- BGG rating
- 6.5
Legacy: Forbidden Machines – Deep Vault
- 2–4 players
- 90 min
- 2013
- BGG rating
- 7.4
Rules assistance for Legacy: Forbidden Machines
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with saved question history.
Rules assistant for Legacy: Forbidden Machines
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Legacy: Forbidden Machines is an expansion for Legacy: Gears of Time released in 2013 for 2–4 players, 90 minutes per game, and ages 12 and up. It was designed by Ben Harkins and its main mechanics are Hand Management, Area Majority / Influence, and Modular Board.
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About the game
Legacy: Forbidden Machines is the first full expansion for Legacy: Gears of Time. In the world of Legacy, the course of history is maintained by the operators of the Ancient Machine, fueled by mysterious forces. As an Antiquitect, the machine binds you to the present while you travel back through time to ensure the technological advancements of the world remain intact. The dark energy fueling the Ancient Machine, called Vesper, is growing out of control, eroding the timeline and causing it to crumble faster than ever. Restoring balance is imperative; to do so, the Antiquitects must break their oath and create the Forbidden Machines – powerful contraptions they were sworn to never bring into existence! Legacy: Forbidden Machines uses all the familiar rules and components from Legacy: Gears of Time and includes a new set of technology cards, many of them introducing the Activation mechanism. Players with the most influence over these technologies can activate them once during their turn to perform powerful game effects such as drawing extra cards, swapping influence cubes, gaining an additional turn, and many more! Several of the fundamental technologies introduce When Established game effects, giving a little boost to hatching your time travel plans when these technologies are established. Prepare for a whole new level of depth and strategy while you travel back in time to Build Your Legacy. Legacy is a Eurostyle tabletop card game packed with strategic depth, tactical control, and meaningful choices. Each game is played in a fixed number of turns and features an interesting blend of familiar mechanisms such as hand-management, area-control, variable player order, and scaling victory point rewards. Legacy: Forbidden Machines is not a stand-alone game, it requires the base game (Legacy: Gears of Time) to play.
Editions
- Legacy: Forbidden MachinesenFloodgate Games2013
Designers
Publishers
- Floodgate Games
Questions and answers
Legacy: Forbidden Machines supports 2–4 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 Legacy: Forbidden Machines is 90 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 Legacy: Forbidden Machines for ages 12 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.
Legacy: Forbidden Machines has a complexity rating of 2.6 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.
Legacy: Forbidden Machines belongs to these categories: Card Game, Exploration, and Science Fiction. Its main mechanics are Hand Management, Area Majority / Influence, and Modular Board. 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 Legacy: Forbidden Machines are: Ben Harkins. 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 Legacy: Forbidden Machines as an expansion for Legacy: Gears of Time. Expansions add new content, rules or scenarios to the base game and usually cannot be played on their own, so you need Legacy: Gears of Time to use it. Check that your edition of Legacy: Gears of Time is compatible, as some expansions were revised between editions.