Forge (Preview)

[Editor’s note: The following preview is based on a complete, but not finalized, product; in advance of a crowdfunding campaign. -dc]

If I’m smart, when this gets posted I will have already put a disclaimer up above. Even if I didn’t, the header image definitely will show CrowdFUNding Preview. Why, because this is –wait for it– a CrowdFUNding Preview. The most important this to remember about that is that nothing I say here is final. Not the rules. Not the components. Nothing. With that point being made; my understanding is that the prototype of Forge I was lucky enough to play is pretty darned close to final. 

Forge is “a strategic game of medieval forging” which is a neat theme. You play as a humble blacksmith growing and expanding your smithy. To accomplish that you’ll be using a combination of worker placement, resource management, with just a dash of set collection. The game ends when a player has completed three contracts as well as four of six possible achievements. The faster each of these achievements are… well… achieved, the more points that player will score for them. The first player will get 5 points, the second gets 3 points, then 2, then 1. I’ll mention the achievements, as we go through the various actions.

Players start the game with a Blacksmith token and two Assistant meeples. By the end of your game, you’ll have four assistants. There are certain actions that only your Blacksmith can take, and they will often receive a bonus when assigned to tasks that an Assistant can do. (I won’t be mentioning those bonuses going forward.)

The main board (where workers are placed to select actions) represents a city and the surrounding area. Starting outside the city there is a Forest, a Mountain, and a Mine. These locations provide Wood, Stone, and Gems respectively. Multiple Assistants can be assigned to these actions, with diminishing returns depending on the number of assistants already there. 

Moving into the there is a Trading Post, which allows a player to buy or sell resources for gold. This is also one of the few ways to obtain the Brick resource. The Plaza allows a player to pay 2 Gold per Assistant there to move their Blacksmith from any location on the Game Board to another space on the Game Board. The Guilds space may only be taken by the Blacksmith and lets the player draw a Guild Card. The card will have one of six coloured Guild icons and an immediate bonus. The seventh coloured Guild is only located on other card types. One of the Achievements is collecting four different guild icons, and at the end of the game, each unique set of different icons is scored. The more colours in the set the more that set is worth, between 1 and 20 points. 

Also in the city are the City Commons, Barracks, and Castle spaces. Placing an Assistant in any of these spaces allows that play to draw the appropriate Contract Cards. Players need to use their Blacksmith to take the Forge action on their individual Player Board and spend resources to complete contracts. A player MUST have completed three contracts to trigger the end game. Completing that is scored in the same manner as the other Achievements.

Not part of the city are the Development, Training, and Equipment spaces. Development and Training cards provide potentially powerful bonuses, and collecting four of either type is scored as an Achievement. Upgrading the equipment in your forge costs resources, but gives you points and additional abilities. As well, upgrading all of the equipment on the top and on the bottom of your Player Boards are scored as Achievements. 

The last Achievement is gaining five Skill Levels. You start at level 1, and three skill levels can be gained through basic gameplay and are effectively automatic. But to get the fifth Skill Level needed to score the Achievement or a sixth Level to score additional Victory Points, you’ll need to gain them through Development, Training, and Guild cards. 

As with many worker placement games, there is a lot of information to learn upfront. But for the most part, the iconography was exceptionally clear* and the gameplay flowed well. There are a ton of little details peppered throughout that can have a huge impact on a player’s choices, strongly encouraging a more diverse approach to strategy. A few notable examples are things like each round players chose what order they will take their actions, but that decision also includes gaining a resource. Electing to go third is another to gain Bricks. Brick is required for certain equipment upgrades which are in turn needed to score Achievements. So there are four resources, but only three can be gained easily. Similarly, you can easily gain Guild icons with the Guild action, but you can never maximize Guild scoring without taking other actions as well. I’m not sure victory can regularly be achieved by sticking to a single-minded strategy.

I’m also a huge fan of the components.* The player bits, specifically, were nice and chonky, making them easy to see and manipulate. Sometimes more traditional smaller bits can pose accessibility issues so these were a pleasure. *Once again, I need to point out that we were playing with a prototype version and everything is subject to change. 

When I played this with the Boardgame Maman, Melanié from Mel’s Boardgame Room, I won with a sizeable point spread. But honestly, most of that difference came from a lucky combination of the Development and Training cards I got. I probably still would have won without those advantages but the score would have been much much closer. This was a great game. I’m generally a fan of worker placement games, and this was easily the most enjoyable worker placement game I’ve played in a very long time. 

You can back Forge on Kickstarter until April 12, 2023. Please come back next week when we will hopefully have a CrowFUNding Spotlight on the campaign itself.

You can find FunDAmental Games online at thefundamentalgames.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/profile.php?id=100039807193728 or the Forge Boardgame Group at facebook.com/groups/701585901508753.