Fantastic Factories: Manufactions Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Components
• Adding Cards
• Vitamins
• Corporate Factions
• Solo Rules
• Appendix
  • Blueprints
  • Contractors
  • Factions
  • Tips and Strategies

Overview

Manufactions is an expansion to Fantastic Factories that adds new blueprints and contractors. It also adds a new resource (vitamins) and asymmetric player powers in the form of corporate factions.

Mix and Match: When playing with Manufactions, you may choose to play with just the new cards, just the factions, or both.

Components

• 45 blueprint cards
• 20 contractor cards
• 12 corporate faction boards
• 27 vitamin tokens
• 1 replacement solo game player aid card
• 5 replacement player aid cards

Adding Cards

Add the new cards from Manufactions to the base game of Fantastic Factories by combining and shuffling all the blueprint cards together and also doing the same with the contractor cards.

Replace the player aid cards with the ones included in Manufactions. These new player aids contain useful reminders for rules about the new vitamin resource.

Expansion Symbol: Cards from the Manufactions expansion show an expansion symbol in the bottom left corner of the cards.

Vitamins

Vitamins are a brand new resource that you can gain using new cards from Manufactions. They can not be produced from the Headquarters board. When setting up the game, place them in the supply alongside the metal and energy tokens.

Once you have a vitamin resource, it can be discarded to increase OR decrease the value of a single worker by 1 (6 cannot be increased to a 1 and a 1 cannot be decreased to a 6). As long as you have enough vitamins, there is no limit to how many you can use within a round.

New Rules: Vitamins are another resource just like metal or energy. Whenever a card or rule refers to resources, it can refer to vitamins as well. At the end of the work phase players must discard down to 12 total resources. In Manufactions this includes not only metal and energy but vitamins as well.

In addition to metal or energy, a vitamin resource can also be used to pay for the optional action to discard all the blueprints or contractors in the marketplace.

Corporate Factions

Corporate factions provide players with asymmetric powers as well as different starting resources and hand sizes. Each power is described on each respective faction board.

At the start of the game before the marketplace is dealt, deal 2 factions face down to each player. Then each player selects 1 faction to keep and discards the other face down. Once every player has discarded a faction, they reveal which they chose to keep and place it above their Headquarters board.

When playing with factions, players will start with the resources and cards indicated on the faction board (instead of the usual 1 metal, 2 energy, and 4 cards).

• Draw and keep: Some factions show a symbol meaning to draw a number of cards, keep a smaller number, and discard the rest. For example, a faction showing "draw 9, keep 5" means to draw 9 cards, keep 5, and discard the rest.
• Complexity: Factions show a complexity rating of 1 to 3 stars. It is recommended that players new to Fantastic Factories select a faction with a lower rating.

No Limit: There is no limit to how many times you can use a faction power each round.

Solo Rules

Manufactions is fully compatible with Solo Mode. Simply shuffle in the new cards, deal yourself 2 factions to choose 1 from, and the rest of the rules are the same.

Appendix

All blueprint/contractor cards and factions are listed below along with rule clarifications for edge cases.

Notes on this transcription: The card and faction icons in the source are pictograms. Where the printed text describes a resource or die, it is written out here. Tool symbols are shown in the source as four coloured icons (blue, green, orange, and pink); the source does not print their names, so they are referred to by colour here. Die faces shown as pictures in the examples are described by the printed example text where it gives a value. Where the source's text contains an obvious typo, the corrected word is given in brackets.

Blueprints

• Academy (2x): Discard a training type blueprint card to gain 1 good and 1 vitamin.
• Architecture Firm (2x): Pay 1 metal and 2 energy to draw 3 blueprints.
• Cannery (2x): Place a die to gain 1 good and 1 vitamin.
• City Park (2x): Training type cards within your compound cost 1 less energy to activate. This discount can be used any number of times each round.
• Dig Site (2x): Place a die and discard blueprints equal to the value of the die to draw the same number of blueprints and gain 2 metal.
• Drone (3x): Discard a blueprint and gain an extra die this turn equal to the build cost of the discarded blueprint. Discard the extra die at the end of the round.
  • Example: Discard City Park (build cost of 1 metal, 4 energy = 5 total) to gain a die of value 5.
• Enigma Engine (2x): Pay 2 energy to gain 2 metal OR pay 1 metal to draw 2 blueprints OR discard 1 blueprint to gain 4 energy.
• Fettucine Factory (2x): Place 2 matching dice to gain 1 good, 1 vitamin, and roll an extra die this turn. Discard the extra die at the end of the round.
• Harbor (2x): Place a die to gain 2 metal and draw 1 blueprint.
• Medical School (2x): Pay 1 metal to gain 1 vitamin. Vitamins can also be used to change the value of an unplaced die by 2. This static vitamin bonus can be used any number of times each round.

Contractors

• Apprentice (3x): Draw 1 blueprint card and roll 1 extra die at the start of the next work phase. Discard the extra die at the end of the round.
• Artisan (3x): Additional cost of 2 energy. Gain 1 good. Place that good on your Headquarters board.
• Demolitionist (2x): Discard a building in your compound. Gain 1 good and metal/energy equal to double the card's build cost. [Source prints "equal do double"; corrected to "equal to double".] The prestige value of that card no longer counts towards your score, but any goods on the card still count and can be placed on your Headquarters board.
  • Example: You have Think Tank in your compound and you hire Demolitionist and use it to discard the Think Tank (which has a build cost of 1 metal and 4 energy). You gain 1 good, 2 metal, and 8 energy.
• Generalist (2x): Gain 1 metal, 2 energy, and draw 1 card. Then pick an opponent. They may gain 1 metal or 2 energy or draw 1 card (your opponent gets to choose).
• Mentor (3x): Gain 3 vitamins and pick an opponent to gain 1 vitamin.
• Recruiter (1x): Draw and reveal the next 2 contractor cards and you may hire both for free (you do not need to discard any cards or pay any additional costs) in any order. Perform the actions as indicated by those contractors and discard them along with Recruiter. Hiring either is optional. For example, if you revealed Demolitionist but didn't want to discard any cards from your compound, you may simply discard Demolitionist.
• Scientist (3x): Draw and reveal 7 blueprint cards from the blueprint deck. Keep 1 of those cards and discard the rest.
• Tycoon (1x): Take all 4 face up blueprint cards from the marketplace and add them to your hand. Refill the 4 blueprint cards in the marketplace immediately with new cards from the blueprint deck.

Factions

Each faction's starting resources are shown as a number of cards (with the number to draw and, where given, the number to keep), then metal, then energy or vitamins.

• Deep Blue (Complexity: 3 stars; starting: draw 9, keep 2 cards)
  • When building, you may discard an additional blueprint card with a matching tool symbol (blue / green / orange / pink) to reduce the build cost by 2 resources (any combo of metal or energy).
  • Example: You are trying to build Skunkworks, which costs 1 metal and 3 energy and a pink tool symbol. You use Deep Blue's power and discard an Academy and a Beacon (2 cards instead of 1, both which have pink), reducing Skunkworks' build cost to 0 metal, and 2 energy.
• Earth United (Complexity: 1 star; starting: 3 cards, 1 vitamin)
  • You may place dice on Mine to gain metal 2 and dice on Generate to gain energy 4.
  • Match bonuses still apply. For example, if you placed two dice on Mine, you would receive 5 metal.
• Frontier Freight (Complexity: 2 stars; starting: draw 6, keep 2 cards, 1 metal, 2 energy)
  • During the market phase you may both take a blueprint card AND hire a contractor in either order.
  • You may use the blueprint card you just took to discard in order to hire a contractor during the same market phase.
  • If you choose to take the optional action to discard and refill one marketplace row it must be taken before taking a blueprint or hiring a contractor.
  • The marketplace only refills at the end of your market turn and not between picks.
• GeoLabs (Complexity: 2 stars; starting: draw 6, keep 2 cards, 1 metal)
  • After each time you build, you may discard an additional blueprint card (any tool symbol) to draw 1 blueprint card and gain 1 metal.

Tips and Strategies

It is recommended that you play Manufactions once or twice to discover your own strategies before reading this section. For players looking to master the game, these tips may improve your play.

Multi-Use Vitamins: Players often think of using vitamins to help modify their dice in order to power factories. However, often times you may want to use vitamins to set up your dice for a Headquarters match bonus in order to gain extra cards, metal, or energy.

Fill Your Hand: Drawing blueprint cards may not seem as important as gaining resources, but in the earlier part of the game, having a large hand size gives you a lot of options in both what factories you can build but also what contractors you can hire. A large hand of cards will allow you the flexibility of pivoting your strategy or seizing opportune moments.

Maximize Your Power: Maximizing the value of your faction power means using it whenever possible. For example, with Frontier Freight, you'll want to both hire a contractor and pick up a blueprint every market phase, even in the first round.

Dig Deep for Synergy: Some factions require specific blueprints in order to utilize their power effectively. For example SDC Global and ReliQUARRY requires a constant flow of training and monument cards, respectively, in order to function consistently. Don't be afraid to spend some resources to reset the marketplace!