As an aspiring designer myself, I try to make it a habit to read all the UnPub reports put out by fellow writers and reviewers (e.g. Jason Tagmire, Cartrunk Ent., etc.) In doing so, I came across a game called "The Market," a set-collecting, economic game utilizing timing mechanisms by a gentleman named Ben Rosset. Everyone who wrote about this game raved about it, and everyone I asked for information about the game loved it.
Ben subsequently took his game to more and more UnPubs. There it gained more visibility, became more streamlined, and caught the attention of Bryan Fischer and John Sizemore of Nevermore Games (Chicken Casesar) who decided to re-theme the game into a steampunk setting and entitle it "Mars Needs Mechanics." In July, Ben brought the game to Origins. It was on my radar to play. Unfortunately--or fortunately for Ben and Nevermore--there was never an open space into which I could squeeze and take the opportunity to play, so I made the game one of my top priorities at GenCon.
After playing twitter/email tag with Ben for a few days, I finally got to sit down with him and a three other convention goers (including a father and his 9 year old son) to try out the game. The first thing I noticed was the lengths to which Ben and Nevermore went to add some thematic spice to their demo version of the game: the starting player token was a bolt with some heft, and the board itself was affixed to a piece of metal. I highly doubt the final game will contain these components (ultra stretch goal!!) but it definitely helped things feel immersive.
And things didn't stop there. After we had settled into our seats and had a chance to look everything over, Ben launched into storyteller mode, spinning a yarn about the game's setting and generally making me wish that every copy of the game came with a mini-version of him you could take out of the box in order to hear the story again; it wasn't necessary for him to do this, but it was greatly appreciated and really got me excited to play.
The gist of that story and the setting for the game? ... 1873. The British Royal Academy of Space Exploration has been asked by the Queen to explore Mars by year's end through the use of the H.M.S Victoria VII. As one of the Empire's leading Aether Mechanics, you have been invited to compete for the title of Royal Astronautical Engineer. To win, you will need to prove your mettle by earning the most cogs by the competition's end. Can you build it... YES YOU CAN!
To start the game, each player receives 2 scrap metal cards which act as Wild Cards when making sets throughout the game. Players then receive 30 cogs (the game's currency) and three component cards; cogs are placed in front of the player and are always public information. Next, the 7 component tokens are placed randomly on the order line located at the top of the board and their corresponding markers are placed on the board row showing "5" (i.e. the direct middle of the board). Finally, 4 Mechanism and 8 Component cards are set out and the player with the best English Accent is given the starting player token. Got all that, chap? Jolly Good.
As the game progresses, you'll be purchasing Component cards from the center of the table for their market value (always 5 in the first round of the game). If a component card is purchased, its corresponding token is moved to the head of the line at the top of the board. When a player doesn't want to--or can't--purchase any more component cards, he/she passes. When all players pass consecutively, or all component cards have been purchased, the market prices are adjusted: the three tokens at the back of the line cause their corresponding markers to go down 1 in value, the 4th stays as is, and the 5-7th tokens (i.e. the three purchased most recently) get their value increased by 1.
During their turn, players may also build or break down one of the 4 mechanisms on the board. These mechanisms give you special powers such as giving additional cogs when you sell a set, or allowing you a bit of efficiency via the ability to build and break down a mechanism in a single turn. It should be noted, however, that you can (typically) only have one mechanism built at a time, so choose carefully.
After the round ends, players are then free to sell sets of 3+ cards at market price. Scrap may also be used to complete a set, though you won't get any money for it (e.g. if you sell 2 Wires + 1 scrap at the market value of 4, you'll only receive 8 cogs, not 12). Once this is done, the component cards are restocked up to 8. When there are no component cards left in the deck (or players purchase nothing for 2 consecutive rounds) the games ends, market values are adjusted, sets are sold, and the player with the most cogs wins.
If all this sounds streamlined and easy to grasp, it is ... until it's not. When you get the explanation of the rules, it seems simple enough: buy low/sell high. Admittedly, this would be easy if you were the only one controlling the market. It's not that easy though. Opposing players might steal your components (thus driving up the cost for you to get them on a subsequent turn). If you opt to not buy a component in hopes of driving down the price, you're going to need to buy it more in future rounds to drive the price back up in order to turn a profit. If you purchase them at the wrong time, the cost is going to go up, and your profit margin is going to get slimmer and slimmer. It's all about WHEN you buy and HOW you manipulate the market.
This, in my estimation, is what makes Mars Needs Mechanics so great. It's an incredibly streamlined and accessible game (as proof, the 9 year old with whom I played picked the game up after about one round) that still manages to achieve a deep strategic element. In my game, for example, I was hording aether tubing. I knew I didn't have to get all 8 of them, so I let the kid's father purchase the stragglers, thus increasing the cost of the commodity until it maxed out at nine. I then built a rocket booster (+1 when selling sets) and sold my set of 4 tubes for a profit of 37 cogs. I was up to 55 cogs and thought I was in good shape. I was... aside from the fact that I had no cards in my hand and there were (by my estimate) 2 rounds left in the game. The 9 year old played a fantastic game those final two rounds and only came up short of beating me by 3 points {55-52}, but the tension of those final rounds simply added to the excitement of play.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I really enjoyed my play of Mars Needs Mechanics and I'll be one of the first people to support it's kickstarter campaign when it hits the sight on August 31st. Ben, John, and Bryan have a great game on their hands, and I encourage people to check it out. Having met all three of them at GenCon, I know they are great people and great designers, and it's always good to help people like that succeed.
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