Furnace

I had had my eye on Furnace for quite a while. Games in the 45–60 minute range often leave me a little unsatisfied: they are neither quick fillers nor always substantial enough to feel like a full game. But this is an auction/production game, one of my favourite categories, and in the end this little furnace justified my interest.

The game lasts four honest rounds. In each round, we bid on cards from a shared pool and then slot whatever we acquired into our production chains, aiming to turn our resources and machines into the most money by the end. Interaction lives primarily in the auctions: we are all looking at the same cards, all trying to work out what the player opposite us needs and how much it is worth pressing them for it.

That is where the real heart of the game lies. The auction system is clever, quick and, at least to me, fairly original. It does not drag you through endless bid-or-pass exchanges, yet it leaves room for meaningful strategy. The compensation mechanism makes losing bids interesting, because players who fail to win a card get something for their trouble — sometimes even more than the winner. So you are not simply trying to win every auction: you may deliberately want to lose a particular card, because the compensation fits your production plan better.

The production phase is the least elegant part for me. The lack of more multiplier cards means quite a bit of moving cards in and out, with a slightly fiddly feel. I also would not play it with a group where I could not trust everyone to run their own chain independently. Still, it remains a satisfying optimisation puzzle. Personally, I prefer the hard variant, where you cannot change the position of cards in the chain: the less-than-optimal production line runs faster, and the game returns to the place where I think it shines, the auction phase.

Overall, I think Furnace deserves a place in every collection. It is comfortable, neatly condensed, and has enough replayability that it does not feel solved after only a few plays. The capitalist cards, which add a touch of asymmetry, seemed fine to me with four players, but at three some of them appear excessively strong. There was also discussion at the table about a promo card that can potentially give 16 points per phase and may sit above the balance curve; we did not all agree. As for the playmat, my position is simple: it is unimportant, and you do not need it.

Updated session

We returned to Furnace because there was not enough time for something heavier, and this play was noticeably better than earlier ones that had left a bad aftertaste. The crucial difference was that we did not use promo cards. Without them, the game once again showed its strengths clearly: quick, decision-filled auctions and clever production chains. As so often happens, the game turned out to be better without the promos.