decides to use two of them to build two parts. (2) Green first places a New axle to support the parts that were without axle support and he then places a Junk electric Motor on his automobile. (3) He uses the last of the three actions to upgrade three parts he has already built. In his hand, he has Blueprints for a Gear with a Range icon on it, a New electric Motor and a New Fuel supply.

In addition to the Junk electric Motor he built this round, Green also wants to upgrade two parts that were built in the earlier rounds: a gear with a Power icon and a Junk electric Fuel supply. One part at a time, he discards the part to be replaced and in its place he places a part of the same type from his Blueprints.

III. Refresh Patent Office and Junk Yard

Any remaining parts next to the Patent Office and the Junk Yard are discarded, and replaced with parts from the corresponding stacks. When refilling, six New Parts and three Junk Parts are placed face-up next to the corresponding locations of the game board.

Players are encouraged to clean up after themselves and not play with greasy hands, unless they are playing in an actual workshop, garage, or Cheetos factory.

Example of a Game Round in a Game with 2 Players

Plan Actions

• Blue has the First Player tile so she begins by placing her first Action Token on the 1st action space of the Patent Office. Green then places his Action Token on the 1st action space of the Workshop.
• Blue places her second token on the 1st space of the Junk Yard followed by Green's second token on the 2nd space. The Junk Yard is now full.
• Blue now places her third token on the 2nd space of the Workshop and Green goes for the 2nd space of the Patent Office.
• Blue places her final token in the 1st space of the Back Alley and Green places his on the 3rd space of the Patent Office. It is now time to resolve the actions.

Resolve Actions

1. The Blue player built two Volatility icons on her automobile during the previous round, so she moves her token up the Volatility track by two steps. Green has no Volatility icons so he remains at zero. Blue decides to keep all of her Blueprints but Green discards one unwanted Blueprint from his hand.
2. Blue begins at the Back Alley since she has a token on the 1st space. She decides to use the Black Market action and draws three tiles from the New Parts stack and chooses which one to keep. She returns the two remaining tiles to the bottom of the stack. The Blue token is placed in the temporary holding area.
3. In the Patent Office, it is again Blue's turn, as she has a token in the 1st space. She takes a tile from the face-up parts next to the game board and adds it to her hand, returning her token to the Holding Box. Green has tokens in the 2nd and 3rd spaces, so he decides first to blindly take a part from the New Parts stack. Then, for his other action, he takes a part from the face-up tiles. Green returns both tokens to the Holding Box.
4. The next location to be resolved is the Junk Yard, where Blue begins yet again and takes a part from the face-up parts next to the game board. The empty space is immediately refilled from the Junk Yard stack. The newly revealed part was nothing that she wanted, so she decides to take the other part blindly from the Junk Parts stack, and returns her token to the Holding Box. For his turn, Green also sees nothing he would like, so he takes both parts blindly and also returns his token to the Holding Box.
5. The players now get to work on their prototypes, and resolve the Workshop. Since Blue was the last player to place an Action token here, she keeps the First Player tile. Green has a token in the 1st space and has three actions to take. He uses two actions to build two Blueprints from his hand, and the third to upgrade three parts on his automobile, returning his token to the Holding Box. Blue only has two actions to use. She takes a Dismantle action to remove a part from her automobile and a Build action to place a Blueprint from her hand, also returning her token to the Holding Box.

Refresh Patent Office and Junk Yard

The remaining four parts of the Patent Office and three parts of the Junk Yard that are face-up are discarded and then replaced with parts from the corresponding stacks. A new round begins.

Final Round and Ending of the Game

The game ends:

immediately, when there are not enough parts to fully refill the Patent Office to six parts or the Junk Yard to three parts.

OR

at the end of the round in which one of the players has a complete automobile of at least twelve parts.

Players then proceed to add Scrap Parts to their automobiles. Following that, Victory Points are scored.

Scrap Parts

One or more Scrap Parts must be added to an automobile that, at the end of the game, is not complete (according to the well-known and easily remembered AFGRFMSAC previously referenced in this document).

Each part that is missing or not working must be replaced by Scrap Parts before scoring the automobile. These are drawn randomly from the Scrap Parts stack, starting with the player holding the First Player tile and proceeding in clockwise order. Each player draws all required Scrap Parts before continuing to the next player.

A Scrap Part can be used to substitute any missing part that is needed to complete the automobile, and it can also be used to cover a part that does not have the other parts needed for it to work. Each player may decide the best approach to take during this process, but a Scrap Part must be built the same way as the substituted part would have been built. For example, Scrap Parts that are replacing Axles and Gears must be on the bottom row, and Scrap Parts replacing Motors, Fuel supplies and Steering must be on the top row.

Scrap Parts do not yield Victory Points. In addition, they break continuous areas of one type (see Scoring). However, they do function in all other ways as the replaced part. Their main effect is to increase the Volatility rating of the automobile, and therefore reduce a player's total score.

Players should not be too harsh in their mocking of fellow players' automobiles, as many of today's cars are in fact comprised of what can charitably be described as Scrap.

After placing any Scrap Parts that they drew, players adjust the volatility rating of their automobiles.

Scrap Part Placement Example

Green is missing a Fuel supply for a steam Motor, one of his Axles, his steering, and one part for the bottom row of his automobile.

(1) He begins by drawing one part from the Scrap Parts stack for the missing Fuel supply. He could use the drawn scrap part as a new steam Fuel supply to expand his automobile even further, or to cover the steam Motor with it. He decides to cover one of the junk electric Fuel supplies instead. In this way he is able to keep the Range icon on the steam motor. The Scrap Part now acts as the Fuel supply for the steam Motor.

(2) He then draws a second Scrap Part to substitute the missing Axle so he can support all the parts around it. The same Scrap part is also used to substitute the missing part on the bottom row.

(3) Since he is still missing a Steering system, he needs to use a Scrap Part for it next. He draws a third Scrap Part and places it on the top row (a requirement of Steering systems), which then results in an empty bottom spot below the Steering. Now Green has to draw yet another, final Scrap Part to fulfill the requirement of having a bottom part for each top part.

Scoring

Scoring takes place once at the end of the game. Each player receives Victory Points as follows and in this order:

• VP according to Investors. If there is ever a tie between two or more players for an Investor's points scoring, all tied players receive the bonus or the penalty. The Victory Point bonuses do not stack if the same scoring goal is reached multiple times.
• +1 VP for each part in the largest continuous area formed either by parts of one propulsion type, which are of one color (green for electric, red for gasoline, and brass for steam) or by generic (gray color) parts in an automobile. The largest continuous area is formed only by parts that are orthogonally (and not diagonally) adjacent to each other.
• -1 VP for each grade of Volatility on the Volatility Track.

The player with the most Victory Points has built the best prototype and is the winner of the game. In the case of a tie, the player with the least Volatility wins. If there is still a tie, the victory is shared among the tied players.

Scoring Example

It is time to score Green's automobile. Investor 1 is looking for Range more than Power or Comfort, and Investor 2 likes hybrid automobiles.

Therefore, Green receives 7 VP for the four Range icons, 0 VP for just one Power icon and 1 VP for the two Comfort icons, for a total of 8 VP from Investor 1.

From Investor 2, Green unfortunately does not receive the bonus even though he has two different types of Motors, since he has used a Scrap Part to substitute the Fuel supply for the steam Motor. The largest continuous area formed by either generic or specific parts yields him 4 VP since the largest area he has is formed by the 4 electric parts. Finally, it is time to receive Volatility penalties. Green had no Volatility in his automobile before adding the Scrap Parts, but drew parts that gave 1 + 0 + 2 + 1 for a total of 4 Volatility.

However he also has a generic improvement which reduces Volatility, subtracting 1 from the penalty. He now has 4 - 1 for a total of 3 Volatility. This gives him a negative 3 VP leaving him at a total VP sum of 8 + 0 + 4 – 3 for a grand total of 9 VP.

Investors

Investor Stack 1 (4 investors)

Investors in this Stack give points for sets of bronze attribute icons (Comfort, Power, Range). Three of them are looking for more of a certain attribute, and one investor appreciates all attributes equally.

A minimum of two such icons are required for a player to earn points from an attribute. After that, players earn two Victory Points for each additional attribute icon that is present in their automobile.

Investor Stack 2 (6 investors)

• "The larger the better." The player that has built the automobile with the most parts receives 3 VP. Any players in a tie all receive the points.
• "Show me something new." Each player with an automobile that has at least three improvements receives 3 VP.
• "We need it to stay in one piece." The player that has built the automobile with the least Volatility receives 3 VP. Any players in a tie all receive the points.
• "It's a hybrid!" Each player with an automobile that has at least two different types of motors and matching fuel supplies (but not Scrap Parts as fuel supplies) for those motors receives 3 VP.
• "A bit of everything." Each player with an automobile that has all of the icons shown on the card receives 3 VP.
• "Inefficiency hurts the bottom line." Each player receives a -1 VP penalty for each Blueprint remaining in hand at the end of the game.

Investor Stack 3 (4 investors)

• "It's gorgeous!" Each player with an automobile that has no scrap parts receives 2 VP.
• "Now, that's what I call range." The player that has built the automobile with the most range icons receives 2 VP. Any players in a tie all receive the points.
• "Now, that's what I call power." The player that has built the automobile with the most power icons receives 2 VP. Any players in a tie all receive the points.
• "Now, that's what I call comfort." The player that has built the automobile with the most comfort icons receives 2 VP. Any players in a tie all receive the points.

Variant Rules

The variant rules reward foresight and planning ahead. It is recommended that you try this variant only after you have become familiar with the basic game.

Setup

Do not place any face-up parts on the Junk Yard side and place only 3 parts face-up on the Patent Office side. These 3 parts now form the Refill Row. Place the Variant Tile over the Junk Yard space, so as to cover the existing action spaces.

Gameplay

Patent Office action — There are going to be two separate rows in the Patent Office side of the game board. The Refill Row will be right next to the game board and the Discard Row above it (see Patent Office Jump Row phase).

By placing an Action Token in the Patent Office, the player may choose to take 1 part from the Refill or Discard Row or blindly draw 1 part from the New Parts stack. This part is then taken into the player's hand.

When a part is taken from the Refill Row, it is immediately replaced by a part from the New Parts stack. When a part is taken from the Discard Row, it is not replaced.

Junk Yard action — The number of parts a player can take from the Junk Yard depends on which space he placed an Action Token on.

• If the player placed a token in the 1st space, that player draws 4 parts from the Junk Parts stack and keeps up to 2 parts.
• If the player placed a token in the 2nd space, that player draws 3 parts from the Junk Parts stack and keeps up to 2 parts.
• If the player placed a token in the 3rd space, that player draws 3 parts from the Junk Parts stack and keeps up to 2 parts.
• If the player placed a token in the 4th space, that player draws 2 parts from the Junk Parts stack and keeps up to 2 parts.

After a player has chosen which of the parts to keep, that player discards the rest of the parts. When the Junk Parts stack is exhausted, the discarded Junk Parts are reshuffled to form a new stack.

Round Sequence and Phases

Only the final phase of the round differs from the basic rules. The Refresh Junk Yard and Patent Office phase is replaced by the Patent Office Jump Row phase. The order of phases is now:

I. Plan actions (same as in the basic game). II. Resolve actions (same as in the basic game). III. Patent Office Jump Row phase: When all the location actions have been resolved, any remaining parts located on the Patent Office Discard Row are discarded. The parts on the Refill Row slide upwards to form the new Discard Row. The Refill Row is then refilled with 3 parts from the New Parts stack.

Final Round and Ending the Game

The game ends: immediately when there are not enough parts to fully refill the Patent Office Refill Row to three parts, OR at the end of the round in which one of the players has a complete automobile with at least twelve parts on it.

Players then proceed to add Scrap Parts to their automobiles. Following that, Victory Points are scored.

Credits

Rulebook editing: Corrie and Todd Walden. Rulebook translation: Ellh Karlaouzos-Gaston & Pierre Gaston (French), Susanne Hirche & Rainer Winstel (German). Thank you to the many Kickstarter backers, playtesters, and everyone else who helped bring Gear & Piston to life.

• Game design: Jukka Höysniemi
• Illustration: Mateusz Bielski, Jukka Höysniemi, KJ Kallio, Odysseas Stamoglou
• Graphic design: Maciej Mutwil
• Development: LudiCreations

The designer would like to thank first and foremost his fiancée Niina for supporting him in this time consuming but rewarding endeavor, LudiCreations for making this game a reality and everyone else involved for their contribution in this combined effort. Many thanks go to everyone who gave advice, help, and playtesting during the development of this game, and especially to Harri-Pekka Kuusela, who led playtesting and contributed to many improvements of Gear & Piston's theme as well as its mechanics.

Quick Rules Reference

Round Sequence and Phases

I. Plan actions. II. Resolve actions. III. Refresh Patent Office and Junk Yard.

Location Actions

• Back Alley: Choose 1 action from the following: Black Market (draw 3 New Parts and keep 1), Espionage (steal a part from another player), or Union Muscle (move Action Token ahead or behind in a location). The Action Token placed here cannot be used during the next planning phase.
• Patent Office: Take 1 New Part, either from the parts next to the game board or from the New Parts stack.
• Junk Yard: Take up to 2 Junk Parts, either from the parts next to the game board or from the New Parts stack.
• Workshop: Actions that may be used are Build, Dismantle, and Upgrade.

Requirements of a Complete Automobile

• Each automobile requires a Motor, Fuel supply for each Motor, Steering system, Gear and two Axles.
• Each type of part (electric, gasoline, steam) requires a Motor and Supply of same type.
• Each part on the top row requires a part on the bottom row and vice versa.
• Each Axle supports only the five parts surrounding it.

Game End

There are not enough tiles to refill a location from the refill Stack, OR one of the players has a complete automobile with at least twelve parts on it.

Scoring

• VP according to Investors
• +1 VP for each part in one largest continuous area
• -1 VP for each point of Volatility