- BGG rating
- 7.7
Fantastic Factories: Faction Pack 1
- 1–5 players
- 45–60 min
- Complexity 3.0/5
- 2021
- BGG rank
- BGG #579
- BGG rating
- 7.4
Fantastic Factories
2019
Rules assistance for Fantastic Factories
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 1–5 players
- 45–60 min
- 14+
- Complexity 2.2/5
For 1 player
Rules assistant for Fantastic Factories
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Fantastic Factories is a board game released in 2019 for 1–5 players, 45–60 minutes per game, and ages 14 and up. It was designed by Joseph Z. Chen and Justin Faulkner and its main mechanics are Hand Management, Race, and Set Collection.
Expansions
- BGG rating
- 8.0
Fantastic Factories: Manufactions
- 1–5 players
- 45–60 min
- Complexity 2.4/5
- 2021
- BGG rating
- 7.3
Fantastic Factories: Subterfuge
- 1–5 players
- 45–60 min
- Complexity 2.0/5
- 2021
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About the game
It's a manufacturing arms race! Compete against other players as you try to build the most efficient set of factories in the shortest time. You must carefully manage your blueprints, train your workers, and manufacture as many goods as possible in order to achieve industrial dominance! In Fantastic Factories, you race to manufacture the most goods or build the most prestigious buildings. There are elements of dice rolling, worker placement, engine building, resource management, tableau building, simultaneous play, and some card drafting. Each round is split into two phases, the market phase and the work phase. During the market phase, you choose to either acquire a new blueprint for free or pay to hire a contractor. Blueprints are used to construct new factories during the work phase. Contractors can be used to reinforce your strategy by providing resources or allowing you to roll additional dice. You need to be mindful of what cards are available in the marketplace and the strategies your opponents may be pursuing. During the work phase, all players simultaneously roll their dice and use their dice as workers to run factories. Factories start as blueprints and need to be constructed. Once constructed, each factory can be used once each turn. Worker placement can happen in any order and figuring out the correct sequence can enable a powerful chain of actions. Additionally, you can build training facilities that allow you to manipulate the dice values of your workers. Each work phase is like solving a unique worker placement puzzle in order to optimize your output of resources and goods. Once any player has manufactured 12 goods or constructed 10 buildings, the game end is triggered and one additional and final round is played. The player with the most points wins (combination of building prestige and manufactured goods). With over 30 unique blueprints and countless synergies across buildings, each game is unique. Fantastic Factories offers a lot of replay value and satisfaction as players discover new factory engines with each game. —description from the publisher A large collection of solo puzzles have also been created for Fantastic Factories along with official tools to create more. This puzzle collection can be found in the BGG Play-By-Forum area.
Categories
Mechanics
Designers
Publishers
- Broadway Toys LTD
- BoardM Factory
- Maldito Games
- Reflexshop
- Portal Games
- Lucky Duck Games
- MeepleBR
- Deep Water Games
- Strohmann Games
- Metafactory Games
Questions and answers
Fantastic Factories supports 1–5 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Fantastic Factories is 45–60 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Fantastic Factories for ages 14 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Fantastic Factories has a complexity rating of 2.2 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Fantastic Factories belongs to these categories: Card Game, Dice, and Industry / Manufacturing. Its main mechanics are Hand Management, Race, and Set Collection. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Fantastic Factories are: Joseph Z. Chen and Justin Faulkner. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Fantastic Factories as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.