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Game Info
Year
2015
Players
2-4
Age
12+
Playtime
90 min
Collection
Your Tier
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Description
In Automania, you run a car factory, trying to produce the most popular cars in the market. To achieve this, you buy tiles to upgrade and customize your factory, and hire specialist employees to help you.
Central to the game are the factory boards: Each player has a factory with three assembly lines, and each assembly line produces one type of car. You can put machine tiles along your assembly lines to change the specifications of your cars. However, your three assembly lines intersect, so each machine tile placed might affect more than one type of car — which means you have to think carefully about where you put those machines.
When a car is produced, it must be sold in one of two markets, and the better the specifications of the car is in line with the demand in the chosen market, the more popular the car will be. The most popular cars reap the highest profits, earning money or prestige — which is what you need to win this game.
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 6
This page: 6
Sentiment:
pos 5 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 1 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–6 of 6
Video uGkyHjHjAYc
Getting Games Top 10 List at 4:10 sentiment: positive
video_pk 92257 · mention_pk 247834
Click to watch at 4:10 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Interesting twist on worker placement with a grid of tiles
- Fascinating concept with multiple actions from row/column tile choices
Cons
none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Worker Placement — uses a 4x4 grid of tiles; workers placed on top or side to grab a row/column tile and perform actions
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Number one game I'm excited to play at Board Game GeekCon is Gold West.
- Number 10 is 504.
- Time Stories... it's this really cool cooperative time travel puzzle solving mystery.
- Gold West... looks solid. I'm having a really hard time putting my finger down on exactly why this game has me so excited.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video 3B0XKLVC3kA
Getting Games Discussion at 0:45 sentiment: positive
video_pk 91090 · mention_pk 244142
Click to watch at 0:45 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- tactical action selection and tile grabbing from the middle
- strong player interaction via worker bumping
- accessible flow with clear interaction and pacing
- interesting market/production dynamic and strategic depth
Cons
- asymmetries felt unbalanced and detracted from the experience
- additional complexity from asymmetries that did not seem to add value
Thematic elements
- car manufacturing and market demand
- factory or car manufacturing environment
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Asymmetric Player Powers — different asymmetrical abilities for players, affecting costs or hires
- asymmetric powers (asymmetry) — different asymmetrical abilities for players, affecting costs or hires
- car token placement on ships with star values — cars are built by placing tokens representing different car types; high-star value cars go on higher-value spots on ships
- grid-based action selection and token collection — the chosen row/column determines the type of car or bonus you receive; tokens are taken from the middle and placed on your tableau
- round-based with selling phase — after everyone passes, players sell cars to gain money and victory points; sells proceed from highest value first
- two-sided board with different emphasis — one side is better for money while the other is better for victory points
- Worker Placement — place workers on the farthest spot in a row or top of a column; if the space is occupied, you must bump others and place additional workers to take the action
- worker placement on a grid with bumping — place workers on the farthest spot in a row or top of a column; if the space is occupied, you must bump others and place additional workers to take the action
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I really like the flow of it.
- I really like the way this one works.
- I would definitely play this again in the future.
- not cheap to buy… MSRP is close to $100, it's an expensive game that takes up a decent amount of space on your shelf
- this is a pretty cute game
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video cyp2D7CLnFs
Board Gaming Ramblings Other at 17:32 sentiment: positive
video_pk 86369 · mention_pk 223178
Click to watch at 17:32 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Fun and exciting
- Simple mechanics with depth
- Engaging market and factory tailoring
- Cool action selection mechanism
- Excited to play again, especially with more players
Cons
- Ended up with one market each in a two-player game, which wasn't ideal
- Likely better with more players
Thematic elements
- car manufacturing
Comparison games
- Craftwagen
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Factory Building — Tailoring the factory to meet market demands.
- Market Demand — Players respond to changing market demands for cars.
- player interaction — Trying to see what opponents are focusing on and not doing the same.
- Production line — Stations in the factory can decide multiple cars in the production line.
- Worker Placement — Players place workers on a grid to choose actions.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- it doesn't feel that much like getting something off the shelf of Shame when we had it for like two months but some of these are old titles some of them we had longer it's the same thing some of them we had longer some of them we had shorter so it feels like a good mix of games and also a good mix of smaller and bigger games
- I made a deal with my myself that I'm only going to choose games that I somehow want to play and not games I was like oh let's just play it and get it out of the way
- Best and worst experience Best Automania worst broth of Fire Mountain
- subscribe to the channel was what I was hoping you would say but also look outside because it's outside or look at the board game because board games are fun
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video sDOB7XkZw-w
Board Gaming Ramblings Other at 7:11 sentiment: positive
video_pk 86292 · mention_pk 222827
Click to watch at 7:11 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Was good.
- Had supply and demand sneaking into the market.
- The action selection is pretty cool.
- Liked it a lot.
- Gave it a thumbs up.
Cons
none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — Praised as a cool and enjoyable mechanic.
- Supply and demand — Ingeniously integrated into the game's market mechanics.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- time is weird
- we played a lot of shelf of Shame games or games we haven't played before
- my most fun experience this month uh has to be playing Clank Legacy 2 dos with our friends
- it's not my favorite game of all time but I am enjoying it
- I really want to play more
- it's a great Euro game because we don't care about theme
- this is really good and it's also a origan word for weird M which is weird that but it's great
- it was horrible I don't know what to say it was horrible
- it's Randomness the game like I would rather play YSI because that has more strategy than this game
- if we say it like silly and stuff but it helps us with the algorithm
- it's not because it is the best game ever and it's not even maybe because it's the best campaign game ever but it's just coing I'm just a sucker for these kind of games
- it's basically Pokemon but just not
- we love these Campaign games I think like the main reason is because it's like a different thing from all the Euro games we play
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video wsEozm3nLxg
The Dice Tower Discussion at 47:47 sentiment: neutral
video_pk 82102 · mention_pk 206111
Click to watch at 47:47 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
neutral
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- They ended really strong in book three. It was a good ending of sorts and I really liked it.
- I don't care about it.
- They have multiple multiple uh points of view which I was fine following the one person.
- I just found it to be maybe the last book will bring everything back together, but I doubt it. I just don't care anymore.
- Look, I'm okay with characters dying and things that you need that to progress a story sometimes, but good grief. Does it have to be that bad all the time?
- The mobs are out there and the mobs are going to hunt you down and no matter what you say.
- It has definitely become a witch hunt in many ways where people like as soon as they hear the word the letters AI, they're like, 'I'm out.'
- I think the backlash is and people going and rating games one on BoardGameGeek is kind of ridiculous.
- That has nothing to do with the game. It really doesn't. That's that's just nonsensical.
- I'm kind of mind-boggled with how much people complain about prices of games.
- Yes, games are expensive. They're really expensive to make.
- You don't go yell at your gas station attendant, you shouldn't when gas goes up. That's not them who are doing it.
- It should be a friendly place to go to.
- I always try to put some monkeys in my zoo, period. Just so I can say I have some monkeys.
- I dislike the cat character a lot and I found it to be okay.
- But I will warn you, I noticed that a lot of people when they do this, they also forget about the part where they you should make money.
- Wash it in the shower?
- If I ran BoardGameGeek, if I saw someone rate a one with a comment of 'I hate what they did here.' I would just delete that rating instantly.
- I think are you kidding me? This is so nonsensical.
- I love going to bookstores.
- Any place that has unique interesting thing, a hot sauce store, a a beef jerky store, whatever.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video BNSIhcMiZsg
Before You Play Top List at 20:10 sentiment: positive
video_pk 8730 · mention_pk 25773
Click to watch at 20:10 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- puzzles and production constraints create satisfying tension
- distinct from Kanban despite shared car-making theme
Cons
- art style can be divisive; may not attract all players
Thematic elements
- industrial production and production-line optimization
- car manufacturing and supply chain
- puzzle-driven with a humorous, stylized presentation
Comparison games
- Kanban
- Craft Wagon
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action-grid with row/column tile selection — place workers on a grid to perform actions, while taking a tile from the chosen row/column.
- economy with risk/reward tradeoffs — balance money vs points while navigating changing demands.
- production optimization and contracts — produce cars with varied attributes to meet contracts and market demand.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a brain burn—it can cause analysis, but in a good way.
- i love the Mancala-like mechanism in games
- there is potentially you can play with a hidden traitor mechanic in this game
- the heart of the game is in that auction, it feels like auction in a palace
- it's extremely tense
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–6 of 6