Forged in Steel (Kickstarter Edition)

Forged in Steel is a game of strategy and development set in Pueblo County, Colorado spanning the years 1890-1910. Known as 'The Pittsburgh of the West' for its steel mills, Pueblo was also at the center of an immense economic and cultural boom at the turn of the century. As a prominent local family, you must use your influence and strengths to build an empire and dominate the local economies. The paths to success are many, whether you wrest control of municipal development, commercial, mining, industrial sector, or some combination: the choice is up to you. Command your prominent local family and manipulate grand historical themes to your benefit.

Forged in Steel is a card driven strategy game, designed by Wade Broadhead, where players competitively construct a city and region together, closely intertwined but always in fierce competition. Each and every build changes the landscape. Depending on how an Era has developed, immigrants will arrive and locate willing employers or overwhelm the region sending it into riots which will potentially ruin all your hard earned successes. Players set the yearly “Headlines” which effect the development (and rules) of the region and play throughout the Era. Every turn has interesting decisions whether to use cards as events or for the points on each card defined as Municipal Muscle (MM). MM is the currency players use to buy, build, and seize structures on the game board. All events are beneficial, but players will find it important to balance events and MM to form strategies for the end game.

Forged in Steel is an organic building game in that all builds change the landscape and players may build only adjacent to where others have built "the grid/network". At turn's end, the game decides how many immigrants come seeking jobs based on how many factories and commercial buildings were built that turn. Too many? Unrest grows and there could be a riot, undermining all of your recent city-building efforts.

Can your family negotiate the turbulent changes of the early 1900s and become the local political and economic powerhouse? From the New Deal, Women's Suffrage, City Beautiful and Spanish Flu, to sidewalks and paved streets, all aspects of a 1900s western American city are incorporated, and players will learn about the rise of those developments that changed cities, labor, industry, and society forever.