Arkwright : The Card Game

At the end of the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution began. The first factories were established by entrepreneurs such as Richard Arkwright, who ran the first factory for spinning wool with machines such as the “Spinning Jenny” and the water frame.

In the game “Arkwright: The Card Game”, you run a business and will employ workers in your various factories to produce and sell goods. The more workers, the more goods you can sell – but be prepared for crises and fierce competition.

The game is played over three decades (1770/1780/1790), divided into four rounds per decade. On your turn, you play new cards from your hand to open factories and upgrade existing ones, select improvements, improve the quality of factories, build machines and hire new workers. You can also pay money to improve your shares and take out loans if you need more cash to cover production costs. After the action phase, you can improve your abilities by advancing your development markers on your player board or take one of the available development cards.

Then the production phase begins, where each player who owns a factory of the current good produces that good. The market fluctuates according to overall demand, so demand may be lower than the value of your current good, reducing your profit. Workers must be paid and machines require regular maintenance, so you may potentially lose money instead of making a profit. Selling several units of a good improves the value of your shares and there are bonuses for the highest market reach. Finally, if you cannot sell your goods on the domestic market, you can ship them abroad or store them for future rounds.

After the final round of the last decade, the game ends. Then players sell all the commodities remaining in their warehouses, reduce the number of shares they hold by the number of loans they took, and reduce the value of their shares based on their personal shipping track. Then each player multiplies the number of their shares by the value of a share to determine their final score. The player with the highest final score wins the game.