Steam Works is now in beta

[shadowphiar]

Compete to be the most prestigious purveyor of marvellous mechanisms in a steampunk version of Victorian England with Steam Works, a quite magnificent game of gears and ingenuity - now at beta!

game_box@2x.jpg (105.99 KiB) Viewed 19209 times

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=steamworks

Steam Works is a game about building machines, using components like the “Patriotic Sonnet Generator” and the “Innovation Turbine”. These machines have effects in the game: when a player puts their worker on a power source to activate it, they get to do useful things like collect resources, or start constructing even bigger and more powerful machines. You get points when somebody uses one of your inventions, which means there’s a great dynamic around the table; you need to be salesmen and encourage everyone to visit your machines as much as possible. If you can design superior machines you’ll be on your road to victory! As the game goes on you get more powerful components to use, and more workers – but they need to be paid, so keep an eye on the cash flow. The challenge is to keep ahead of the other players, building in features that their machines don’t have so you can corner the market and win the most prestige.

What mad machines would you come up with?

Steam Works is designed by the Highly Esteemed Alex Churchill, Esquire of Cambridgeshire and published by the Most Venerable Tasty Minstrel Games, Incorporated of Mountain Green.

[Eleon]

Hello,

We desperately need an option to only end the game after the Red stack of parts or the red clockwork are gone.

What is the point of having a red deck if you never get to use it except once in the entire game?

I have just finished my 4th game in a row where the white deck has run out before the Red deck has been unlocked, which more or less means the game ends on the turn you see your first red part.

Now when people say, "the game has gone on too long if you end the game on the white deck" is just crazy. The game is ending on the 7th turn most of the time. 2 turns to open up the white deck and then 4 turns to clean the white deck out. Then 1 turn of the red deck.

Every time I have played this at a convention or at multiple game groups, we have always played by the rules that state that the game ends only when the clocks on the red have run out.

Now I do understand the creator of the game, did not intent for the game to be played that way, but that is a mistake, that is really the part that makes the game fun. You get to actually build the cool and powerful machines. With all you men unlocked (where if you have this option you get more than one turn with them), normally ends the game the turn after the red belt opens up, but that is OK. You get to see at least double the number of red titles, and have a chance to build better machines.

So, please add the option to end the game only on the red clocks. It makes the game a lot more fun and interesting (and is how everyone I play with has always played, I have never seen anyone play with the current rules, even if they might be the creators intention in writing them, they are not how any of us have ever read the rules that way) .

Thanks,

[Armitage2k]

I own the physical copy, and have yet to be able to play a game on here.

The game ends when the Age-3 clock tokens (or gold tokens) are exhausted, or the Age-3 tiles are exhausted.

This is the way it should play... does the BGA version get this wrong?

[shadowphiar]

The true rule is that any conveyor belt not being able to fill from the supplies, will trigger the next age or the end of the game. However, this is so commonly misunderstood that I asked the game designer for permission to add an option to house-rule this, and this is now available on BGA when you start a table.

[shadowphiar]

The designer clarified this rule in a document on boardgamegeek, and I've also literally spoken to him about it. This is a quote from the rulebook [with some comments from me, aiming to clarify the intent]:

"If there are not enough tiles in the current stack [that is, the stack of components corresponding to the belt you are currently filling] to fully refill a conveyor belt, remove remaining Clock counters in the current stack [that is, the stack of clock tokens that was being used in the Age you have just played] from the game, unlocking the next Age (and populating the corresponding belt). If the current stack [of clock tokens] is the Game End stack, then the game is now over."

[Cerebrovore]

Strange things are happening with the game at the moment - I have tried to start a game and 3 games appeared. All but one were created and then dropped within a second. I'm now on an 8 hour wait to get a game.

Is this BGA / Steamworks or something else entirely?

[shadowphiar]

Strange things are happening with the game at the moment - I have tried to start a game and 3 games appeared. All but one were created and then dropped within a second. I'm now on an 8 hour wait to get a game.

Is this BGA / Steamworks or something else entirely?

I don't think that can be anything specific to the game, as far as I'm aware.

[paramesis]

Strange things are happening with the game at the moment - I have tried to start a game and 3 games appeared. All but one were created and then dropped within a second. I'm now on an 8 hour wait to get a game.

Is this BGA / Steamworks or something else entirely?

This is related to "Automatic" option in the BGA metasite, not to Steamworks specifically. It will attempt to join open tables if they exist. Otherwise, it will create up to three tables with different options based on your preferences, and automatically quit the others once a table has filled up and started. Personally, I like to have more control over the process, so I use "Manual" mode when setting up and joining tables.