Industrial Waste - 26 November 2008

The first play of a game James bought at Birmingham's Games Expo in 2007. The original German name of this game is "Müll + Money" - or "Rubbish and Money", which isn't particularly enticing - but the environmental focus of the translation renames it Industrial Waste.

We consequently feared an overly "educational" game but this was unfounded and the game had some clever mechanisms, a fair bit of interaction, and a range of different strategies to pursue. In essence, each player is a factory owner who produces an item using a specific number of employees and raw materials. The side product is industrial waste. Research can be conducted into making the production cheaper and more efficient, or to minimise the waste. A careful balance between these options is needed. The competition is in the selection of action cards and the bidding for resources. And we learned to keep money aside to pay for the inevitable industrial accidents...

Final scores Stuart 56, David 45, James 39 and Kieron 33. The evening concluded with a nostalgic discussion of some great games we haven't played for ages. We agreed we should start the New Year with a stock take and remind ourselves properly of what's hidden away in our attics.