Designer:  Stefan Risthaus (Arkwright, Gentes, Santo Domingo)

Artist: Mehdi Merrouche

Publisher:  Game Brewer (Chimera Station, Gentes, Gugong)

Genre/Mechanisms: card game, loans, market, stock holding

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Arkwright the Card Game is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 2x the initial funding goal with 5 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About: A streamlined version of board game Arkwright, with “an easier action selection mechanism, clearer handling due to a reduction in components, streamlined shipping and market system rules, additional actions for a more strategic approach, a more manageable playing time, and a complete visual overhaul.”

How It Works: “In Arkwright: The Card Game, you’re an entrepreneur who will build factories and employ workers to produce and sell goods. The more workers you employ, the more products you can sell. But be prepared for crises and competitors…”

“The game is played over 3 decades (1770-1790) of 4 rounds each, with each round consisting of 3 phases: Action, Production, and Preparation for the Next Round.”

During the Action Phase (and in player order) players perform 3 steps during their turn: Perform One Action, Determine the Price and Appeal of the Active Good, and Take One Development. Actions include any one from among the following: Build and/or Upgrade Factories, Employ Words, Automate Production, Add Quality or Distribution, Stock Exchange, Extra Production (expert variant only), and Early Shipping (expert variant only).

If the active player has “an open factory that produces the active good of this round, they must produce the active good and determine the price and appeal in this step, immediately after performing their one action.” This is accomplished by moving the factory token on their producing factory to any of the 4 available spots, and rotate the office and quality cards of the producing factory to change appeal into price or vice versa. Then the player pays the price and gains appeal. Finally, the active player either takes 1 development on their player board or 1 development card from the general supply.

During the Production Phase, all players who have a factory producing an active good will perform the following actions simultaneously to each other: Sell Goods to the Home Market and Receive Income, Store or Ship Goods and Receive Income, Pay Production Costs, Increase their Share Value, and Reduce Distribution.

And in the Preparation for the Next Round Phase, players Move the Round Marker to the next round space, pass the Starting Player Card clockwise, (and at the end of the 4th round of each decade) move the Round Marker back to the first round space on the Food Appeal Track, Move the Decade Marker to the next decade space, and Reactivate All Used Development Cards with an icon.

After the 12th and final round, players Sell the remaining goods in their storehouses, Buy as many shares as possible with any remaining money, Reduce the number of shares by moving the share marker one step back fro each loan taken during the game, Reduce the share value back as indicated by the player’s various shipping tokens, and then Multiply the final share value by their final number of shares. The player with the highest score wins, with any ties broken by the player with the most leftover money.

Comparisons: The most obvious comparison here is the out-of-print Arkwright (the board game). Here are a list of several other stock-holding games: 1830: Railways & Robber Barons, 1846: The Race for the Midwest, 1889: History of Shikoku Railways, Acquire, Airlines Europe, Arkadia, Chicago Express, Imperial 2030, Indonesia, Mombasa, Panamax, and Stockpile.

What Should I Pledge?:
$29 Arkwright the Card Game: includes a copy of the game and all unlocked stretch goals.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives
The game box and the market board are made of thicker cardboard in the Kickstarter version, and the rulebook is made with thicker paper.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $29 for the Arkwright the Card Game pledge and $12 in shipping for a total of $41.

Arkwright the Card Game completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, September 3rd and tentatively ships in June 2021.