Workshop of the World

Two of my top ten games have canal construction and the early days of the Industrial Revolution as a central theme. The news that another was coming out, that is was a Ragnar design split in to two eras, a Railway and a Canal era, made me think instantly that the Ragnars were making a game similar to ‘Brass’ or'Canal Mania' - However it bears only a superficial resemblence to either game, and for ‘Brass 2’ we have ‘Age of Industry’ released on the same day as ‘Workshop of the World’ at the UK Expo on Saturday 5th June.

Contents and set up

The major industrial towns and cities of England, Wales and Southern Scotland are depicted on the map (hereafter referred to as ‘towns’); they are connected by rectangular Links in which players can build Canals and in the second part of the game Railways. Most connections between towns are of a one link length, some are two and these tend to be links between the areas at the fringes of the map. Each town has a number on it between two and four which denotes income when a connection is built from the town and also its industrial capacity. Each town is also colour coded to show its industrial output, Heavy Industry, Light Industry, Textile, Craft or Port. The board contains a demand track for each of these industry types. The board is surrounded by an income track (its money that wins this game, not VPs, thematically correct as I doubt many industrialists would trade a bent penny for a VP).

There is also a deck of 39 cards which are either town cards corresponding to a location on the board or wildcards which refer to a town of a 2, 3 or 4 capacity.

Game setup and play is very simple. Each player is given a set of double sided counters (one side Canal and one side Railway) and wooden industry cylinders in their colour , 50 money and two random (and kept secret) demand counters the demand counters correspond to the industries on the board. Six starting cards are separated from the deck, the deck is shuffled and, depending on the number of players, a number of cards are set aside (these have a space on the board as they may be used). The six starting towns which are shuffled and placed on top of the draw deck and a number equal to the number of players are drawn and placed on the board. We are now good to go.

Game Play

The first thing players do is look at their secret demand counters and simultaneously reveal one. This counter is placed on the demand track. (As no one owns any industry on the board yet or has won an auction I wonder why this was not just a random draw?). The second demand counter is kept and may be used at the end of the era, or during the second era.
Before I describe a game turn I better explain what you are trying to achieve. The aim of the game is to acquire as much money as possible, (as stated earlier there is no glory VPs in them dark satanic mills). You make progress up the income track each turn by building links on the board and, at the end of each era for links you have place on the board, with your largest contiguous link being worth two pounds per link, compared to shorter or solitary links which are worth one. You also get money for your industries which are placed in towns that have a demand for their corresponding industry types.

So on to the mechanics.

The number of turns in each era depends on the number of players; six with five players, seven with four and nine with three.

Each turn as many cards from the deck are laid on the board as there are players. Players then simultaneously place coins in their hands (you can bid zero) to bid for turn order. Bids are revealed and the turn order is decided by who paid the most, if there’s a tie (which there will often be) it’s decided on existing turn order (they paid for the order before so why lose it; there is no catch up mechanism in this game. It can be harsh if you value the auctions incorrectly)
Then, in turn order, players pay the amount they bid to the bank and pick one of the face up town cards, place one of their industry tokens on the town named on the card and then can build one or two links starting from that town or from the first link built. Canals cost £3 per link and in the second era railways £2 (this cost reflects the fact that, in real terms, Canals were more expensive to build than Railways). Income on the income track is scored for each town where you have an industry you have made link to with the links placed that turn. At the beginning of the game this will be just one town scored (for example if I take the card for Manchester and build one link to Liverpool then i will score £4 on the income track. If I have an industry in Liverpool as well then I will score £7).

This is one of the only parts of the game that I have found new players finding difficult to grasp that you only score for links built that turn, not for connections made using links built on previous turns. If you take a town card where all the links out of that town are already built then you have the option to either just place an industry on the town or discard the card and draw a card from the set aside pile ; described in the rule book as ‘a gamble is a gamble’. A couple of people I have played with felt this introduced a luck element into the game, however I believe this is factored out by the valuation you place on the cards on the initial selection.

The crux of this game is valuing the auctions correctly. This requires you to not only know what taking each town is available is worth to you but also what it is worth to the other players. If all of the towns are equal value to you then a low bid is fine, however if you need one and only one then you have to bid higher, however if that town is only useful to you then you might consider a lower bid. You might also make a small bid to keep you ahead in turn order looking ahead to potential tie breaks in the next round. Cash remaining at the end of the game is victory points. For the first six turns you only have 50 pounds to bid with and build links and you need to budget for this. You can raise additional cash by going back on the income track two spaces for a pound but this is a an uneconomic exchange. The game winner will be the person who has the best understanding of the value of the auctions.

At the end of an era the players receive cash equal to the score on the income track (which is then reset to zero), two for each link in their largest contiguous network of links and for each industry in a town that has demand for its industry (for example if I have two industries in ports and there are three demand tokens on the blue port track I will receive six pounds). Before the demand income is awarded each player has the opportunity to place their second demand token on the corresponding track. All of the canal links are removed from the board, however all the industries on the board remain.

The second, Railway era, then begins. All the town cards are shuffled together and the same number as the first era set aside. Each player receives two randomly drawn demand tokens and all players simultaneously select a token (this might be one retained from the first era) to place on the demand track.

The only difference from the canal era is that links, now railways cost only two pounds to place. Whilst the mechanics are the same the auctions have a different character in the second era because there will be a lot of industries on the board and the payoffs for building links is higher and the cost of building is lower. In the first era building a second link on your turn can be a loss making move (cost £3, payoff £2 or £1). In the Railway era the second link is likely to break even, and more importantly might just block a rival from placing a link they desperately need (to say join two railways networks into one contiguous network). Strategic placement of industries in the first era will pay off in the second; it can worth paying a little extra in the auction to keep your industries within easy linking reach for big payoffs in the Rail era And if it’s in the centre of the board you have set yourself nicely (assuming you have not overpaid)

Each town has a capacity of two to four industries, and should a player select a card where the capacity is reached he replaces another players industry with one of his own. This can happen early in the game (most likely in the two capacity towns), but is much more likely to happen towards the end. This adds another factor to add into the auction valuation.

When the Railway era finishes (there will be no more tows cards to draw), each player may place one more demand token and the scoring is calculated the same way as the first era. The player with the most money wins.

So what do I think of the game?

I like it. The rules are easy to understand and players quickly get a feel for the amounts they should be bidding in the auctions. I usually struggle with games that require an auction for turn order, especially where the bid will go the bank regardless of how successful my bid was. I don’t in this game because the immediate pay off for you bid is not to difficult to calculate, what takes a little longer to get a feel for is the strategic placement of you industries and the values other players will place on the cards available. This is not rocket science though and after a couple of turns most players will get a feel for the auctions. The game feels like it passes quickly, there can be a short delay as players decide on how much to bid, and occasionally if they have a tough choice from the town cards. The three games I have played have taken less than 90 minutes.

In the design notes the Ragnars have credited ‘Brass’ and ‘Canal Mania’ as an influence, however this game does not feel like either game and I am struggling to make to think of a game this closely resembles. If you are looking for a reprise of either of these games you are going to be disappointed. It’s lighter, the decisions are easier and the ripple effect between the eras is much less than in ‘Brass’. And the game, for a Ragnar design, feels far more abstracted than in previous games.

One of my gaming buddies likes heavier economic games did not like ’Workshop’ , however it was liked by gamers who like lighter games and most importantly it’s a hit with my wife who is my main gaming partner.

The game is for three to five players (there is a two player variant in the rules book which i have not tried yet). I think it plays best with four or five, the board is a bit more congested, it is harder to build a network and the fewer rounds with four or five players make each auction feel crucial to get right and therefore more interesting.

Production quality

The graphics are bright and clear. The production is not quite up to the standards of the most recent Ragnar games but it is functional and the bright colours help game play rather than get in the way. The rules are clear, short and unambiguous.

Niggles

I have seen players wildly over bid on the first turn of the canal era and this has crippled them. For a light to medium complexity game this might be a flaw if you are intending on playing it with casual gamers. I now advise new players to, if in doubt, underbid on an early round

The plastic coins provided with the game. The ten pound coins are only really used as money storage as they are too large to be held in small hands for bidding.

However, these are mild complaints and in balance I would recommend the game.

The game is available from the Ragnar website http://www.ragnarbrothers.co.uk/html/workshop_of_the_world.html

Our Favourites : Canal Mania

Now I don’t know many people who have a Mania about Canals though do occasionally see bargees puffing on pipes, working complex looking locks and generally having a peaceful time on Regent’s Park canal. Looking at recreational canalistas it’s hard to imagine that Briton’s Canals were once the arteries of the early industrial revolution. They are a fascinating historical subject, both economic and social, but compared to the belching steam of the early railroad canal’s have not fired the creativity of games designers or imagination of gamers.

However, The Ragnar brothers (Angola, Fire and Axe, History of the World. Monastery) are inspired by the less trodden path’s of gaming theme and in Canal Mania they have created a game faithful to the subject and also great fun to play.

Why do I like it so much?

1) Canal Mania scales perfectly between two and five players
2) It’s complexity sits nicely between gateway games like Ticket to Ride and more complex fare such as Railroad Tycoon or Age of Steam
3) Its quick to play a 2 player game can take 45 minutes and a five player game can finish in 90
4) The rules can be understood after 10 minutes but it also provides challenging tactical game play

Canal Mania has similarities to several Train games, Like ‘Ticket to Ride’ you need to connect cities to score points for contracts (think ‘tickets’) awarded by parliament and like Railroad Tycoon/Age of Steam you move goods along your (and other players network) for victory points. There are some key differences though unlike Ticket to Ride you can’t just build canals any where you like they have to be between towns and cities that match the Parliament cards you have selected and unlike Railroad Tycoon placement of goods is involuntary if certain cards are selected and then there are restrictions on where goods can be placed.

How does it play?

Two to five players compete for victory points that are awarded for 1) completing canals 2) The type of canal counters used in completing the contract and 3) Shipping goods.


The board depicts the major industrial cities, towns and ports of England they are colour coded for goods placement and shipping. The distinction between towns and cities is only important when placing goods . Superimposed over the board is a hexagonal grid with most towns being no more than four hexs from any other, terrain type is either easy or difficult to build in and it is on these hexes you will build your canals. Each player has the same set of canal counters 16 stretch canals, 12 locks, 4 aqueducts and 3 tunnels. Each player also receives an Engineer card who will help you build your canals beware though these engineers are a fickle bunch and don’t expect to keep your starting one for long.

Five starting contracts are placed face up on the table to be selected by the players and the rest of the contracts are shuffled and then a sixth starting contract is placed on top of the pile. Each contract will command you to construct a canal between two towns, sometimes they instruct you to connect the two via an intermediate town each contract specifies the victory points awarded for completing the canal which also doubles as a maximum length in hexes for the canal (Parliament doesn’t want you greedy early capitalists stretching the Canal’s unnecessarily). The contracts represent real Canals and add to the thematic fidelity of the game. Each player is given one junction contract (anywhere to anywhere maximum two hex length) which he can use later in the game, and he will because their use is crucial to completing high scoring networks or sneaking into other peoples. More on this later. The build cards are shuffled and five are drawn and placed face up by the board.

The build cards depict a length of canal and they match the starting canal counters of the players. There is also a Surveyor build card that acts as a wild card and some of the build cards have a colour block on them matching the colours of the towns and the cities. Like Ticket to Ride players will have the option of either choosing three face up build cards or using cards in hand to build a canal. If a face up card is selected that has a colour block on it then the player must place 2 goods tokens of the appropriate colour on matching cities or towns their being a hierarchy in which they can be placed (connected cities, connected towns, unconnected cities, then unconnected towns). Choosing where to place goods tokens and knowing that goods are most likely to appear in cities is a key part of the strategic process in building a network.

To build a canal stretch cards are played from hand. The same canal type can never be placed next to another of the same type and must be able to be placed in the map terrain. So for instance a nice easy two hex canal from London to Maidstone would need a Stretch and a lock piece and to play them you would need a stretch and a lock card. Easy. With canal pieces that need to be cut into more difficult terrain you need more cards to play them. An aqueduct requires 2 marching cards and a tunnel three. A surveyor card can substitute for any other type of card.

So you need to collect a fair number of cards to make your build actions efficient. Never fear because the engineers make the process that much easier, one allows you to substitute a lock or stretch card for each other, 2 others reduce the card requirement by one for ,respectively, building aqueducts and tunnels, one chap allows you to use a surveyor card as two other cards and the last allows you to take four build cards. I mentioned earlier that these engineers are fickle at the beginning of your turn one of your possible actions is to swap your engineer for any other players which they can’t refuse.

If a contract is fulfilled by building the canal then points are awarded for the value of the contract and the type of canal used in the build - stretches are worth zero points, locks one, aqueducts two and tunnels three.

The other actions available at the beginning of your turn are to select a new contract from the face up tile (or one of your two available anywhere to anywhere contracts). You can only ever have a maximum of two contracts in play. You can also swap engineers or you or you can discard the five face up build cards (ala Thurn und Taxis)

The second part of your turn I have described take build cards or build a canal.

In the last part of your turn you can ship goods. Shipping goods involves moving goods along a network of canals as far as you can with the restriction that it can not go through the same colour town twice. You score points for the number of towns or cities the goods travel thorough including the start and the destination. If you use another person’s network they score points for towns they connect to on the goods travel route.

In any phase you can, instead of taking an action, take blind a build card from the top of the build draw stack.

Fittingly, the end of game is reached when a player passes the ‘Railway’ age marker the end is nigh for players and canals. Play continues until one player reaches a pre-determined number of points (for example 50 points in a five player game), then the current round finishes and two further complete rounds are played. Then players move goods in turn until no more can be moved.

Scoring contracts provides the bread and butter points in the game with success going to the player who has best managed to create an efficient goods shipping network, partly by having a monopoly on some goods, partly by having the longest canal routes and by being able to deny points to other players by shipping goods available to a number of players. The ‘junction’ contracts are vital to strategy as they allow you to either complete your network or even better tap in to other players to siphon off goods they were hoping to keep to themselves.

I thoroughly recommend Canal Mania as a next step up from the Ticket to Ride series , for train games enthusiasts who like to try something a little different or for anyone who loves games where the theme is an integral part of the game.