Gameplay

The action phase, factory decisions, home-market sales, shipping and round sequence.

The three decades

The game runs through decades I, II and III (1770, 1780 and 1790), with four rounds in each. The active good cycles Food, Clothes, Cutlery, Lamps. Each round has an Action phase, Production phase and Preparation for the next round.

Action phase

In player order, each player performs one action, determines the price and appeal of the active good if they have an open factory for it, then takes one development step. Actions are:

• Build and/or upgrade factories. Build any number of factories and/or upgrade any number. A newly built factory gets its current-decade tile, office and appeal marker, but no worker. If you build at least one, move all four demand markers down one and wages up one. In decade III, build only a factory that will produce in a remaining round. Upgrading flips the factory to its current decade; in decade II flip only the first worker, and in decade III flip all workers. Keep machine counts unchanged.
• Employ workers. Add any number from your reserve, up to two per factory, in the correct decade orientation. If you employ at least one, move all demand markers down once and wages up once. Workers cannot be removed. In decade III, add workers only to a factory that will produce again.
• Automate production. Rotate worker cards to their machine side, within your current machine development limit for this action. If a two-machine card needs one more machine than you can add now, mark the first machine with a token and finish rotating it on a later automation action. Each machine costs £1 maintenance per production.
• Add Quality or Distribution. Choose one type for the turn. Add, rotate, flip, exchange or return cards as desired, within the action limit from your development track. A factory’s total Quality and Distribution are each normally capped at four; Engineer raises its Quality cap to six. Decreased values are lost rather than transferred. Distribution declines by one whenever that factory produces.
• Stock Exchange. Buy any affordable number of shares; take any number of loans up to nine total, each adding current share value in money; reactivate used ships. Loans cannot fund share purchases during this action.
• Expert actions. Extra Production and Early Shipping are optional modules described in Expert Variants.

The six player-board developments

Set the active factory

If you have an open factory producing the active good, you must produce it. Move its factory token to one of its four positions and rotate its office or Quality cards to trade price for appeal. The sum of price and appeal does not change. Add the factory and card appeal values, then set its marker on that total on the Market board. Price is the total coin value shown by the factory and its cards. Each red or green arrow the appeal marker passes moves demand one step in that arrow’s direction.

Develop

After the action and market decision, advance one development on your player board or take a Development card. A board development improves the matching action or production system. Development cards add their printed ability and may also provide extra components or exemptions. Only take a development allowed in the current decade unless a card explicitly removes that restriction.

You cannot hold two Development cards of the same type. Development cards are used with one face; Engineer, Patent and Large Warehouse are exceptions whose effects permit flipping. If you are at your card limit, discard one before taking another; a discarded card returns to the general supply and may be taken again on a later turn.

Production phase

Resolve factories that produce the active good simultaneously. Each factory produces at its full capacity: add the goods shown on its tile and worker cards. The home market limit is appeal minus demand, to a maximum of appeal. If appeal is equal to or below demand, the market buys nothing. If current production is below that limit, sell matching goods already in that factory’s warehouse until the limit is reached. Multiply the quantity sold by the factory’s price to get income.

Store unsold goods in that factory’s warehouses: a warehouse can hold only one good type, small warehouses hold one or two as printed, and a large warehouse holds four. Store as many as fit, then ship any remaining goods of the active type using available ships. Each ship carries up to its capacity, based on the Shipping development; it need not be full. Earn the factory’s printed price for each shipped good. Add one Shipping token for each ship used; reactivate ships with Stock Exchange. Goods that cannot be sold, stored or shipped are lost.

Pay the producing factory’s fixed cost, wages for each worker at the wage level, and £1 per machine. You cannot take regular bank loans to pay production. If you cannot pay, use emergency-fund loans at half the current share value, rounded up. If all nine loan spaces are full and the debt still cannot be paid, you are bankrupt and out of the game. When you sell two or more goods to the home market, increase share value by one. Among players who qualify, highest appeal gains one extra share-value point; a tie gives no extra point unless an Entrepreneur card applies. Shipping does not count. Reduce each producing factory’s Distribution by one; a factory that did not produce does not lose Distribution.

Preparation

Pass the starting-player card clockwise. At a decade end, advance the decade and round markers and refresh Development cards. Each player calculates share value multiplied by shares, ignoring loans and shipping, to determine the next starting player: lowest chooses first; ties go to the player with least money, then nearest clockwise from the previous starting player. In a two-player game, also advance each neutral appeal marker one space on its track and adjust demand for passed arrows.