Automania

A car-factory Euro where crossing assembly lines make every machine tile a puzzle.

Designers: Kristian Amundsen Østby, Kenneth Minde
Published by: Aporta Games

You run a car factory and want to build the cars everybody wants. In Automania, each player has a factory board with three assembly lines, one for each type of car, and you buy machine tiles and hire specialist employees to upgrade them. The catch: the three lines cross each other, so every machine you place can change more than one type of car, and where you put it matters. Finished cars are sold on one of two markets, and the closer a car's specs are to what that market demands, the more popular it becomes, and the more money or prestige you earn. A medium-heavy factory puzzle for two to four, around ninety minutes.

Three crossing assembly lines per factoryMachine tiles change your cars' specsSell cars to markets with specific demands

Who it's for

You like optimizing your own board and want an industry theme where tile placement is a real puzzle.

Not for you if…

You want a lot of direct interaction. You mostly build your own factory and watch the markets.

Vibe's take

Puzzly and tidy. You stare at your factory board, trying to fit machine tiles so that one placement improves several cars at once.