With our experience of Factory 42 and Justice, we've developed a fond fascination for the flawed, corrupt, dwarvish Soviet state of Odrixia created by Dragon Dawn Productions. With Mine 77 we return to Odrixia, this time as hardworking miners struggling to satisfy the Commissariat's demands while trying to hold onto a little something for themselves. It's designed by Ren Multamäki and Tony Cotterill as a prequel/companion to Factory 42 but it's an entirely standalone game. It takes 1-5 players but if you're playing solitaire or as a two-player game, you'll be incorporating a card-driven automata ('Simple Sergio' or 'Dutiful Rosanna') to represent an additional player.
Mine 77 is quite a heavyweight eurogame because there's a lot going on. There are two rondels used for worker placement - one overground and one underground - but at the same time this is a deck building and polyomino tile placement game. Tho' the game is competitive there's a semi-cooperative element because the mine's steam power is a communal resource and because all the mine workers (players) are penalised if collectively they fail to fulfil the state's quota for the day's shifts. You can plan ahead tho' because the state's requisitions for the next day are displayed ahead of time. Players who have accumulated sufficient rosettes are granted immunity from being penalised for failure to meet the state's quota, so there's potential for a player to gain advantage over other players by sabotaging the communal efforts...
Players' actions are card driven, and cards are revealed simultaneously but activated in the order determined by the cards' initiative values. Worker placement slots are limited so there's usually an advantage in going first to avoid getting locked out, so a card's low initiative number may be a factor in your choice of which action card to play from your hand.
As we learnt from playing the card game Justice, Odrixian society is prone to bribery and corruption, and so it should come as no surprise that players in Mine 77 are able to bribe one another to gain some advantage, including over resolving ties for initiative. It's this negotiation element that makes Mine 77 really stand out as players try to screw some extra incentive from each other to help them complete a task.
Shown here on Board's Eye View is a preview prototype of Mine 77 produced ahead of its upcoming launch on Kickstarter. Art is by Sampo Jumisko. Click here for fuller details when the KS campaign launches.