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Mars needs Mechanics

Lens and wire for X-ray GoGgles

As Aether Mechanic in a Steam Punk setting you apply for the position of Royal Astronautical Engineer in a Mars mission crew. You start with Scrap Metal and 30 units of money, "cogs". The components board featuring Order Line and Value columns and a number of Mechanisms are set out and each player is dealt three component cards; eight components are laid out openly as market for the round. In your turn you must do a Primary Action - Purchase a component or Pass - and can then do an Optional Action - build an available mechanism or break down a mechanism previously built; both is only possible within a round, not between rounds. When a component is bought, its marker is moved to the front of the Order Line. To build a mechanism you discard the necessary components and mark it; it is now built and working for you. Breaking it down and removing the marker gets you back the components. When all component cards of a round are sold or when all players have passed, the round ends - component values are adjusted in relation to their position in the Order Line and you can now sell sets of three or more identical components. When there are no component cards left in the draw pile or none were bought for two rounds you win with most cogs.

Mars needs Mechanics offers nice "Buy cheaper than you sell" mechanism, careful timing is important for selling components and influencing of prices by buying components. The selection of Mechanisms to choose from for a game guarantees many different games of a well-working resources management game as an introduction to the genre, a game also good for families with some gaming experience.

Players: 2-4

Age: 10+

Time: 45+

Designer: Ben Rosset

Artist: Bryan Fisher

Price: ca. 28 Euro

Publisher: Nevermore Games 2013

Web: www.nevermoregames.com

Genre: Resources management

Users: With friends

Version: en

Rules: en

In-game text: yes

Comments:

Nice Mechanisms for first steps within the resources management genre

Timing of buying, selling and breaking up mechanisms is essential

Compares to:

All games with buy-use-sell-with-profit cycles, Nefarious for different effect combinations of the mechanisms used

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0