Gameplay ArcHWay — Mastering Production in Furnace

Hi, guys!

Last time we were talking about the auction mechanism in Furnace, and now it’s time to cover another part of the game — tableau-building and resource management during the Production Phase.

In Furnace, you’re gradually expanding your own industrial empire and trying to maximize your profits despite the ever-changing market tendencies.

Entering Production

When the auction results are resolved, the players usually receive 2–3 new cards with the basic sides up and their bottom effects being not active just yet.

Then everyone manages their own industrial empire: the players resolve their cards one by one, in any order they wish (if they don’t play in a frenzy “Production Chains” Mode explained below), by activating all available effects.

It’s recommended to overlook each other’s actions in player order during the first few games, but after several game sessions, everyone will be able to resolve their facilities on their own.

Card Effects

There are the same 2 types of effects you’ve seen before: 1) gaining and 2) processing resources. However, here, the effect doesn’t get multiplied by your bid — it is limited by the card itself.

New Effect

There is also a special effect available on each player’s starting card that allows upgrading facilities: flipping the cards and resolving their bottom effects.

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1

The compensation effects are not resolved during the Production Phase. Only the effects below can be resolved by the owner of the card.

2

The effects with resource symbols allow gaining the depicted amount of resources. During the Production Phase, the effects are not multiplied like it was with compensations.

The owner of this card will gain 1 Iron when resolving the first effect of the card.

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Gaining 2 Iron is not available for the card’s owner at the moment. In order to resolve it, they will need to upgrade the card first.

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The effects with an arrow allow processing resources into other resources or money tokens. The limit of such transactions per Production Phase is indicated above the arrow.

With this effect, the card’s owner will be able to process 1 Iron into 1 Oil up to 2 times per Production Phase.

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This effect of processing 3 Coal into 4 coins up to 3 times per Production Phase is not available yet. The owner will have to upgrade the card if they want to resolve its second effect.

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Each player has a starting card with 3 effects available (see below).

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Everyone begins the game with different starting resources

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With this effect, you will gain 1 Upgrade token per Production Phase. Everyone has this effect.

Other cards also allow gaining Upgrade tokens, so you will be able to upgrade more than 1 card per round.

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With this effect, you will be able to process 3 Coal into 4 Coins once per Production Phase. This effect is different for everyone.

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With this effect, you will be able to upgrade any number of your cards for 1 Upgrade token and 1 Coal each. Everyone has this effect.

Say, by paying 1 Upgrade token and 1 Coal, you may upgrade the card to the right. See how it changes!

Golden Rule

There is one important thing: you may not resolve a card partially and get back to resolving it later.

Let’s take a look at a few examples:

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Let’s say, you have 1 Coal and you’d like to resolve the second effect of the card.

You’re short of Oil though! One can say that you could gain 1 Iron with the first effect…

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…and then process that Iron into Oil with the first effect of your second card, but…

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…you can’t come back to this card now and discard 1 Coal and 1 Oil for 6 money tokens — neither once, nor twice!

A pair of effects from one card must be resolved together. If you move on, the leftover effect must be skipped.

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This card hasn’t been upgraded yet, so the second effect is not available.

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With this particular pair of cards, you may process 1 Iron into 4 Coal with the first effect of the first card and then sell 3 Coal for 4 coins with the second effect of the second card.

The second card also allows upgrading a card for an Upgrade token and 1 Coal. If you decide to upgrade the first card, you won’t be able to resolve its newly available effect during the same Production Phase since the card had been activated earlier.

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If you decide to resolve the starting card first and upgrade the second card without resolving it first, both its effects will be available during this Production Phase. The choice is yours!

Optimal Production

Your aim is to get the highest profit possible out of your empire. Ideally, you shouldn’t have any unspent resources by the end of each round. It’s okay if you do, but you need to have a plan.

The resource supply in the game is limitless and if you ever run out of resources, there are several multiplication tokens that can be used. However, Petr Tyulenev, the producer of Furnace, likes saying, “If you find yourselves using the multiplication tokens during a game of Furnace, you’re probably doing something wrong.” 🙂

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Place one of your abundant resources here and return the rest back in the supply

Grandeur Thinking

Normally, each player gains 2–3 new cards and a certain resource supply as a result of each auction. This means that you will get to resolve about 6–7 effects during the first Production and up to 30 (!) effects during the last one!

In order to manage such an empire effectively, you must carefully build your strategy and be ready to maneuver if the market doesn’t correspond to your expectations.

This is how your industrial empire may look like at the end

Production Chains

Managing your facilities during the third and fourth Production can be daunting as is, but there is an additional game mode that turns production into a real challenge!

In this mode, you won’t be able to change the order of your cards. You will still be able to insert new cards in the row, but your empire won’t be so flexible anymore and it will require a careful approach and thoughtful expansion.

Industrialists

If played with Industrialists, the Production Phase plays differently for their owners.

With Savva Mamontov, you’ll be able to upgrade your facilities much easier and potentially profit from your Upgrade tokens later in the game.

Felix Yusupov allows activating one card twice and each round it can be a different one!

What’s Next

Next time, we’re going to talk about the game’s artwork, so stay tuned!

If you want to explore Furnace on your own, the rules are available now!

Are you a publisher or a reviewer and would like to discuss the projects? Feel free to contact us right now!