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Tycoon in 5 Epochs
Industry
From Bricks to Computers
In 2003 a game called Industria by Michael Schacht was published at Queen Games, a mixture of auction and efficient use of money and resources, factories, technologies or bonus tiles. 2010 the game was picked up by Ystari, edited and published again under the name of Industry.
Again, you guide an industrial empire through five epochs, from the gravel pit to the robot factory, you represent a dynasty and build factories, acquire route and shipping lane contracts for bonus points. At the same time you need to auction off factories and technologies as profitable as possible to earn good money – money is scarce in this game – or secure the most lucrative items for yourself.
A round in the game comprises 5 Phases, which are always completed by all players before a new phase begins. After each 3rd or 4th round in case of four or three players a change of epoch takes place.
In Phase 1 – Income – you simply receive 1 Taler.
In Phase 2 new area markers a drawn, 1 per player, and displayed, for a marker with a Taler symbol you receive 1 Taler from the bank.
Phase 3 takes to the core mechanism of the game, the auctions: The starting player of the round is the auctioneer, he chooses an eligible = available field and names it. A field is eligible when it is situated at the intersection of the epoch marker line and the area marker column. Starting with his left neighbor each player makes exactly one bid, each bid must surpass the previous one or you must pass. When all have bid or passed the auctioneer decides if he wants to buy himself or leave the bid to the highest bidder. If he takes the money he remains auctioneer and auctions the next field. If he takes the field, he pays 1 Taler in turn to each player until the sum of the highest bid is paid, and remains starting player. If nobody makes a bid, the auctioneer gets the field for free, but must take it. In both cases the next player is the new auctioneer. The new owner of the just auctioned field places one of his markers there, showing the clock.
When all available fields have been auctioned, Phase 4, development, starts. In turn you can develop two undeveloped fields by paying the construction costs. Technologies are free, some fields demand discarding of resources. Those you can get from a joker, from your own already developed factories or from buying from the bank for 1 Taler, the bank only offers resources from previous epochs. For a field that has been developed you turn the owner marker over and – maybe – receive victory points; for factories only if you develop them in the same epoch in which you acquired them. Technologies must be developed in the same epoch and bonus fields yield victory points at the end of the game. If you developed bank or stock exchange costs are lowered by 1 more Taler.
In Phase 5 the marker for the starting player goes to the next player. When all spots of an epoch have been auctioned, there is a change of epoch and new resources become available from the bank. Once in the game you can take out a subsidy of 3 Talers, but this costs you 5 victory points at the end of the game.
When all epochs have been played, you receive victory points for certain combinations of factories and technologies, money, unused joker cards and bonus tiles. The player with most victory points wins the game.
The most interesting question is, what is different as regards to Industria? First of all, the tiles representing opportunities to be auctioned have been changed into fields on the board that are marked with ownership markers, and you may only develop two fields per turn instead one from each category, in any order. And foremost of course, the mechanism of the auction itself: In Industria the auctioneer got the item for free if you chose to take it himself, in a variant he only paid half of the highest bid.
And this takes out that what I liked least in Industria – the free access to good opportunities for the auctioneer. Now the auction is challenging and must be considered carefully, because the auctioneer chooses last and know what the cost will be for acquisition and whether- especially in case of a technology he will be able to develop – especially when others raise the bid for an interesting field.
Unfortunately this plus is accompanied by an acute minus, which is the – let’s keep polite – rather difficult game board. It is beautiful but very confusing and to find out, how the technologies and factories connect to yield bonus points very nearly is a game within the game.
But that is not essential in contrast to the improvement due to the change in the auction mechanism, the game for me is better and more interesting – Industria was a good game, Industry is an excellent game!
Dagmar de Cassan
Spieler : 3-4
Alter : ages 10+
Dauer : ca. 90 min
Autor : Michael Schacht
Grafik : Stéphane Poinsot
Titel : ident
Preis : ca. 32 Euro
Verlag : Ystari 2010
Genre : Auction game
Zielgruppe : With friends
Version : de
Rules : de en fr
In-game use of language : no
Kommentar:
Revised new edition of Industria
Very confusing graphics of the board
Rules much more interesting
Vergleichbar:
Industria and other development games with auction mechanisms
Meine Bewertung: 5
Dagmar de Cassan:
For once, an auction game that I do like! The mechanism of the auction has been vastly improved as compared to predecessor Industria!
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