Gearworks is a game described to me as a puzzle game, “Steampunk Sodoku”

How can you turn THAT down?!

Your life in the workshop is a monotonous affair. You were once a renowned machinist, but after the accident twelve years ago it’s been a long road to recovery. Since then, your machines never work very well, or for very long, before they break. The workshop owner has given you one more chance to prove your worth.

This is a brief video overview of Gearworks showing the game in action with my final thoughts.

Gearworks Summary

What an interesting game. You lay a card and spin a dial… But it’s the mix of ‘area control’ with 2 DIFFERENT placement rules that works really well. You’re not just looking at which column in a row you can place a number, but also at the other colours in that column. Also, will you gain a Spark from that placement? Sparks are a ‘currency’ you can use to enhance actions and break rules.

Then you need to think about the row and column itself and if it’s going to help you get the parts you need. If not is it a wasted placement? Or does it look like someone else wants the bit and you can steal it 🙂

On top of all of these considerations are the use of Sparks and abilities. Using Sparks to lay a card over an existing card means you can never be sure you’ve ‘locked down’ a component.

Also if someone passes and they have a Spark, you can’t count them out of the round.

The cards used for placement are pretty basic, just numbers and arrows. But the cogs used for ‘control’ are nice and work well. The little Spark tokens are pretty good. The art of the contraption cards and characters are good too.

It’s a very nice game, a little mean, but nice 🙂

Jesta ThaRogue