City of Gears is a unique steampunk game of exploration, area control, worker placement, and engine building. From your incredible Factory, you must race to claim ownership over the magnificent ruins of an abandoned clockwork metropolis. Each game plays in under an hour, and because only nine of the city tiles (from dozens available) are randomly chosen and placed each game, no two games ever play the same.
Each turn, you roll a number of production dice and activate City Tiles, then you move your automaton workers and perform a variety of actions (such as drawing and placing gears to reactivate areas of the city, sabotaging opponents, and activating unique steam powers) as determined by your resources. Along the way, you will develop your Factory with special powers which set it apart and provide you with powerful bonuses.
As the city is revealed and its abilities are discovered, players must concoct plans to accrue prestige and hinder opponents so that once Opening Day arrives, they will emerge victorious! Do you have what it takes to set the City of Gears in motion?
- distinct gameplay feel unlike other euros
- high production and interactivity
- hard to understand without playing
- requires some learning curve
- architecture and automation with gear-based visuals
- steampunk city in conflict/reconstruction
- thematic, mechanical
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area control / worker placement hybrid — putting out robots and connecting regions via plastic cogs
- tile/board interaction — actions chain back to linking tiles and regions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's one of those games that can be played by anyone
- it's basically Taboo but trap words
- one of the best-looking covers of a ball game I've ever seen
- a dynasty of games that feels different to anything else
References (from this video)
- interesting interaction in a strategy game
- compact for a strategy title
- unknown depth for non-fans of the theme
- influence and interaction with mechanisms that affect other players
- Strategic city-building with Victorian steampunk vibes
- strategic and competitive
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- tableau-building / worker placement like — Influence and interaction determine payoff; others can affect your space.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is from I games in Ukraine and this is from one of the designers of mysterium
- we had a lot of laughter with this one
- surprising amount of skill to hitting that Tower
- this is a reversed dungeon cruel
- I had loads of fun with it last night