How to play City of the Great Machine & Review

City of the Great Machine is a one vs many game.

Title: City of the Great Machine

Year Published: 2023

Designer: German Tikhomirov

Publisher: CrowD Games

Players: 1-4

Game Time: ~90 minutes

Set-up Time: ~5 minutes

Ages: 14+

Theme: Alternative Earth, Steampunk

Mechanisms: One vs Many, Hidden Movement

How to win: As the revolutionaries start 3 riots, The Great Machine needs to get the master plan to 12.

Game Description

City of the Great Machine is set in a grim universe of technocratic Victorian steampunk. The game features the conflict between the Great Machine, an artificial intelligence network, and an alliance of Heroes.

How to play City of the Great Machine

A quick overview of the rules so you know how to play the City of the Great Machine.

Main Mechanisms

Apart from this being 1 vs many and a co-op, the only real mechanism to call out is hidden movement.

USP

One vs many, hidden movement and/or steampunk are not unique of course.

Having the 1v3 race to a target feels quite unique? I’m not sure.

The double wheel component and moving tiles on the board are the USPs of this game.

Theme

I like the theme of the Overseer, the Great Machine causing havoc for the revolutionaries. Then the revs are trying to cause an uprising to take back control.

Setup & Rulebook

The setup is fine. There are rules for players to take turns placing a tile to build out the board. For me, not enough players at the table will have played enough to have the experience to know what to do here.

The rulebook is good apart from a few segments out of sequence so some page flipping is required.

Components & Artwork

These are really nice. They’re good enough to look good but not so good that the price of the game is obnoxious.

It’s not my style of art but I can appreciate the aesthetic fits in with the theme.

Ease of Teaching

There are a few actions but they’re all on cards and tiles where relevant.

There are some fiddley rules around moving map tiles and the costs for some effects. Most of the ‘if this then that’ rules are covered in the two rulebooks.

Similar Games

My favourite one vs many games is still Specter Ops I think and my fave steampunk is maybe Victorian Masterminds?

I don’t think I’ve played a directly comparable game.

City of the Great Machine Summary

As the Great Machine you’re trying to work out where the other players will go to detain them and slow them down. The first 6 rounds of the game are very much against TGM so if you can hold them off you’ll get off to a good start.

But income is tight and actions are hard to take early on so the Revs tend to start well.

As the Revs you’re trying to outthink TGM and get some riots started ASAP.

The mechanisms play well and once players know what they’re doing turns are lightning quick. Even with 2 players, the slowest part of the game I the revolutionary picking 3 access cards. Usually, they have a plan ready and know 1-2 of them beforehand.

The bluffing and guessing game is really good fun, even if the Great Machine feels restrictive a lot of the time.

Round-Up

A really good 1 vs many game for 2 or 4 players. (3 players is a little weird, although solo and co-op modes are available in an expansion)

Rating

I give it 6/10

Note: The copy I played was a review copy generously provided by CrowD Games, big thanks to them for this game.