Furnace: Interbellum — Rules Manual

OVERVIEW
Furnace expands into the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century — the interwar period known as the interbellum. In this expansion, you will find new Company cards and Capitalists, new abilities, Manager tokens, variable Capital discs, a set of components for a fifth player, and new Agents for two-player and single-player games. All of this exists within beautiful industrial buildings and structures from the epoch of Art Deco, Constructivism, and Bauhaus.
Interbellum is designed for players who are already familiar with Furnace. The expansion is best played if all of its elements are added to the base game, but if you don’t feel up to it, you can get to know it piece by piece.
EXPANSION RULES

---

EXPANSION COMPONENTS
24 double-sided Company cards
4 single-sided Start-up cards
5 Capitalist cards
(including an updated one)
4 Agent cards
14 Manager tokens
1 Personal Manager token
3 Business School cards
4 teal Capital discs

3
Gain for each of your cards that let you sell.
Take all on this card.
Each time your currently winning bid on a Company card is outbid by an opponent, place on this card from the supply.

5
Steel Magnate
When determining the target card, considers only Company cards with /. Places their highest possible bid on the target card.
If there are no such cards, places their highest possible bid on the rightmost suitable card.
Gains 1 instead of each compensation transaction.
In the Production Phase gains 2 for each / on their Company cards and 4 for each their Manager token.

3
When resolving your unupgraded Company card in the Production Phase, you may resolve its compensation effect before proceeding with its basic effect.
Resolve the effect of this card once more.
When spending resources by this card, you may consider either or spent already.
When spending resources by this card, you may consider 4 spent already.

2

---

NEW COMPONENTS
The basic rules for the new Start-up and Capitalist cards stay the same. You
may choose which cards to use: only the ones from the base game, the ones
from the expansion, or you can mix them together.
Exception: There is one Capitalist card (with the ) replacing the correspond-
ing Capitalist from the base game.
You have an additional (it is considered a disc of your color).
You have an additional (it is considered a disc of your color). During the
Auction Phase, you must simultaneously bid on two different cards with your and any one of your other discs.
  1 teal Player’s Color token
  5 variable Capital discs
(black, white, red, yellow, teal)
  15 Coal cubes
  10 Iron bars
  5 Oil drums
  10 Money tokens
  Expansion Rules
Assemble the variable Capital discs before your first game.
3

---

New double-sided Company cards are shuffled into the main deck according to the rules explained below. You’ll also see new effects there (also described below).
Each player will now have a variable Capital disc. Its value depends on the number of Coal cubes its owner spends when placing their bid.
Manager tokens are distributed during the Auction Phase—just like the Company cards. During the Production Phase, the players assign their Managers to their Companies to make those more efficient. Business School cards are placed at the end of the Auction row, and the Manager tokens available in this round are placed on them.
All additional Coal cubes, Iron bars, Oil drums, Money tokens, as well as Capital discs, and the teal Player’s Color token are used according to the base game rules.
Agent cards are used in a two-player game. With these cards, the dummy player will have a certain strategy and even a chance to win. You can also now play solo against two Agents.

10

2
When resolving this card’s selling effect, gain for each transaction.
To distinguish the expansion cards from the base game cards, pay attention to their frames:
Interbellum

7

Gain w R u w Ú ø & w R w § R Š u w ø Ú u þ { w „ & Ú „ w A „ w §o Š convert. Base Game
4

---

NEW EFFECTS AND TERMS
This expansion introduces several new types of effects.
Deliveries allow you to resolve an extraction or processing effect listed in the
line once. If the active (fully colored) delivery effect is on the basic side of the
card, you resolve it as soon as you receive the card in the auction (without
waiting for the next card in the row to be resolved). If the active delivery effect
is on the upgraded side of the card, you resolve it as soon as you upgrade the
card (even if you’ve already resolved the card in that round).
Text effects are listed in text without additional highlighting. They are resolved
when you resolve the cards with them according to the listed order. While text
effects are used similarly to extraction and processing effects, they count as
neither. Text effects come in both basic and upgraded card sides.
Permanent effects are also listed in text, but highlighted by a blue background.
These effects are not resolved when you resolve the card, but they become
active from the moment you receive the card (including the Auction Phase). Like
text effects, they come in both basic and upgraded sides and don’t count as
either extraction or processing ones.
Conversion and Selling are two subtypes of processing effects. Conversion is
an effect that has at least one resource to the right of the arrow. Selling is an
effect that has money to the right of the arrow. Some effects count as both
conversion and selling.

---

Resources are coal, iron, oil, and Upgrade tokens. Money and upgrade symbols do not count as resources.
Upgrading does not count as either extracting or processing.
SETUP
These instructions supplement the base game setup steps.
0. Assemble the Company deck. Sort the double-sided Company cards from the base game into 12 piles according to their illustrations and take two random cards from each pile. Mix them with the 24 Company cards from this expansion and add promo cards if you have any. To reduce setup time, you can take 24 random cards from the base game, but then the deck will be less balanced.
Put all unused Company cards from the base game in the box.
1. When distributing Start-up and Capitalist cards, use the ones from the expansion as well. You may agree on which Start-ups and Capitalists to use. In addition to a player’s color token and the normal set of discs of their color, each player also receives a variable Capital disc of their color (set to “0”). If a Capitalist card instructs a player to receive a disc or token, the player does so.
2. Each player receives a Coal cube in addition to the resources listed at the top of their Start-up card.
5. Shuffle all Manager tokens. On the opposite side of the table, farthest from the deck, place several Business School cards (facing any side up) so that they are at the very end of the row of Companies in the auction:
  1, 2, or 3 players — two Business School cards (put the third one back in the box);
  4 or 5 players — all three Business School cards.
Place a face-down stack of Manager tokens next to the Business School cards.

6

---

GAME ROUND
Below are additional rules for the Auction and Production Phases that come into
play with the expansion.
Auction Phase
When you have laid out a row of cards for the auction, place one Manager token
from the stack on each Business School card, face up. The Business School cards
are at the very end of the card row, to the right of the available Companies.
For example, if three players are playing, the Business School cards are at the
eighth and ninth positions in the row. You can bid on these cards according to
the normal rules.
On their turn, the player can bid with the variable Capital disc. Initially, its value
is zero. When bidding with this disc, the player may spend as much coal as they
want to increase its value by 1 for each coal spent. After the bet is made, the
value of the disc cannot be changed.
The variable Capital disc shows values from 0 to 9, but the player can raise its
value even higher. To indicate a 10+ bid, put as many additional Coal cubes on
the disc as its value is higher than nine. A zero bet is also allowed.
A variable Capital disc is placed according to the normal rules: on a card where
there is neither a disc of the same player nor a disc of the same value. However,
text effects that mention a disc with a specific value do not affect a variable
Capital disc, even if the same value is assigned to it.
When retrieving your variable Capital disc at the end of the Auction Phase, reset
its value back to zero.
When resolving the auction results, the Business School cards are the last to be
resolved in the order they lie in the row. The owner of the disc with the highest
value on such a card takes the Manager token from it (the card itself remains in
place). There are two compensation options on each Business School card. When
getting compensated for such a card, the player may divide their compensation
transactions between these options as they wish. For example, when getting
compensated for a “3”, you can either resolve one compensation option three
times or two times one and once the other. If there are no discs on a Business
School card, its Manager token is discarded.
7

---

Production Phase
At the beginning of each Production Phase, before resolving cards, the players may place their Manager tokens on their Companies or Start-ups, one per card. For a given Production Phase, each Manager is considered to be an additional effect of the card on which it is placed. A Manager effect may be resolved at any time when the card is resolved. Manager effects are not mandatory. At the end of the round, the player removes all Manager tokens from their cards. The tokens remain with the player and can be used again in the next round (for the same or different cards). Important: Manager tokens cannot be resolved during the Auction Phase.

GAME VARIANTS

Production Chain
The rules of this game variant do not change but note that deliveries and permanent effects operate outside the normal chain.

Capital Growth
This is a simplified version of the game with variable Capital discs. We do not recommend it for experienced players. In this variant, players do not need to spend coal to change the value of their variable Capital disc. Instead, it equals the number of the current round (1 in the first, 2 in the second, etc.). The Capitalist with +2 to the value of is not used in this variant.
8

---

Individual Modules
If you wish, you may use certain elements of this expansion individually or in
various combinations. Note the following restrictions:
  When playing without new Company cards, put two Manager tokens allowing
you to resolve the delivery once more back in the box.
  When playing without Manager tokens, do not use the Capitalist with the
Personal Manager.
  When playing without Manager tokens, but with variable Capital discs, place
an additional Company card for each auction.
  When playing without variable Capital discs, do not use the Capitalist with
+2 to .
2-Player Game
Choose one Agent card, either by agreement or at random. Set aside their set
of discs (including the variable one, if you are playing with them) and allocate
space on the table for their cards and tokens. The value of the Agent’s variable
Capital disc is always constant and is listed in the top right corner of their card.
After rolling the die, determine if the Agent can place at least one of their discs
on that card. If not, move to the next Company card and so on, as described in
the rules of the base game. The first Company card the Agent can bid on is con-
sidered the target card. Refer to the Agent’s card to find out where and which
disc must be placed.
When resolving the results of an auction, give the Agent those Company cards
and Manager tokens where they have the highest bid and money for each com-
pensation transaction they are entitled to (as indicated on their card). In the
Production Phase, give the Agent money according to their card.
If at the end of the game the Agent has more money than either of the players,
none of the players is considered the winner.
9

---

Solo Game
Use the rules for the two-player game, with the following exceptions. Choose
two Agent cards, place one to your left and one to your right. Each Agent
has their own set of discs and their own place for the cards. After you make
a bid during an auction, first roll the die and bid for the Agent on your left,
then roll the die and bid for the Agent on your right. Both Agents get money,
cards, and tokens separately. Your goal is to get more money than each Agent.
5-Player Game
When setting up, determine the first player before distributing Start-up and
Capitalist cards. The player who goes fifth in the first round receives two
Start-up cards and two Capitalist cards and chooses one of each. In each round,
auction off 9 Company cards and 3 Manager tokens.
Note: A five-player game can take a long time, so we do not recommend that
beginners play with this player count.
If you are using the playmat and do not want the ninth card outside of it,
flip the top card of the deck. This card will be the first card in the row, and
eight more cards will continue the row in the slots.
10

---

TEXT EFFECTS CLARIFICATIONS
“For each of your cards that let you” do something — Do not count the cards where you have such an effect, but it is not yet active (fully colored).
“Convert/sell” a resource — It does not matter whether the resource is processed on its own or in combination with others.
“Selling resources of one kind only” — Applicable to all selling effects with a single resource type listed to the left of the arrow.
“To resolve a Company (not a Start-up) card of the player to your right” — The Manager tokens placed on the chosen card are resolved, too, but its permanent effects do not apply. In a two-player game, resolve an opponent’s (not an Agent’s) Company. If you are playing alone, resolve any Company of the Agent to your right.
“Each transaction” within a conversion/selling effect — Each individual conversion/sale operation is counted, not the effect as a whole.
“A fully resolved effect” — The one that has been resolved at least as many times as indicated above the arrow.
“Gain for each transaction” — Activates after each individual conversion/sale operation (not after resolving the whole effect).
“Resolve the effect of this card once more” — Doesn’t allow resolving an inactive effect (indicated by transparent symbols).
“Discard this card” — the discarded card is put back in the box, and the Managers from it are returned to the owner.
11

---

CREDITS
Game Designer: Ivan Lashin
Game Producer: Petr Tyulenev
Lead Artist: Oleg Yurkov
Artwork: Sergey Dulin, Marta Ivanova, Egor Karpikhin, Anastasia Kukarina,
Sofia Moyartseva, Vadim Poluboyarov, Alyona Stepanova, Oleg Yurkov
Design and Retouching: Sergey Dulin
Design and Layout: Kristina Soozar
Lead Playtesters: Konstantin Ponomarev, Elena Vornoskova, Ilya Vorobiev, Olga Zyabko
Playtesters: Valentina Aristarkhova, Alexey Babaytsev, Matvey Chistyakov, Ilya Drozdov,
Alexander Eremin, Alexander Fedorov, Ilya Filonov, Igor Ganzha, Svetlana Gavrilina, Artem Grashchenko,
Alexander Ilyin, Pavel Ilyin, Filipp Ivanov, Andrey Kalinkin, Alexander Kiselev, Denis Klimov,
Julia Klokova, Julia Kolesnikova, Andrey Kolupaev, Alexander Kozhevnikov, Valeriy Kozlov, Mikhail Krotov,
Valeriy Kruzhalov, Nikolay Kuzivanov, Konstantin Malygin, Ekaterina Reyes, Aleksandra Salnikova,
Anna Samusenko, Ilya Semenov, Kristina Soozar, Ilya Stepanov, Natalia Telezhkina, Sergey Trifonov,
Ivan Tuzovsky, Maria Yandimirkina, Petr Zaytsev, Andrey Zhuravlev and others
The game designer thanks the Comrades Development team, Sergey Trifonov, and Filipp Ivanov.
PUBLISHER: HOBBY WORLD
General Manager: Mikhail Akulov
Production Manager: Ivan Popov
Editorial Director: Alexander Kiselev
Editor-in-Chief: Valentin Matyusha
Assistant Editor-in-Chief: Anastasia Egorova
Prepress: Ivan Sukhovey
Business Development: Sergey Tyagunov
International Development: Pavel Safonov
English Translation: Julia Klokova
Special thanks to Ilya Karpinsky.
Reprinting and publication of the game’s rules, contents, and illustrations
without the copyright holder’s permission is strictly prohibited.
© 2022 Hobby World. All rights reserved.
international@hobbyworld.ru
hobbyworldint.ru
Rules version 1.0

---