Fantastic Factories and the Fantastic Fettuccine Factory
Hire contractors and construct all kinds of buildings, all while workers gather resources and create goods in Fantastic Factories.
Several years ago, I absolutely loved Fantastic Factories and all of its possibilities! The art style is unique, and finding the buildings that work well together is a fun challenge. I finally brought it back to my solo table to explore its dice-based worker placement mechanics again. Lots of expansion content offered an exciting homecoming for this experience!
Game Overview
Game Name: Fantastic Factories
Publication Year: 2019
Designers: Joseph Z. Chen & Justin Faulkner
Artist: Joseph Z. Chen
Publishers: Deep Water Games & Metafactory Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Buildings take shape and goods are produced. Workers are represented by dice, who might gather resources, pick up new blueprints, or activate unique abilities. So much to do! The solo opponent is simple enough to manage, and finding useful building combinations can be quite interesting!
First Play
August 18, 2020
Complexity
2
Latest Play
March 11, 2026
Expansions
5
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
18
Play Time
30 Minutes
High Score
30
Game Area
20" x 18"
Low Score
16
A Simple Solo Mode
Getting back into the rulebook was easy enough. I love how clear everything is with the examples! The solo mode continues that simplicity with a clear sequence of play.
Stacks of buildings are sorted by type, and dice indicate if the solo opponent will produce at the end of the round. This ramps up later on, but random dice rolls are unpredictable.
Such cute artwork! There is a very unique style and it’s fun to fill out a tableau. Even stacks look visually interesting.
Effectively, it becomes a race to trigger the game end as early as possible, while still maximizing victory points.
Turn-Based Choices
The core decision every round is whether to hire a contractor or pick up a new building blueprint. There are costs to everything, so a balance is the key element.
I typically only hire 2-4 contractors every play. Recognizing the best abilities for the situation is quite neat, although I often forget about the potential extra cost in the upper left!
Buildings come down to choosing useful ones, but also blocking the solo opponent from gaining monuments.
When buildings work together, things can get very neat! Yet it boils down to crafting very abstract goods to score.
Fantastic Fettuccine
Did I base this entire play around a fettuccine factory? YES. Ha ha! With the way I played, that was my first card and then everything else came about from that first choice.
It was a close one! Maybe I should reveal that even after years since I last played, I wanted a challenge, so I chose the highest difficulty level. Only lost by a single point!
Everything was enjoyable, save for the sabotage feature. This was random, and really cut down on my options.
At least I picked up a lot of monuments! You just know that city park has a fettuccine food cart nearby. Ha ha!
Luck of the Draw
The solo opponent will always gain a card each round, and these are worth 1 victory point each… Except for monuments, which are worth 2 victory points each.
I tried my best to keep the market row clear of monuments, but alas, a few were still picked up. That was the difference!
Things certainly flowed nicely and I liked the overall feeling of the game. However, it felt like there was a single way to progress with some slight variations. But the fettuccine!!!
I still kept playing, eager to earn a victory at the insane difficulty level and see more of these adorable cards.
On Evolving Preferences and Games Left Behind
Had I played this one regularly over the last few years, I likely would have gotten more plays out of it. Yet it lingered on a shelf as I found my tastes shifting further and further from it. That’s an interesting thing that can happen, as favorites start to lose their shine. I still love many games I loved years ago, though! But some have fallen out of favor.
I thought of this idea of a left behind game as I played. The amount of enjoyment I used to get from the buildings and choices was amazing! It reached into my top games for a time, which isn’t easy to do. So what changed? I think I solved it and wasn’t ready to come to terms with the idea that I was looking for more. “I’ll play it again one day, and it will be great.”
That day came years later, though, and the charm had worn away. Those early years of playing were wonderful, and this isn’t meant to erase those happy memories. It’s more of a reminder to myself to try to play older games more often. Saving shelf space is helpful, as is accepting that it might be time to bid a polite farewell to some games and find them new homes.
Sabotaged Again
I had a pretty great strategy at one point with so many monuments, but I still managed to lose. Why? Sabotage.
Blocking off production means that it’s worth it to invest in more buildings that can produce goods, yet it’s hard to keep the momentum going when strategies get removed.
The size of the deck and duplicate cards made it frustrating to find good options. With rare exception, only 1 copy of a card may be built, and there are usually 2 or 3 of each.
There were some great moments when I figured out how to use my dice in clever ways, particularly with the vitamins!
The Best Contractors
Since contractors cycle so slowly in solo, I usually keep my hired cards nearby to add to the narrative. This play was fun with a trio of interesting characters at various times.
The mentor helped me out with extra vitamins, which can change the value of dice rolls. Amazingly helpful when I needed a little boost to pull off an interesting combination!
A saboteur turned the tables on the solo opponent, blocking a stack of buildings from producing during a round.
Finally, a pair of hired hands helped boost the dice during another round. In the end, I won by a single point. Yeah!
Session Overview
Play Number: 15-18
Main Expansion 1: Fantastic Factories: Manufactions
Main Expansion 2: Fantastic Factories: Subterfuge
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Insane Difficulty Level
Outcome: 30-31, 27-27, 27-26, 20-26 (1 Win & 3 Losses)
An exciting victory! However, I realized it was all about building 10 buildings and producing 12 goods at about the same time. This was a wonderful experience to reminisce about the joy that the game offers, yet I’m not sure if it will stick around in the future. Lots of great memories for me!
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
8
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
5
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
5
+ Pros (Positives)
- All of the illustrations are neat and interesting with a unique art style that’s very simple and clean in a pleasant way.
- Rolling dice to determine action values is excellent and introduces a few different decision points each round.
- The play time is relatively quick with a number of awesome rounds that often produce multiple goods at once.
- Using a unique faction provides a special ability that can create some nuances in what constitutes the best choices.
- Vitamins, introduced in an expansion, are wonderful at mitigating dice rolls and changing values to do more.
- Managing the solo opponent is simple and clear, and comparing scores before the game ends is easy to calculate.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The sabotage mechanic from one of the expansions can be extremely frustrating without adding much to gameplay.
- Lots of cards are included, yet finding synergies can be difficult with the limit of having one of most buildings.
- There is a clear, overall strategy to meet both end game triggers at the same time, which feels like it gets stale quickly.
- Taking monuments before the solo opponent can is an important strategy, yet doesn’t feel particularly fun or clever.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the medium difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the hard difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the insane difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you like the most about Fantastic Factories? Do you have a favorite building or contractor card? I still enjoyed my time playing, particularly when it came to the fantastic fettuccine factory. Ha ha! Although I may have reached the end of the road with the game, I had a lot of fun with it over the years and appreciate a lot of the mechanics and unique art style!
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