Control the Weather
Weather Machine is a 1-4 player worker placement and set collection game by Vital Lacerda. You are playing as a scientist on the team of professor Lativ, trying to restore the balance that was disrupted by the weather-controlling machine built by the professor. The Kickstarter campaign will launch on November 11.
You start the game by choosing a player colour and setting up the main board and your laboratory (player board). You will place your bots in the assembly line of the laboratory, as well as your voucher tokens, breakthrough markers, one machine part, one workshop tile, and 9 goal tiles. After setup, a supply round takes place before the game begins. In this round, each player performs actions in the Supply location by paying their cost. These actions may be: extending a workshop, constructing a bot, acquiring or returning a chemical, or taking the initiative in the turn order.
When this phase is over, each consecutive round consists of 3 phases: Player turns (each player takes a turn), Run Weather Machine Experiment, and End of Round. In the Player turns phase, you have to take four steps in set order: 1) Use a subsidy or investment tile (to gain their bonus), 2) Move your scientist (from one location to another to gain/pay vouchers), 3) Perform actions (depending on the location your scientist is in), and 4) Place research tokens (in matching colour spaces in your office to gain their benefit). Besides the Supply location, you can take actions in the Government location to sell machine parts or secure subsidies, and check if the government can activate its machine. You may also visit Lativ's lab to work on experiments or publish a paper, or go to the Research and Development location to do research and build a prototype.
In the Run Weather Machine Experiment phase, players check if the experiment in Lativ's lab runs or not. Depending on the current weather state, there has to be at least one matching experiment tile there, and a bot on each space of the weather branch. If the experiment succeeds, players gain points, otherwise they have to prepare for the next experiment. Once the end game is triggered (if a player wins the Nobel prize, or the last experiment tile is placed, or the government machine is completed, or the research spaces are occupied), players proceed to scoring and the player with the most points wins.
In the solo mode, you will be competing against two AIs, Agent White and Agent Pink, who act as one opponent. They come with their own deck of cards and a hideout board.