Big Wheels Keep on Turning with City of the Great Machine
Work against the machine in a steampunk world of clandestine operations and secrets in City of the Great Machine.
After my initial loss, all I could think about were my choices and how I might actually pull off a victory in my latest solo game, City of the Great Machine. Such an interesting design! Despite a plentiful set of rulebooks, I found that the challenge lay in the strategy of moving the city against artificial intelligence… Time to reset and give it another try!
Game Overview
Game Name: City of the Great Machine
Publication Year: 2023
Designer: German Tikhomirov
Artist: Uncredited
Publishers: CrowD Games and Moroz Dev Studio
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
As the machine’s servants patrol districts, threatening to detain the heroes, famous citizens must be uncovered and brought to action. With limited time and resources, a trio of characters must work swiftly but cautiously to dismantle the machine’s master plans to control all!
First Play
March 25, 2023
Complexity
4
Latest Play
April 15, 2023
Expansions
4
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
4
Play Time
1 Hour & 15 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
42" x 28"
Low Score
N/A
Stacked Information
This multi-purpose wheel might be one of my favorite new game components lately! It normally tracks 2 aspects, but solo includes a third element. All easy to see!
The outer track, currently marked at the I space, looks at the machine’s advancement. Should it reach the final space, the game immediately ends in defeat.
Inside, the arrow rotates to show the highest citizen tier that will participate in a riot. Discontent is helpful!
Lastly, the red progress marker in the shape of a building moves to help advance the machine forward in solo.
Excellent Writing
Just from the rulebook, this is a world built upon its theme. It doesn’t feel like the steampunk vibe or fight against artificial intelligence was simply tossed on.
Characters have their own biographies that evoke so many stories. Take Coolum McDouglas here, for example. He has a full personality just from these few sentences!
Access cards are integral to moving around the city, and each character starts with all but a single random card.
I personally love this theme and the ways the characters tie into the story effortlessly. Simply awesome!
Random Presets
At first, I was a little intimidated by all of the criteria for putting the districts together during setup. They need to approximate a city shape, but not be totally random.
Luckily, there are plenty of preset setups to help! The first couple are recommended for a slightly easier experience.
This might seem extremely minor, but I appreciate how this took away some extra setup work for me as I learned how to play. And don’t think the presets are repetitive!
Districts move and swap during gameplay, so these maps typically never remain static. Still, less setup time is great!
Timing the Riots
I do want to point out that the theme is about rising up against a great machine that has taken over life, removing a lot of elements from society that make humans alive.
Rioting here isn’t about violence and death, but more like waking up the citizens to show them what is happening to the city. No one dies, and broken guards can be repaired.
The strategy of timing these crucial events eluded me a little bit, but then everything started to come together!
Veiga and Sylvia worked together to avoid the servants and move the most helpful famous citizens around.
Living Storylines During Solo Gameplay
I don’t go into anything specifically in this post, yet there was a grand sense of a narrative that came through during play. It didn’t take much to bring it to life, either! The mission eventually allowed each hero to automatically avoid detainment by a particular servant, which worked out very nicely. Veiga was simple done with Phantasmer!
Some solo games offer lengthy storybooks and other ways to guide the narrative forward. In this case, there are only very small snippets or even hints of stories… Like on the city event cards. This is another excellent way to enjoy a story, though, especially without much guidance! It won’t work out for everyone, yet the foundation is there for great tales.
It also helps that the theme is so rooted in the mechanics. Random servant movement often leads to detainment, although this happens at the end of a hero’s movement phase. I often explained it away as the traitors sharing information, or just a moment of bad luck for a hero, like Sylvia, who was firmly in the machine’s spotlight!
Dangerous Directives
The machine’s trio of servants rely on random cards to move around, which always makes them dangerous. There are some logical conclusions, yet they’re unpredictable.
To make it more challenging, directives sometimes come into play to add new special abilities. These can be quite catastrophic, like this example that reduced trust.
What is the main resource in play? Trust! So confiscation and detainment threatened the heroes at all times.
Interestingly, this play only saw 1 directive ever in play, although a maximum of 3 may be activated. Yikes!
Cool Under Pressure
While Veiga and Sylvia moved about fairly freely, Coolum got stuck at a few key moments. He was detained many times, or trapped in districts with little trust.
It took a few chances with the dice to move him far away. No one could catch Coolum at that point!
The hardest part was figuring out the final riot to claim victory, and he was the only one in a position to pull it off. It took a few turns to actually set everything up, though.
With barely enough citizens to participate, he still pulled it all off right near the very end to earn a victory!
Exceptionally Close
This was no easy victory! The machine was on space 10 of 12. Look closely, and it should be clear that it wouldn’t take much to keep moving that up very quickly.
Indeed, another round would almost certainly have led to defeat. Very exciting, and still at the easiest difficulty level. There are a lot of challenges ahead.
It isn’t just about making things harder, though. More characters, missions, and modules are ahead for variety.
As I always say: I like working my way up to better victories. This happened right near the end. Perfect!
The Last City Events
Victory came with the final city event before the countdown. These cards provide more thematic elements, almost writing a chapter for every round.
Had this gone another round to the countdown, the machine would have the advantage in advancing very quickly. It felt like the right timing for me, though.
There was a lot of pressure at this point in the game, which aligned with the ending coming up so soon.
It’s possible to survive during the countdown for a round or so, although delaying is definitely not advised!
Piling Up the Traitors
All of the famous citizen tiles are face-down to begin with, and most of the them reveal different types who offer aid.
But don’t get too comfortable. Mixed in are traitors, who side with the machine during riots and cause mayhem!
To help move ahead, the heroes needed to move them out of the districts slated for riots. It just so happened that the cheapest option was in the Tower of L.A.W.
This is one of the machine’s main districts, so it felt pretty entertaining to start piling them all up over here! I do believe I literally yelled at them to move along. Ha ha!
Looking Ahead
I’m still very happy with the base game content, but there are lots of expansions and modules I have to try out!
I went ahead and took a look at the Stand-In Heroes, which add alternate heroes with different abilities. But why do they replace the base game heroes? Oh, just wait!
There is an optional variant to literally use them as stand-ins when the game is halfway through. The main heroes have been detained, and the new characters must jump in.
Of course, they can be used from the start as standard heroes, yet this is another wonderful thematic touch!
Session Overview
Play Number: 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Novice Difficulty Level
Outcome: Win
Such a satisfying experience! I learned a little bit more about piecing together information. The heroes were still detained, although I think I managed it a little better… Much less surprise detainments! There are plenty of ways to keep expanding on the game experience, and I would certainly recommend this one as a very interesting solo game. It will be around for a long on my solo table!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
6
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
10
Quality
Components & Rules
8
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
10
+ Pros (Positives)
- Many elements are in play and active, yet the overall complexity doesn’t come from endless rules to memorize.
- The theme and mechanics blend together beautifully and play off of each other to bring the game to life.
- Each hero offers a unique ability and initiative number, along with a rich biography to make them feel important.
- Although a trio of characters must be used in solo, managing them is very simple with minimal overhead.
- Plotting routes through districts is challenging, especially since districts may move before hero movement.
- Rising up involves more calculated moves, and there is minimal violence, save for breaking repairable guards.
– Cons (Negatives)
- There are moments when bad luck spoils most of a carefully planned turn, despite limiting the risks.
- Flipping through a pair of fairly large rulebooks to find the correct rules can be a bit frustrating while learning.
- It can be tricky to see the big picture in terms of strategy with the city events, missions, and victory conditions.
- Some of the hero miniatures can look a little too similar, making it easy to accidentally move the wrong figures.
Victory Conditions
Complete 3 Riots
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the novice difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game with Breach in the System.
Win at least 1 game with Know Thy Enemy.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played City of the Great Machine? It’s always wonderful to give a completely unknown game a try and see how well it resonates! Are there any other steampunk-themed solo games you enjoy? This one feels like it occupies a very unique space, yet it comes in with a very strong design and set of mechanics. I look forward to playing it again!
0 Comments