Forged in Steel

In Forged in Steel, you step into the shoes of a prominent family in a burgeoning Colorado county in 1900, a time of immense social and technological changes that would reshape American life forever. Your goal is to control one of four key sectors—mining, industry, city, or commercial—and perhaps even become Mayor, gaining the power to appoint other players to important offices. The game unfolds over three eras, each representing a decade, broken down into strategic phases. You start each era with eight cards, all featuring historic black-and-white photos from Colorado, and must discard one while banking two for your final turn. These cards are your primary tool: use them to gain 'Municipal Muscle' points to build, buy, or even seize structures, or activate the events listed on each. Cards also serve to set yearly 'Headlines' or 'Themes,' representing societal or technological movements of the era, altering victory point awards and other game variables. Your structure scores are calculated by multiplying the progress of your sector tracks by the number of buildings you own. Each track progresses differently. Furthermore, you can build parks, civic buildings, hospitals, and police stations, which not only affect future gameplay but also increase neighborhoods' political votes at turn's end, generate VPs for proximity, or protect against certain negative cards. Forged in Steel is an organic building game, where every new construction modifies the landscape, and you can only build adjacent to existing structures. At the end of each turn, the game simulates the arrival of immigrants seeking jobs, based on the number of factories and commercial buildings constructed. If too many are built, unrest can grow, leading to riots that undermine your city-building efforts. The National Guard might step in, but be careful not to contribute to the 'Unrest Track.' Can your family navigate the turbulent changes of the early 1900s and become the local political and economic powerhouse? The game incorporates aspects like the New Deal, Women's Suffrage, the City Beautiful movement, and the Spanish Flu, as well as details like sidewalks and paved streets, offering a deep immersion into the history of city development, labor, industry, and society of that era in the American West.