#BoardGames idea: Mend
There are plenty of engine builders out there, where typically you get your engine up and running and then get to turn the crank once or twice before the game ends.
What if, instead, we had an engine maintainer?
Your economic engine would be up and running at the beginning of the game. The task is to maintain it by:
Repairing or replacing components that wear out over time
Performing preventive maintenance to prevent wear
Fine-tuning the engine’s efficiency
Adapting the engine to a (relatively slowly) changing environment
Occasionally recognizing that an entire multi-component part of your engine needs to be replaced. You’d want to cannibalize what you can to both avoid the expense of buying new things and the cost of disposing of waste; limited space means you do have to get rid of your waste.
Thoughts? Does it already exist?
@peterdrake interesting idea. You could have the engine producing undesirable byproducts initially that give you negative points and improve processes to reduce that.
@peterdrake Corrosion by Capstone Games fits some of this bill. Whilst you still build an engine so to speak, you’re also fighting an engine that corrodes to rust. You can take actions to keep the engine running or accept losses to corrosion to add on another part of your engine.
@peterdrake sounds like a great concept. Similar to some of the transport tycoon-like video games, but having to transcribe it into a turn based setup.
Admittedly, transport fever (the one of the genre I play) has both the builder and the maintenance/optimization aspects into it.
I'm not sure if there are board games of that store that exist though.
Perhaps in a sense Pandemic is a maintenance game.