Mint Works

30 Apr 2018

The What

A quick playing worker placement game for 1-4 players.

The Summary

Objective

The last game round is determined when a player gains 7 stars worth of buildings. The player with the most stars win, but ties are broken by these 3 rules:

1. The smallest neighborhood.
2. The most mints.
3. The person with their ages closest to 42.

Components

• Mints, which represent the resource of the game, they are used like resources and block like workers.

There are three types of cards:

1. Locations/Deed cards
2. Plans
3. AI Cards

Location/Deed cards are the action spaces, composed of the number of spots that player will contest over based on player count as well as the cost for each of these locations. Of the location cards there are two states they can exist in, 4 core locations, 2 core locations that will be built during the game, they start the game as ‘deeds.’ And for an advanced variant there will be 2 additional locations that players can use. Each location has dotted circles which represent places to put mints with a number, the cost, in the center of it. These circles are the amount of times the location can be used. The locations will be described below.

Plan cards are cards that will be purchased by the player and placed in the player own play area also known as the neighborhood. Plans will be built into buildings or open up deed locations to both score points and to be used for their effects.

AI cards are only used for the solo variant where the player will face one AI player.

Play Area

Each player has their own tableau of plans and buildings they will accumulate throughout the game called the neighborhood.

The plan cards shuffled and placed in the plan deck with 3 revealed next to it being available to purchase, these cards will be replenished during the upkeep phase.

The location cards and deeds to unbuilt locations are placed in a logical order, if you are planing with advanced locations they are alongside the normal locations as well.

Round

Each round is composed of two phases. A development phase where starting with the starting play, players take turns clockwise taking an action, paying for it’s cost which is numerically inscribed in the location where players will place their mints. During the upkeep phase upkeep effects take place, the plans in the display are replenished back to 3 and everyone gets a mint.

Core Locations

These locations are tied to a basic action that players will compete to place their mints on.

• Producer - Pay one, get two mints
• Builder - Pay 2, build one of your plans in your neighborhood, it becomes a building.
• Supplier - Pay n, n being the cost on the plan, this plan is added to the plans in your neighborhood.
• Leadership Council - 1 spot. Pay 1, gain 1 and take the starting player token.
• Wholesaler - Requires a deed to enter the game. 1 spot. Pay 1, gain two. During the upkeep if this spot is occupied the owner of the deed gains 1.
• Lotto - Requires a deed to enter the game. 1 spot. Pay 3, gain the top plan from the plan deck. During the upkeep gain 2 mints.

Advanced Locations

In an advanced variant players can add two of these buildings to provide some more variability and replay value.

• Crowdfunder - 1 spot. Pay 1, gain 3 and each other player gains 1.
• Temp Agency - 1 spot. Pay 1+, the cost of the location chosen. Gain the effect of the chosen space.
• Recycler - 1 spot. Pay 1, Lose a plan and gain mints equal to its mint cost and star value.
• Swap Meet - 1 spot. Pay 2, exchange a plan or building in your neighborhood with one in the supply.

The Puzzle

Like most worker placement games a huge emphasis is place on the first player action as well as blocking actions.

I haven’t played the game yet with other players but I have no doubt that it is both easy to pick up and a charm to play.

The AI is a great challenge, albeit a cheating AI. Each is a elegantly crafted puzzle to crack. The AI cards dramatically increase the intuitiveness of solitaire gameplay. The exceptions that come to play solitaire is pretty minute, primarily relying a specific gimmick and purchasing pattern rather than a decision tree.

Tips

• Buy plans frequently, there are buildings that synergize with plans and this allows you to deploy buildings conveniently.
• Focus on building an engine early in the game or build locations to take advantage of synergies.

Criticism

The rulebook is sparse and lacking a coherent picture. After a play of the game, it becomes clear how the systems operate.

The game lacks the replayability that other worker placement games offer.

The Verdict

The game is really quick and fairly streamline, albeit having a lacking rulebook. The sheer pace and minimal level of complexity will definitely be a draw to some players. If one want to learn the basics of worker placement or understand the minimal requirements to develop a worker placement game this is definitely one to check out.

However I don’t believe this will give you as much bang for your buck as having a single type of resource, having only 21 types of buildings to build.

Other Games

• Viticulture, a worker placement game with much more variation as each player will start off with a varied situation.
• Agricola and Caverna. Agricola being a seminal classic and Caverna being the less punishing version of it.