Arkwright

About this board game

Arkwright is a strategic economic board game for 2–4 players, played over approximately 240 minutes, in which you run factories in late-18th-century England.

Your objective is to create the most valuable block of your own shares. Increase share value through successful production and sales, then buy shares from the bank while deciding when to invest, expand, or preserve your money.

Each player controls up to four factories and uses a personal set of action tokens to direct the business. Place tokens on the Administration board and pay administration costs to perform actions such as building or modernizing factories, employing workers, buying machines, improving quality, and promoting sales. Higher-cost spaces can make some actions more effective, while new tokens improve your capabilities over the course of the game.

• Replace expensive workers with machines to control production costs.
• Increase output by hiring workers or advancing a factory to the next technical level.
• Set goods prices, balancing quality and sales promotion against the risk of pricing too high.
• Sell on the home market or ship goods to colonies when you hold a contract with the East India Company monopoly.

After the action phase, one type of factory becomes active. You pay for its workers and machines, sell the manufactured goods, and adjust share values based on sales and the best quality achieved. After four turns, every factory has produced and the round ends; after five rounds, the player with the most valuable share block wins.

Arkwright supports several approaches: operate all four factories, focus on two and develop them further, pursue colonial shipping, or concentrate on the home market. The shorter Spinning Jenny version introduces the market mechanics in about 120 minutes, while the full Waterframe rules offer more options for factory improvements and ships.