Iron Made: Buzz Review
Information:
Mechanics: Roll and Write, Route Building Print and Play, City Building, Dice Rolling, Tile Placement
Player Count: 1 - 99 PlayersTime to Play: 20 - 40 Minutes
Basics:
Iron Made is a route-building game centred around colour matching. Each turn two dice will be rolled. As long as these are two different values you will have four patterns to choose from in the chart below.
If they are doubles you will only have two patterns to choose from. The column determines the pattern and the row determines the colour. After choosing, each player draws their pattern in an empty hex. Any colour that connects to itself from another hex will score a resource of that colour.
If a player chooses, they can spend resources of one colour to build a corresponding building in this hex. There are three buildings of each type that costs 1, 2 or 3 resources starting from the cheapest on the left hand side. When erecting a building, if the colours connect it will automatically deliver resources to the next building in line if able to (some examples in the image below). Delivery of goods works as such:
A (Mines - yellow) delivers to B (Ironworks - red)
B delivers to C (Factories - green)
C delivers to D (Warehouses - blue).
Mines has the most goods to deliver and scores little points at the end of the game where Warehouses can't deliver any resources but will score the most points if completely full. If there are more goods (filled spaces) at the bottom of the hex than the top, a building can deliver a good. For every good delivered a space will be filled at the bottom of the receiving hex and fill one space on the top of its own hex. If at any time both the top and bottom of the hex are full, the building has been drained of all goods and will score points at the end of the game.
Each stretch of connected colours will also score at the end of the game as the total of that colour touching then divided by three.
Uniqueness:
This is a very unique roll and write game; I haven't quite seen a route building game like it. Admittedly i don't play many route-builders. You are trying to deliver from the mine into the warehouse while scoring points for fufilling ironworks and factory along the way. If you build a level three building of the ironworks and factory, you have more opportunity to connect one building to multiple buildings. This creates better routes but runs a larger risk of not optimising its resources and being unable to complete it, scoring zero points for that building. Some examples of the route connections are below.
This is where the crux of the puzzle comes from but there is a lot of challenges in creating long routes of the same colour and connecting the right hexes to gain the resources that allow you to build your desired buildings. The focus i belive is on how you transfer goods but that doesn't mean there aren't other challenges players have to focus on as well.
Zig-Zag:
This game does not require interaction between players. The real challenge comes from managing the colour-pattern combinations to gain the most resources, creating buildings and the best routes without blocking yourself. Iron Made is challenging and brain burning when it comes to meeting this engine optimisation but when you make it work as planned there is a true sense of accomplishment.
Zone:
- Brain burner where every turn matters.
- Rewarding when you pull off the route you have been designing.
- Can target larger points with the higher cost buildings but runs the risk of not utilising them and being unable to score points.
- Hard to teach the mechanics of the game to new players.
Iron Made is worth backing for players that enjoy heavy roll and writes, as well as complex puzzles. This is a brain burning optimisation puzzle where you are trying to create long routes filled with interconnected buildings with the right engine. For players that don't go heavy in their roll and write gameplays then this may be more of a game to watch instead. The saving grace is that the game is a print and play so a heavy price tag it not expected which means it’s worth the risk if you are interested but cautious. Furthermore, there are talks of a family variant (stretch goal already reached) that could help break the barrier of entry that this game can have.
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