Fantasy Flight Games

Grind Out Victory

Published 10 June 2013 | Gearworld: The Borderlands

Grind Out Victory

Gearworld: The Borderlands, a Post-Apocalyptic Board Game, Is Now Available!

The Sky People in the World Above have finally depleted their legendary stores of power, forcing them to come to the Borderlands. But they need the help of your Borderlanders if they wish to siphon the Fire Beneath into their floating cities. You and your fellow tribes must barter, bribe, and compete to be the first to raise the skyworks and reap the bounty of the Sky People’s favor. Gearworld: The Borderlands is now available at your local retailer and on our webstore!

Set in a steampunk apocalyptic future, Gearworld: The Borderlands puts you and your fellow players in charge of a few ramshackle tribes, fighting for whatever resources they can mine or gather in a destroyed world. Each round, players must try to scavenge a variety of resources, ranging from coal and gold, to horses and vital scraps. As the players collect more resources, their tribes become stronger, and are able to move closer to the ultimate goal of skywork construction.

Relations between the tribes are sometimes uneasy, but trade can exist, as we saw in an earlier preview. If a deal of mutual benefit can be reached, players are able to swap resources across borders, but everything must be transported somehow, and in the Borderlands, transport capabilities can be scarce. Foot and horseback may be the only options, but if a tribe is able to construct a riverboat or an ocean-going ship out of scraps, it can give them a significant transportation advantage.

Break What you Cannot Make

When the normal operations of commerce fail, your ships and horses can be used in a more martial purpose. After all, the Sky People only want a tribe that possesses skyworks—they couldn’t care less if that tribe actually made the skyworks. The iron, coal, and other resources your tribe gathers can produce advanced weaponry as well, giving your tribe the upper hand in their raids and conquests. If you want to garner more hints and tips about surviving in Gearworld, head over to the rules on our support page!

In the Borderlands, life is a short and uncertain affair at best. Even the main phases of resource production, trading, and transportation are subject to the winds of change, and unexpected events may jeopardize the occurrence of any one of these phases. Only the threat of imminent battle, and the struggle to build upward are constant in the shifting world of the Borderlands.

As the tribes race to construct their skyworks and stop their opponents from completing theirs, the smell of desperation is in the air. The skyworks will rise, tribes will perish, and fires of advancement will be fueled, one way or another. Are you equipped to handle the hardships of earning a life in the Borderlands? Head to your local retail store, or to our webstore, and pick up Gearworld: The Borderlands today!

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The copyrightable portions of Gearworld: The Borderlands are © 2013 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. Used under license from Eon Products, Inc. Gearworld and Fantasy Flight Supply are trademarks of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc.

Examine the Inner Workings

Published 29 May 2013 | Gearworld: The Borderlands

Examine the Inner Workings

The Rules for Gearworld: The Borderlands Are Now on the Support Page

A tribe of rangy men and women, clad in dirty rags and clinking brass pipes, scale the summit of mound of rubble. As broken gears and the dust of the world slides under their feet, the crew sees something in the distance: a tower of clanking, churning machinery, stretching up into the sandstorm skies. The leader of the band unholsters his brass revolver, and they quicken their pace, the goal of their raid almost within reach…

Gearworld: The Borderlands, a game of apocalyptic steampunk future for two to four players, will soon be ratcheting its way into retail stores near you soon! Players must build and gather resources, barter with their neighbors for what they need, and fight to take what will not be traded. All the tribes are building, eager to accept the rewards of the Sky People, but as they build upward, some will inevitably fall.

The Machinery Laid Bare

Since the game was announced, we’ve been able to more closely examine the resources the Borderlanders eke from the ground, and the quick-thinking trades that must happen in order for the players to build the skyworks. If you haven’t been able to satisfy your curiosity about the Gearworld’s inner mechanics, you can do so now. The rules for Gearworld: The Borderlands (pdf, 11.4 MB) are now posted on our support page!

Acquaint yourself quickly with the ruthless ways of the Borderlands—time is no one’s ally, and the skyworks will rise quickly, with or without your help. If you’re feeling sufficiently ready, head to your local game store to preorder Gearworld: The Borderlands and prepare to breathe the harsh dust of a broken world!

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Scavenging for Resources

Published 11 April 2013 | Gearworld: The Borderlands

Scavenging for Resources

A Preview of the Upcoming Board Game Gearworld: The Borderlands

In days before, the gears still turned and the old machines still worked. The sky was clear and blue, and life flourished. Then noxious clouds came and choked the air. Smoke blanketed the sky. Some people departed in flying cities, ascending above the clouds to the World Above. Others dug deep beneath the ground, vanishing into the World Below. Meanwhile, those in the Borderlands watched the world grow dark as the gears ground to a halt.

The people who have ascended above the clouds have long maintained their distance from the Borderlands, but that time must come to an end. The vast stores of power that those in the World Above depend on have finally begun to dwindle. To ease their burden, the engineers have drafted plans for mighty skyworks, towers that will bring the heat of the Fire Beneath to the cities above the clouds. Meanwhile, the scavengers of the Borderlands are a desperate people, and they are constantly in need of supplies in order to survive; luckily, the Sky People will trade with the tribes that build them the skyworks. Gather resources, trade with other players, and battle your rivals in an effort to be the first to develop three skyworks to bring energy to those who inhabit the World Above and gain their favor!

Announced in February, Gearworld: The Borderlands is a game of negotiation, conquest, and construction in which two to four players compete to gain the favor of the Sky People for their tribe of scavengers in a post apocalyptic landscape. Based on the classic board game Borderlands by Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, and Peter Olotka, Gearworld: The Borderlands has re-imagined the classic game’s setting while retaining its spirit and core mechanics.

In today’s preview, we’ll look at the game’s economy, and how a seemingly simple ruleset (based on moving, trading, and gathering five key resources) belies a wealth of opportunities for negotiation and trade. We’ll also look at the ultimate goal of savvy trading: development tokens, which include the game-winning skyworks.

The five Production Tokens above are placed throughout areas of the board, and they produce their respective Resource Tokens, below.

Miners and Scavengers

In Gearworld: The Borderlands, players make and break alliances with each other in a race to be the first tribe to build the vaunted skyworks, bringing energy to the powerful civilization that dwells amongst the clouds. The tribes struggle to survive in the unforgiving borderlands, and the favor of the Sky People will bring untold prosperity to those who earn it.

Players should transport their resources carefully, gathering what they need to build developments. The chart above shows development costs on the left, and the relative speed of each conveyance on the right.

This makes the limited resources in the borderlands extraordinarily valuable. Mining, scavenging, and raising what livestock they can is the only way for the tribes to scrape by, now that the machines have stopped. Some parts of the borderlands are still rich in raw materials, allowing the tribes to eke out some small bit of civilization by mining iron, coal, and gold. The ruins of the now-defunct machines that dot the lands provide the tribes with the scraps of technology and materials that they cannot fashion themselves.

These development tokens show their strength points, which are used in combat. We'll reveal the specifics of combat in a future preview.

These sites are the very lifeblood of the borderlands. They are vital locations that provide the tribes with the means to build what they need to come out on top in this conflict. In addition, some places on the blighted borderlands are still suitable for ranching, and horses can make all the difference when tribes are building or battling. Horses can be ridden into battle, increasing your military might, and can also transport goods for building developments or weapons as you try to defend your holdings. Each of these essentials is produced during the Production Phase in any territory that has the resource’s corresponding Production Token.

Traveling and Trading

While they may not have the knowledge of how to make the great machines move again, the people of the borderlands are not without some technological aptitude, and they can use the resources that they gather to build a range of developments. You might construct bridges to connect islands to the mainland, or you could focus on manufacturing weapons to defend your borders. Ships and steamboats, while expensive, allow you to control the waterways and transport goods and guns with great speed.

In order to build any of these structures, including the skyworks, the tribes must gather all the materials they need into one area, and transporting resources is no easy task in the borderlands. During the Transport Phase, players can move resources slowly by foot (from one area to one adjacent area), or they may utilize their networks of horses, steamboats, or ships to rapidly transport those resources.

However a player chooses to move his resources, he should keep transit underway to ensure healthy production; if a resource (with the exception of Horses) is in the same space as the token that produced it, that resource can’t be generated in the next round’s Production Phase! It’s therefore vital for each player to keep his resources moving, freeing up production sites so that they aren’t blocked by their own surplus.

While the tribes are competing for the attention of the Sky People, there are times when working together can be advantageous for both sides. Controlling a production site of a given resource is ideal for stockpiling supplies, but players can also gain resources through trading with their rivals. Perhaps you’ll trade coal for gold so a coal mine token can produce in the next round, or maybe you’ll give up some horses for the chance to score some scrap.

You may even trade a resource for one exactly exactly like it. Why? Because when a player receives a resource through trade, he can place it anywhere on the board in an area he controls. This freedom of placement makes trading a great way to circumvent the problem of transporting your goods. Players should be ever mindful of the progress of their rivals, however, as each trade also brings them one step closer to constructing their skyworks!

Since there is already a gold resource token in Savery Hill, it cannot produce another one during this Production Phase. On the other hand, since there isn't already a coal resource token in Ockham, its coal mine produces one coal resource token. Now, the blue player will have to move those tokens where he wants them.

Of course, if your rivals are somewhat less agreeable, they might decide to bring your economic aspirations to a sudden and violent halt. Keep checking back to learn how battle can disrupt all-important trade routes, and head to your local retailer to pre-order Gearworld: The Borderlands today!

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Gearworld: The Borderlands

Published 8 February 2013 | Gearworld: The Borderlands

Gearworld: The Borderlands

Announcing a Board Game of Conflict in a Post-Apocalyptic Future

Fantasy Flight Games is excited to announce Gearworld: The Borderlands, a game of negotiation, conquest, and construction for two to four players! Players compete to gain the favor of the Sky People for their tribe of scavengers in a post apocalyptic landscape. Based on the classic board game Borderlands designed by Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge and Peter Olotka, Gearworld: The Borderlands has streamlined the original rules and re-imagined the game’s setting while retaining its predecessor’s spirit and core mechanics.

Battling and Bartering for Scraps

The scavenging tribes of the Borderlands have mined the land for generations, are adept at extracting scrap from ruins, and have managed to raise horses in the wastes. Each resource is essential to building your tribe’s strength and, eventually, the skyworks. Resource Tokens represent sites where these valuable raw materials can be produced. Controlling as many of these areas as possible is one step to survival in the Borderlands, but it is only the first.

There are many ways to gain the materials you need, and you may have to rely on your competition to get all the resources you require. Trading among the tribes is certainly not unheard of, and players can negotiate for resources to gain an edge. Take care to not be too generous with your exchanges, however, as your opponents will also stand to profit.

If diplomacy isn’t your tribe’s strong suit, then you can always take what you want by brute force. Battling an enemy is a game of numbers, and if you can overwhelm your opponent with weapons, steamboats, horses, or ships, you can take what you need. If you’re too aggressive, you may make some enemies in the Borderlands, and your opponents can team up against your tribe. Combine your strength to take down a tribe that is close to building all of its skyworks, or reinforce a weaker neighbor to cause problems for an aggressive rival. Forge and break alliances to get ahead in both battles and bartering. In the end, all that matters is the survival of your tribe.

Reaching for the Sky

While building the skyworks is the end goal, each tribe must use its resources wisely in order to reinforce its strength and enhance its ability to transport goods. Combining resources into weapons, bridges, ships, and riverboats while conserving enough to build skyworks is the delicate balancing act that each tribe must undertake.

In order to build any developments, including the skyworks, all of the materials required for its construction must be in the same space, so the effective transportation of resources is essential to your success. Each tribe must produce, trade, or steal the materials they need to build new developments and protect what is theirs, but all the resources in the Borderlands will do them no good if they’re spread all over the map.

Ships, steamboats, and horses are used to strategically transport goods around the Borderlands, and can also add to your strength in battle. Bridges are a quick and inexpensive way to connect the islands of Claw, Ironside, and Locke to the main landmass of Haestus, potentially opening up new avenues for resources. Invest in developing Weapons to reinforce your military might; they’ll be extremely valuable when your tribe comes under attack. Take care when building, though. Skyworks are expensive to create and you don’t want to spread your already meager resources too thin.

Acquire resources by conquering your fellow scavengers, carefully defending your own lands, and the clever use of trade and diplomacy to gain an edge. Gearworld: The Borderlands will arrive in the second quarter of 2013. Until then, watch for more information in our upcoming previews, and head to our Gearworld: The Borderlands website to learn more!

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