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

A trio of heroes must traverse a shifting city of districts, where famous citizens may be encouraged to see the flaws in the machine’s plan. Servants and guards patrol, while directives constantly interrupt the flow of bringing the city back to life, free from artificial intelligence!

Another Wheel!

This is a game with a lot of moving pieces, including a wheel with multiple layers that move and rotate.

The machine’s master plan is tracked on the exterior, where reaching the final space results in defeat. The inner section indicates the types of citizens and their roles.

Additionally, a progress marker moves counter-clockwise in a way that speeds up the machine’s advancement.

Famous citizens come in different types, with more work needed to convince people like industrialists and nobles to rise up against the machine. Very clever use of a wheel!

Digging Into the Rules

The main rules are housed in a single booklet, while reference material and the solo mode may be found in another tome. Plenty to learn and absorb before playing!

I didn’t love how I needed to flip between these books to learn the solo mode. Some sections advised me to look in the main rulebook, while others were entirely rewritten.

Still, I wasn’t lost with all of the text! There were lots of examples and reminders to help me move along.

In a rather surprising way, I thought the rules actually helped create a narrative foundation for the game.

Excellent Summaries

Sometimes, I come across dense rulebooks that have woefully minimal reference cards. I’m expected to memorize everything and keep using the rulebook.

Not so here! I still had to flip around a little bit as I learned the game, but the reference cards included the vast majority of what I needed to internalize the guidelines.

For example, this card lays out an entire game round, save for the great machine’s phase… Laid out on another card.

It’s all here! Once I got going, this was all I needed to keep things moving for the majority of gameplay. Quite a feat!

Heroic Deeds

With 6 heroes in the base game, a trio must always be used in the solo game. However, each typically only takes 1 action per turn, so this doesn’t involve a lot of overhead.

Access cards help move around the city’s districts, which could move, shift, and swap at random.

The chosen card indicates the hero’s final destination during their movement. But watch out… Servants also move and work to detain the heroes as often as possible!

I didn’t have any strategies down during this play, yet the predictability of some servant movement is possible.

The Machine’s Team

For solo, the machine also has a trio of servants who patrol the city, acting to maintain power. Each functions a little differently, creating additional challenges.

Their movement is determined by a random card draw, yet there is often enough information to make an educated guess about where each one might end up.

Heroes must try to avoid getting detained, so it can be rather dangerous to move to certain districts.

All the while, missions and city events offer insights into how to move towards victory… But the servants interfere! 

Starting the Plan

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing! Granted, the rules were pretty easy to learn, but it was the act of actually getting closer to victory that eluded me.

Guards created obstacles in each district, and it wasn’t easy to attack them. There were also starting tokens to represent famous citizens in the districts.

They were paramount to inciting riots, yet they were unknown at the start… Which was the safest.

Revealed citizens risked getting arrested by the servants. Worse yet, some of them would flip to show traitors!

Taking Some Chances

The game’s currency comes in the form of trust, which has a maximum for each hero. This is often used for various actions, with guards increasing the costs.

Moving through districts costs trust, but when that runs out, it’s time to make a run for it! Heores then have to risk getting detained, which is never a good thing.

Attacking a guard involves paying some trust and hoping for the best on the die… Although a shield protects it.

I enjoyed all of the moving pieces, even if I wasn’t certain how to best use them all. Another learning game to start!

City Events & Stories

Each round begins with a new city event. The narrative is basically the title of the card and artwork… Yet I found that these really helped bring the story to life!

It includes a set of criteria to prevent the machine from moving ahead, or possibly gaining an advantage. All function separately, and completing them can be difficult.

This always shows up right at the start, which can help shape the choices, movement, and actions for the round.

Off to the side, missions required additional criteria. Lots to consider, but again, not in an overwhelming way.

Immediate Detainment

I learned the hard way how risky it can be to remain in the same district! Veiga, the actress, was drawn to the art district where she had plenty of options before her.

Yet ending her movement here with the chosen access card put her right in the path of Phantasmer!

She was detained, which had different effects based on which of the machine’s servants was in the district.

Note, too, that although this does feature raids and riots, there isn’t any death. Heroes can be temporarily detained, and guards may be broken, only to be repaired later on.

A Living Story

A later round resulted in a city event where the heroes were reported by a traitor. How true that was with the random movement cards! Judgementor moved in.

It was a mistake on my part to keep the heroes together for so long, yet it was a good learning experience.

Meanwhile, the mission was off to a good start as a deactivation trap took shape. The next servant to enter the industrial district would be shut down for a short time!

The rulebooks were still needed to check a couple of edge cases, yet I was entirely invested in the gameplay.

Rallying the Citizens

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t take early actions to reveal the famous citizens. So there was a bit of scramble as I found out who was in each district to aid with the riots.

These citizens can move around, and each type only helps when discontent is high enough. For instance, the early rounds would only interest the level 1 artists.

It was yet another mechanic I enjoyed! Revealing them too soon put them at risk of arrest, but they were crucial.

It was Veiga again who incited action in the velvet district. 1 of 3 raids completed on the way to a victory… Hopefully!

The Machine’s Triumph

Alas, I was too slow to defeat the machine! The wheel reached the final space on the outer track. Defeated.

However, I wasn’t upset! I managed to complete 2 of 3 riots, and the final one wasn’t too far away. The mission objectives were interesting and fun with nice rewards.

Discontent didn’t rise too high, although it ended up just a little short of involving the level 5 nobles. Not too shabby!

This was a learning game on the easiest difficulty level, so I was glad I lost. I picked up on a lot of the strategies, and thought the rules made a lot of sense.

Puzzling Onward

Looking back at the final state of the city, I was pleased about what was out there. The idea of floating districts allowed for some swapping, which was very neat!

This might look like a busy area, yet it was easy to pick out the important information. Guards stood out, citizens were clear, and enough room was available for miniatures.

Did I make mistakes? Absolutely! But it was interesting to learn them, rather than being handfed information.

Besides, it might have turned out differently with just a few different decisions. Not a bad first outing.

Machine Directives

In the midst of this challenge, the machine constantly threw new ideas into the mix with directives.

This random deck features all sorts of bonuses for the servants and guards. My heroes might have been able to slow them down with the right district action, too.

Even more stories emerged from these cards! The artwork brought the world to life as I imagined new upgrades and mini-machines patrolling the city streets and skies.

Despite my loss, I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this initial play. And I learned some important lessons!

Session Overview

Play Number: 1
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Novice Difficulty Level
Outcome: Loss

Things were brewing in the industrial district, but the appearance of Phantasmer put a quick end to my final plans! I had a wonderful time following along with the heroes and helping plot their actions to stop the machine. With other heroes to try out and a plethora of modules in the expansions, I see a lot of elements I’m going to love with this one. Now, to work on earning a victory!

Affordability

Price & Value

6

Functionality

Challenges & Mechanics

10

Originality

Design & Theme

10

Quality

Components & Rules

8