Firm with Brownies Card Game Review

Nowadays in tabletop game industry, anybody can design different kinds of games. Not every game is for everybody but there are always games for everyone. Some people might even say that there are too many games that one person can play.

With too many options, when looking for the next game to play, it’s better to look for similarities or games with the same type or genre. Just like when watching some movies. Maybe even just mentioning the name of the game’s designer gives similar info as giving the name of the film’s well-known director.

While it is not ideal but it is a better way for a player to find the game they more likely to like. Luckily, game designers are also a gamer who tends to like, play and design certain types of games. Even if the designer didn’t design the game we already like, they can take inspiration from it and maybe come out with something different.

That is the case with this next game called Firm with Brownies, designed by Shun and Aya Taguchi. I haven’t played any of their previous games but they took inspiration from the game that I already like called Oh My Goods! by Alexander Pfister. I already wrote a review about that before.

There is no point on playing this new game if it is not better than the inspiration or introduces some new ideas. People will just play the existing one that is already well received by other gamers.

While better or worse in quality can be a bit subjective assessment, after playing this game, I can say that it is different enough.  I can see that some may find it better than Oh My Goods!.

So, what is this Firm with Brownies Card game? How do we play Firm with Brownies? Can we play the game solo?

Those are probably just a few questions that came to mind after hearing about the game. Well, in this article, I’m going to share my Firm with Brownies game review based on my experience on playing the game.

Hope this helps. Is Firm with Brownies the best engine-building card game out there?

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Overview

Game’s Title: Firm with Brownies
Genre: Card Game, Competitive, Official Solo Variant, Hand Management, Industrial Theme, Racing for Points, Multiuse Cards.
Designer: Shun Taguchi, Aya Taguchi
Artist: Hotori Satose
Publisher: Yanoman Corporation
Number of Players: 1 – 4 Players
Playing time: 20 – 40 minutes
Official Website: Firm with Brownies (yanoman.co.jp)

Release Year: 2020
Price: 2,200 JPY

Contents:
1 Rule Sheet
4 Player Sheets
1 List of Building Sheet
90 cards (59 x 86 mm):
Building Cards (25)
Starting Building Cards (5)
Coin Cards (4)
Victory Point Cards (12)
Resource Cards (16)
Level 1 Product Cards (19)
Level 2 Product Cards (9)

Expansions and Standalone:
Shokai Training! (2021)
Northern Branch (2023)

About Firms with Brownies Card Game

Originally, the game was called Goods Maker by the same design team, Shun and Aya Taguchi (Studio GG). We can read more about the design diary from this page. According to that page, the design was inspired by Oh My Goods!, a card game by Alexander Pfister with the same theme about building multiple factories.

In 2021, the game then got wider release by Yanoman Corporation, a Japanese publisher with the art from Hotori Satose. This version is called Firm with Brownies and already had 1 expansion called Shokai Training!.

In November 2023, the publisher announced a standalone sequel of this game called Northern Branch. It has the same gameplay but added a new element, according to the official page.

It seems the publisher and designer is planning to expand this series by adding a different game but with the same setting. In 2022, they released Frontier with Brownies, originally called Sheep & Garden (released in 2020).

Unfortunately, this exact series didn’t get international release but got picked up by Iello, a French Publisher. They released Firm with Brownies as Little Factory, which has the exact gameplay but different art and components in multiple different languages like Italian, Ukranian, Polish, German, French and English. This one has digital implementation on BoardGameArena.com.

About the Gameplay

As mentioned above, the game took inspiration from Oh My Goods! but became a completely different game. In this one, we are still trying to build different factories that produce different types of goods and with their own value.

One of the main differences is that in Oh My Goods! there are market resources that dictates the supply of our factories. If there are not enough specific types of resources to start the factory, we can cover that by spending cards in our hand of the matching type. In Firms with Brownies, we need to have that cards in our hand before we can start it.

However, the market also dictates the demand. Our factory can only produce if the card that depicts the produced goods is available in the market. The produced goods from the factories are usually goods from higher value types. There are 3 types, the starting resources or Level 0, then Level 1 and Level 2.

We start with 3 or more of those starting resources which we can spend to our factory in order to claim the more valuable cards from Level 1, assuming it is available. Same goes with from Level 1 to Level 2.

At the start, we don’t have any factory but there is alternative ways to trade those lower value cards into a higher level one via direct trading. Each resource has their own upgrading path. like you can trade wood into Timber or charcoal., clay to brick. Sometimes it involves more resources like Wheat plus Wood to get Sheep. Later we can convert sheep into Lamb meat or if we have cow into beef.  Spent goods go to discard pile so the other player cannot take it right away.

Factories basically allow us to do these trading as additional action. We can activate each factory once per turn either before or after doing that direct trading. That means having more factories open the possibility to do more action per turn.

There is a possibility to even do combo or chain of productions. The result of one factory can feed or become supply of the next factory. If that 2nd factory has a demand on the market, then we can be more efficient.

Upgrading or buying higher value cards is one way to play the game. We can also sell resources from Level 2 or 1 with better value to buy smaller ones. Depending on the situation, that might be a viable option. Maybe the Factory that we are trying to build also need those lower value cards.

The main concept of the trading is we can trade several cards from hand for 1 from the market and vice versa. As long as the value is the same or lower than the total value of cards from our hand.

Whether we go upgrade or downgrade, we have two options. We can upgrade by having the required exact resources or we need to have other cards with the same total value.

As an example, Timber is from Level 1, worth 5 coins. We can buy Timber by spending 2 Woods worth 1 coin each.

Once we have Timber, we can spend that to buy Fish Shop if that building is on the market worth 8 coins. Another way to upgrade is to buy Barrel from Level 2, worth 8 coins by spending that 1 Timber card.

To buy any of them that is worth 8 coins, we can also spend like 1 Cow (5 coins) plus 1 Charcoal (3 coins) or other resources with that value. Get 1 by spending many cards.

For downgrade or selling, 1 Timber worth 5 coins can be 1 Charcoal (3 coins) plus 2 Woods (1 coins each).  While the value of building can be the same or lower than Level 2, they are also worth Victory Points which is the goal of this game.

The first player to score 10 is the winner. Alternatively, some buildings also process goods into victory points. For example, with that Fish Store, we can spend 1 Fish to get 1 point.

While building a factory as soon as possible is great but if for that we have to spend all cards in hand, we cannot run the factory to produce goods. That can lead to wasted turn of just getting 1 card of the lowest value next turn.

So, this is a resource management game, where we are trying to upgrade goods and leave some small amounts to start a new one. Since the supply and demands of a factory are dictated by the market, the other players can try to affect that market by taking out those cards. This is another major difference from Oh My Goods! which is mostly multiplayer solitaire.

Oh My Goods! has a couple of push-your-luck aspect to a lot of player’s decision points. Firms with Brownies or any other versions has less randomness.

Any version of this game comes with a conversion chart to help us figure out the potential to trade those resources. This Japanese version also comes with a list of Buildings and their required resources and production.

The next video is the official trailer from the Japanese publisher about this Firm with Brownies game.

Components

Firm with Brownies comes in a small box.  The overall size is 13.1 x 10.2 x 2 cm to fit 90 cards and a couple of sheets. This is the size of 2 deck of cards.

The cover shows a very colorful art depicting a village of Nymphs in anime style art, done by Hotori Satose. Here we can see 3 characters, one holding 2 rolls of blueprints,  another one doing constructions on the background at the bottom right corner.

On the forefront, we can see a girl selling bread in the Bread Store. So, this represents exactly the theme of this game. Players will be doing trading to make money or get better resources in order to build buildings and do more trades.

At the top left corner of this cover, we can see the giant title of this game that says FIRM WITH BROWNIES. where the Brownies part is the center. Below those English words written in Latin, we can also see the Japanese Katakana letter that says Brownies.

On the side, we can find more information about the game. One of the sides has a line in Japanese which when translated to English using app, it says something like “A Game about Production and Trading.” or something like that.

The game is for 2 to 4 players, takes about 30 minutes or so and for players 12 years old or above. We can also see the logo of publisher, Yanoman and the design studio that developed the game, Studio GG.

For some reason, the bottom part of the box seems significantly smaller than the lid. This means, if we only hold the box only by the lid, the bottom part will simply fall down. Luckily, the box is small enough that can fit in the palm of your hand.

On the back we can find some illustrations of the cards, either the resources and the building cards. There is a bit of text explaining the theme, written in Japanese.

When translated, it says that players are working with Brownies (House Nymphs) which I guess what they call these characters as. So, the Brownies is not about food itself.

There is a list of components which just states 90 cards, 1 sheet list of buildings and 4 player sheets. Other than the designer and artist that has been mentioned, there is information about Product Design, which was done by Dutney Design (written in Katakana so it is probably not the correct spelling).

There is more information about the publisher and their contact information. The back also says that this copy is the 2nd Edition, probably in printing. They made some changes from the first edition printing. We can find out the difference or Errata from this page. According to that page, the publisher is offering a replacement to people who have the 1st edition printing and where they can submit a replacement request.

Inside the box, we should find 2 decks of cards, 1 rulesheet, 1 sheet for building list and 4 player sheets. There is a cardstock paper insert that just divides the box into 2 compartments for cards that we can take out.

The 2 decks of cards come in a plastic band each, not exactly shrink wrapped unlike the box itself. There is no art on the inner side of the box.

All of the cards have the same size, which is 59 x 86 mm. For using card sleeve, the available standard size is either Standard USA Chimera (57.5 x 89mm) or Euro size (59 x 92) mm. The latter is clearly too tall. but perfectly fit the card’s width.

I went with the smaller one. It fits but it was kind of hard to insert the card to the sleeve. I might have damaged one or two in the process. The important note is that this can only be done using the sleeve with 60 micron thickness like from Sleeve Kings brand. They are known to be 1 mm bigger than the stated size. If the sleeve size is 58, then the card will fit.

Also, with that thickness, all of the cards can still fit in the box, even though it is taller than the insert’s divider. If we press the lid, it will not have any lift but eventually the cards will push it up a bit the moment we let go that press.

Even without sleeve and with the lid a bit loose to the base box, I don’t think storing the box standing is a good idea, unless something else pressing from both sides. I personally use an elastic band to keep the box in place.

The game itself already has an expansion with about 12 cards. I think we can still fit them in the base box with a bit lift on the lid but the expansion itself comes with a big tuckbox that we can assemble to store this base box in.

If the designer is planning to release more expansion or contents, then maybe we need a bigger box. Most of the cards will get shuffled a lot during each session so using card sleeve is probably recommended.

Rule Sheet

The first thing we can find inside the box is the rule sheet, of course, written in Japanese only. This rule is just 2 pages on both sides of A4 paper, folded 3 times. The publisher doesn’t have a link that I can find to share the digital file of this link. On BGG, somebody uploaded the scanned sheets along with the other 2 sheets translated by app to English. We can find it here.

Still on BGG page, the English rule for Goods Maker and Little Factory is available there. The Little Factory version also has official rule in Spanish and German. I think there is no significant change to the rule between those versions.

Here is a bit of table of contents of this rule sheet.

1st Section. Title and Introduction (Top Left Page 1). I guess this includes the header of the sheet as well. They explain a bit about the theme and setting. The most important is probably about the Brownies which is these nymphs or cute characters that we can find on the building cards.

They work in those buildings and players either build those buildings with the required resources or pay to get access to that service.

2nd Section. Contents (Top Right, Page 1). This is the list of components in the box, sheets and cards. Picture of cards are shown in later section but no picture for the other 2 sheets.

3rd Section. Explanation of Cards (Bottom Left Page 1). This explains every single type of cards that comes in this box with illustrations but not exactly every card. Each illustration also includes explanation of every part of the card.

4th section. Setup (Bottom Right, page 1). This explains how to setup the market cards with 4 rows one for each type of cards. Other than starting coin cards, there is no setup for player. The rule sheet has illustration for the market but now how what it looks like later for the player area.

A couple of notes for the setup. Depending on the player count, not every starting building cards will be used, only number of player plus 1 so up to 5 for 4 players. We will use all 1st Level and 2nd Level Product cards. For resources, it depends on the player count and the number is printed at the bottom right corner of each card.

Another important part is for the Blue cards or 1st level product, there should always be 5 types of cards in the display. However, each type may have more than one card at a time.

5th Section. Game’s Structure (Top Left, page 2). There are 2 parts in this, player’s turn structure and the end game trigger. Players take turns in clockwise order until the end game is triggered which ends the game immediately.

On player’s turn, they can do Brownies Actions, then 1 Player Action and then Brownies Actions again. Each building or Brownies action can be activated only once per turn but it can be any of those 2 parts.

The end game is triggered when one player has scored 10 points or when the deck of VP cards runs out.

6th Section. Player’s Action (Bottom Left, Page 2). Basically, during Player’s Action phase, player can do one of 2 things, Production or Trading.

Production means take the higher-level card from the display by discarding the specific required cards from player’s hand. Trading means exchanging cards between cards in hand and the cards from the display or market.

At the bottom left corner of Page 2, there is a box that reminds us that the hand limit is 7 and it is a hard limit. Building cards are placed on the table and along with VP cards they don’t count as cards in hand.

I guess an important part that is easy to miss is that during our turn, we can also just take 1 card from the resource row. This is very inefficient action but it is the only way when we have no cards in hand.

7th Section. Brownie’s Action (Right, Page 2). This part explains the Building action or action that we can activate after having building cards in our tableau. The Brownies are operating the building so it is called the Brownies action.

There is a subsection about Market building, a building card specific from this version only.  Basically, this building allows player to do Player Action but specifically for selling 1 Level 2 Product card to buy several cards on the  display.

8th Section. Credits (Bottom Right, Page 2).  Here we can find again the designers / design studio, artist, Product Designer and publisher. There is a url link to the publisher’s page and QR code to their store.

Unfortunately, I cannot tell for sure whether the rule sheet of this Japanese version is good enough as learning tool or not.  I cannot read Japanese and even I learned the game from the other version that is available in English.  I assumed no significant change between versions.

The BGG Game page for this game is mostly for that other version from different publisher. So, people can only rely on the designer answering the question there but not from the publisher. To be fair, most people who come to BGG have better chance on playing that English version.

Based on me reading the translated rule sheet, I think the rule sheet is good enough. Like any other game, there are a couple of details that could be better. One of them is about the first thing players can do with their Coin cards.

The rule doesn’t say but the digital version on BoardGameArena.com forces player to only do trading. Without that specific rule, players can technically hold their coin cards and just take 1 card. Not sure how efficient that first action would be though.

There is also no statement whether players can exchange 1 card for 1 card. The answer is they can, based on the answer from designer on this thread. However, they still cannot exchange many or several cards for several cards.

Player Sheets

The game comes with 4 Player Sheets, one for each of 4 players. Each of them has the size of 18.1 x 11.8 cm, folded once to fit in the box, printed on both sides. One side serves as reminder of player’s actions and the other side is for the Production Chart.

For the 1st part, it doesn’t say the overall player’s turn structure that they can do Building Action, then Player Action then Building action again. It only tells us the illustrated example of Player’s action and Building action, similar to the rule sheet.

Personally, for this part of the sheet, I don’t feel I need to use it. Not because I cannot read Japanese but this is just a reminder if we revisit the game after a while and need a refresher for rule again. After the first one or two turns and I think we can play without it.

Production Chart Map

On the back of the Player Sheet is the Production Chart or Production Map. Here, we can see all of the resources and products and where they are in the potential production chains. I think the purpose is to help players make a plan and turn this game into more strategic rather than tactical.

Every product is presented in 3 different rows, one for each type with the 5 basic resources at the bottom row, 9 Level 1 Product on the 2nd and another 9 for the Level 2 at the top most row.

We can also see the production lines or arrows in 3 different colors of how 1 product can become another with better value or upgraded. The color is either Black, Green or Red.

Black lines means if we have the lower value one, we can upgrade it one level. From Basic to Level 1, we usually only need 1 resource. The only exception is from 2 Woods (Basic) to Timber (Level 1), represented by the Red Line.

Some of the Level 1 or Level 2 Products require 2 different resources of the Lower Level. 3 of the Level 2 require a combination of 1 Resource type and 1 Level 1.

Green Line means if we have the requirement in our hand, we can just show the other player and take the next Level product. There are only 3 Green Lines. One is having Sheep (Level 1) for Thread (Level 1). Two is having a Cow (Level 1) to get Milk (Level 2). Three is having a Fishing Rod (Level 2) to get Fish (Level 1).

The chart also includes the number of copies that each card may have in the deck, printed next to the product. There is only 1 card for each level 2 products. Level 1 can have between 1 to 3 cards each. Mostly 2, with the exception of Fish (only 1) and 3 for Bricks and Charcoal.

The availability of resources is different based on the number of players. Higher player counts will use more cards for each but they are in the same ratio. Woods is the most and Cotton is the least. This is understandable considering that Woods are necessary for several production lines while cotton can only lead to one. We always use all Level 1 and Level 2 cards but not the Resource type.

The question is, is this chart helpful? Do we need to use it when playing? It is helpful for sure but I don’t think it is necessary. Unless all players are very good in the game. By knowing this information, players can be very mean to the other players to block their production chain. Especially where the production line is supported by only one type.

Player can hold the related cards or hate draft and the other player cannot do anything. This is more impactful with the Level 2 Products where all cards only have 1 copy.

I guess that is the main part of the game. Knowing when to let go some cards and use it for their Money Value instead of keep holding on just to make a good combo. Be more flexible.

Even if what I just said happens, it involves some memory elements, trying to remember which card that the other players took previously. Maybe not that hard if we play with just 1 other player but not so with more.

While we can make some plan on other player’s turn, ultimately, our action relies on what’s available between cards in our hand and cards in the market. Cards on the market will change between players and the market doesn’t refresh until the next player’s turn.

Other than taking cards from the market, there is no mechanism for players to actively push the cycle of those 2 or 3 decks, products or buildings.  It’s not that reading the chart doesn’t help but more like just look at the available cards then figure out whether we can do the action or not.

I think the chart itself doesn’t paint the complete picture of the game. Maybe it is more beneficial when we include all of the available buildings that can push the production of each Production lines.

Getting the right building that can convert resource into Level 1 Product which is the requirement for the 2nd building to get Level 2 Product is the main strategy of this game.

For that, we need the list of Buildings to know which building do what. More about this list next.

List of Building Sheet

This single sheet has the same paper size as the Player Sheets but printed in vertical orientation. It has a list of building cards in the game, including the basic one. Each shows the name of the building, the required material, value to buy, victory points value and the Brownie action we can activate.

Unfortunately, the information is written only with Japanese text instead of icons like the card. The cards themselves have a name in English words but not this list. So, for me, this doesn’t help me much. I also was hoping more of Production chart instead of this table.  So, even if I can read the text, I have to imagine the production chain in my mind.

At the top of the 1st page from the sheet, it says that there is no duplicate for each card. Then there is a reminder for setup that the number of Basic Building used is number of players plus 1.

While this doesn’t help me much because of the language barrier, I can see this can be helpful but not much. This is like a summary of possible actions we can make a production chain of. It helps for 1st time players. Without checking every card from the deck, they can just check this list and try to make a plan.

There is a problem though. Since there is only 1 copy of card each, there is a chance that when one player make that plan, the card has been taken already. They have to check the other player’s tableau, to find out whether the card has come out or not.

Even if the card has not come out from the deck, the card might be at the bottom of the deck. Unfortunately, there is no mechanism for player to dig through the deck to find that one specific card faster.

So, eventually, I think player will just find the information based on what’s currently available on the table instead of making long term plan. In fact, the main player action can actually replace the action from the building. Instead of pursuing the building itself, they should just prepare the supply card to resolve the action themselves.

While the building action is a copy of Trading or Production action which we can find from the Production Chart, that doesn’t include buildings to convert goods into Victory Points. I think that is the crucial information that players might want to know since this has racing element for 10 points first. Those buildings could be the one that can make players win.

So, there is definitely a use for this. But then with just 1 sheet, players will have to hand this over to the other times multiple times. However, I do think that with more plays, players will get familiar with the cards and they will stop relying on this sheet.

Victory Point Cards

The first type of cards is the Victory Point Cards. The game comes with 12 of them. These are the cards with the red color with a crest or emblem icon as the center of the card. We can read the title at the top left corner in both English and Japanese that says Victory Point.

The crest or emblem itself has a number 1 in the middle represents 1 VP each. These 12 cards are identical. Both sides of the card shows the same illustration.

In this game, players can build or pay for buildings. Certain types of buildings can generate victory points, provided that the player has the required supplies. In that case, player should take a number of cards equal to the generated Victory Points from the pile of these red cards.

The goal of the game is to be the first to score 10 points to win. However, once these Victory Point Cards run out, the game ends immediately. In that case, the player counts their points and whoever score the most wins. This means, these VP cards serve as a timer and end game trigger.

Regardless of player counts, we will always use all of these cards. So, playing with 4 players may trigger the end game faster since 4 players are taking these cards compared to playing with just 2.

Players can also gain Victory Points for having buildings on their tableau.  Each building is worth between 1 to 5 VP. That means, the game can end even before these VP cards run out.

There is a chance that one player can generate more VP than the supply can provide. The rule doesn’t state but it seems that player can only get what’s available. Triggering the end of the game this way also doesn’t mean winning the game if that player has less Victory Points.

This means players are encouraged to keep checking the points of every player everytime and the leftover VP cards. Depending on the cards that they have, they may try to aim for the next building with their next action instead of spending them to generate points.  That way, the game continues until 10 points or VP cards run out.

Of course, the other players should and may try to prevent that from happening. Maybe that other player can trigger the end of the game next turn. So, if that first player chooses to build buildings but requires 2 turns, that might not be a good idea. That player has to make sure they have enough turns.

Any leftover card is not worth any points. Ideally, players should already have good production chain from multiple buildings to utilize any leftover cards. Alternatively, they may have enough cards with enough money to just buy building. Assuming the affordable building is still available,

Coin Cards

The next type of cards is Coin Cards or they call it Seed Funding Cards.  These are the cards with beige or brown color and at the front depicts between 3 to 6 coins. The coin themselves has the silhouette of the Brownies character so this is like their currency.

Just like the VP card, it has the same structure of design. The name of the card in both English and Japanese at the top left corner front and the value in figure at the bottom. On the back it shows a silhouette of bag of coins. Probably they should have printed the picture more clearly and not just silhouette.

These are the starting resources. The first player will take the lowest value card and the 4th gets the one with 6 coins. On their first turn, the player will discard the card, removing it from the game to make a trade with the cards on the market or display.

They can take 1 or more than 1 cards but the total value has to be equal to the card that they have.  This means, first player may have access to fresh market but that player can only afford 3 coins. While the next player subsequently has better buying power.

With a value of 3, the first player only has a choice of taking 3 of starting resource cards or they can immediately take Level 1 Product card worth 3, either Brick, Charcoal, Cut Stone, Thread or Flour.

The 2nd player has the starting coin worth 4. So, on the first turn, the 2nd player can get 1 Level 1 Product worth 3 coins plus any of the Starting Resources worth 1 each. Or that player can take 4 of the starting resources. There is 1 Level 2 product worth 4 coins, which is the Milk.

The 3rd player with 5 coins can immediately get Level 1 Product worth 5 coins, either Cow, Sheep or Timber.  Of course they can choose Level 1 worth 3 coins plus 2 starting resources worth 1 each or all 5.

The 4th player with 6 coins is interesting because they can immediately buy 1 Building worth 6 coins. Alternatively, besides Milk there is one more Level 2 product worth 6 coins that this player can trade immediately, which is the Cloth. Of course, more combinations with the low value cards.

Is it a good idea to immediately trade with the highest value card instead of multiple of the smaller ones? The answer is, it depends., mostly from what’s available in the market when it gets to that exact player again. Having more cards gives flexibility while the Building can only process specific action.

If the 4th player gets lucky by immediately taking the building, on their next turn, they can take 1 resource and immediately activate that building. Doing 2 actions while the other players are stuck with just one. However, maybe the other players have more chance to prevent that.

Even with just 3 coins traded into all starting resources, that player can have multiple options. There are 5 different starting resources and players can have more than one, and even hoard them, preventing the next player from taking it. Not always a good idea but the possibilities are there.

Resource Cards

These are the cards with a hand icon at the top right corner of the card. That hand icon itself represents that the card can be taken for free. The other type of cards will show more symbols, probably different resources or products as requirement to acquire that card.

There are 5 different goods or resources: Wood, Wheat, Stone, Clay and Cotton. Each of these come with different number of cards in the box, 5 for Woods, 3 for Wheat, Stone and Clay and only 2 for Cotton.

We will also use all of them in 4-player game, removing some with less. There are numbers at the bottom right of each card that indicates how many will be used in certain player count, still following the ratio.

The reason for uneven number of cards for these cards is because the potential Production chains.

Woods with the most cards can lead to production of 3 different Level 1 Products and 1 Level 2 Product. Wheat can only lead to 3 Level 1 Products.  Clay and Stone can produce 2 Level 1 and 1 Level 2. Cotton can only become 1 Level 1 Product.

Basically, it’s a good balance between supply and demand. This way, if one player has focused on certain lines, the other player can still use the resources but for different Production chain. However, any player can hoard all of them to prevent the opponent from using it.

Unlike Level 1 and Level 2 Product cards, each of these resource cards have their own background color, and different color on the back of the cards. While all Level 1 cards are Blue and Level 2 with Red. Of course, different resources have their own illustrations and name but each card of this type is worth 1 Coin.

There is a reason for not making them a uniform design like all Level 1 and level 2. For Resource Cards, there will be no face down, randomized deck. All cards will be placed face up in its own pile on the display. Everytime a player has to spend any of these cards from their hand, they simply return the card back to the pile, instead of to a discard pile.

So, if the card is not in the market display, one of the players has that. Players know the availability of each card. Understanding this should help players make decision for their production.

Level 1 Product Cards

These are the 19 cards with the Blue color. On the back we can see the silhouette of the Brownies character and a number 1 in Roman. There are 9 different Products, each has different number of cards between 1 to 3.

Each of them has a value of either 3 or 5 Coins. Unlike the Resource card, to acquire any of these, we cannot just take the card. We have to at least discard one or two Resource cards as payment. There are 2 exceptions where we can just show the required card in order to obtain these.

We will use all of these cards, regardless of player counts. As part of market setup, there will be 5 slots for face up cards and a face down deck, and of course, the discard pile.

5 slots means 5 different types of Level 1 Products. However, each slot can contain more than one card of that type. So, if during the setup, we draw 2 Charcoal cards, we will put those 2 in the same slots and fill the other 4 slots with other types. So, there will be always 5 different resources.

It’s possible that all of them will show up at the same time. I think I have that for one type once in a while. Maybe the other type has 2. With this information, we can tell that half of the types of Level 1 Products are always available.

Since there is a hand limit of 7, maybe it’s possible with 3 or 4 players that all cards will be taken. I’ve never had that experience though since I mostly play with 2.

One player can definitely hoard all cards of one type. but is it a viable strategy? Maybe?

Having the cards themselves is not going to generate any score.  To score, we need to have a building to process at least 1 product to VP. Most of them requires at least 1 Level 2. The exception is having a Fish (level 1) with Fish Shop to process it.

Either way, to get the VP, the player has to discard the required cards which will go to discard pile before getting to the market again.  VP themselves are useless during the game unless that was the 1st 10th point of the session, making that player the winner.

Early in the game, maybe selling or upgrading the cards to a better value one is more crucial. There is also a time pressure since the upgraded cards may not be available all the time. If we don’t upgrade now, somebody else might take it. In either case, the player still needs to let go of that card.

I think it is still viable. Especially if we manage to always get a full hand of 7 cards. Chances are we probably don’t use all of them in one round. That would be the only time we should consider holding those cards. Knowing that it can hurt the efficiency of the other player’s engine, holding the card that they need might not be a bad idea. But then again, maybe we will let it go in the next round.

Also, each card occupy one of 7 spaces in our hand. That might lead us to taking cards with lower total value from trading.

Detail of Level 1 Product Cards

Timber
Number of Cards: 2
Value: 5
Required Resource: 2 Woods
Level 2 Product: Barrel
Required Materials for: Spinning Mill, Cattle Ranch, Textile Factory, Fish Shop, Fishing Pond, Mansion, Castle
Processing Buildings: Sawmill, Barrel Factory

Charcoal
Number of Cards: 3
Value: 3
Required Resource: 1 Wood
Level 2 Product: Bread, Iron
Required Materials for: Brick Factory, Abattoir, Bar
Processing Buildings: Charcoal Hut, Bread Factory, Ironworks

Flour
Number of Cards: 2
Value: 3
Required Resource: 1 Wheat
Level 2 Product: Bread
Required Materials for: Masonry
Processing Buildings: Bread Factory, Water Mill

Sheep
Number of Cards: 2
Value: 5
Required Resource: 1 Wheat, 1 Wood
Level 2 Product: Meat
Required Materials for: –
Processing Buildings: Sheep Ranch, Spinning Mill, Abattoir

Cattle
Number of Cards: 2
Value: 5
Required Resource: 1 Clay, 1 Wheat
Level 2 Product: Meat, Leather, Milk
Required Materials for: –
Processing Buildings: Cattle Ranch, Dairy, Abattoir, Tannery

Brick
Number of Cards: 3
Value: 3
Required Resource: 1 Clay
Level 2 Product: Stone Wall
Required Materials for: Milk Shop, Quarry, Iron Works, Bread Factory, Sheep Ranch, Water Mill, Bar, Bakery, Mansion
Processing Buildings: Brick Factory

Cut Stone
Number of Cards: 2
Value: 3
Required Resource: 1 Stone
Level 2 Product: Stone Wall, Iron
Required Materials for: Barrel Factory, Charcoal Hut, Sawmill, Dairy, Tannery, Mansion
Processing Buildings: Masonry, Quarry

Fish
Number of Cards: 1
Value: 5
Required Resource: 1 Stone / 1 Fishing Rod
Level 2 Product: –
Required Materials for: Market
Processing Buildings: Fishing Pond, Fish Shop

Thread
Number of Cards: 2
Value: 3
Required Resource: 1 Cotton / 1 Sheep
Level 2 Product: Cloth, Fishing Rod
Required Materials for: –
Processing Buildings: Shoe Store, Spinning Mill, Textile Factory, Tailor  

If the goal is to get as many points and as fast as possible, then from Level 1 Products, there are only 2 that can generate points with certain buildings. Either Fish through Fish Shop or Thread via Tailor or Shoe Store. However, only

Fish can generate points on its own, aside from building. Thread needs either Cloth or Leather, depending on the buildings. Both of them are Level 2 Products. To get Cloth itself requires a Thread. Leather requires getting a Cow first unless we can pay 8 Coins.

While having Fish seems easier to score but there is only 1 among 18 other Level 1 Products. That Fish card may only come out a couple of times and it is very easy for other players to take just for money.

Ideally, in this game, we need two production chains. One to generate points and the other to generate money or to keep the supply going which can lead to more points.

For the one that can give money, ideally we have to rely on the one with abundant amount.. If it serves 2 purposes, it’s even better. The best of this is probably Charcoal. We can use it to build 3 different buildings and there are 3 more that can process it.

Brick also has 3 copies of cards and can be used to build like 7 buildings beside the starting one. The problem is, there is only 1 building to process it and it will only convert a clay into a Brick.

I guess a good chance to monopoly the construction sector and take all of the buildings. Even if they are just 1 point per building. At the same time, it also means blocking the opportunity for the opponent’s efficiency.

Of course, the other players have to realize that and try to prevent that from happening. I doubt that this strategy is that versatile, but it is possible.

I think the best Level 1 Product here for the flexibility is the Cow. It can lead to 3 different Level 2 Products and all those 3 can lead to points.

The next one is Charcoal and Thread with 2 possibilities.  But Charcoal is better since the 2 Level 2 Products are worth 8 on 1 and 11 on the other. While Thread can lead to Rod (8) or Cloth (6).

The other Level 1 Products only have 1 line to Level 2 and each of them worth 8 coins.

I guess all of these depends on the player count. With only 2 players, if one manages to monopolize the Cow line, the other player has a good chance for the other potentials. With 3 or 4 then maybe they all have to get something from that Cow line as just the money generator to feed the other lines they are focusing on.

In 2-player game, maybe both has a chance to create a perfect production chains that can make a good combo from resources to level 1 until VP. Maybe it is less so with more players. The thing is, the game offers alternative way to utilize those cards, how we can convert them into money or points.

On the other hand, with more players, if one manages to get a perfect chain, then the other will have a harder time catching up.

Level 2 Products

These are the cards with orange background color. The design is similar to Level 1 but instead of Roman number 1 it shows number 2 on the back. There are only 9 cards that depicts 9 unique products each, no identical copy of each.

How we use the cards from this Level is the same as Level 1 Product. The different is only they are worth more money on average with 4 as the lowest and 11 with the highest.

By selling that 1 Bread Product worth 11 coins, we can afford to buy 23 of all 30 buildings in the game. We just need to sell 1 or 2 other Level 2 products to buy the 2 most expensive buildings.

The question is, how often we can get our hands on that one single card. 5 of 9 will be on display, it will show up again in the next 4 cards. Maybe faster with more players where each player hold one Level 2 product each. It is possible that the market has less than 5 cards for these products.

Having the Bread Factory definitely helps a lot but only if we have the required cards in our hand as the supply.

Out of these 9, 7 of them have a building to process them into points that can be done multiple times. The other two, Fishing Rod and Stone Wall cannot. Stone Wall is required to build certain buildings but each of them is one time only with a chance to be taken by the other players.

So, those 2 are mostly just for coins. But then again, the value is only 8 each. I mean, players can just do the same with other Level 2 Products. If then they have the other products with a better chance to score VP as well, why would they go for these?

At least, with Stone Wall, assuming the player can get their hands pretty early, they can use it to build certain powerful building with just 1 card. Then, when they can pull it off, they can switch plan for different Production lines. However, maybe not that great towards the end of the game.

Detail of Level 2 Product Cards

Barrel
Coin Value: 8
Required Materials: Timber (Level 1)
Requiring Buildings: none
Processing Buildings: Barrel Factory, Cheese Factory, Bar. Market

Iron
Coin Value: 8
Required Materials: Charcoal (Level 1), Stone (Resources)
Requiring Buildings: Shoe Store, Butcher, Castle
Processing Buildings: Ironworks, Accessory Shop. Market

Bread
Coin Value: 11
Required Materials: Charcoal (Level 1), Flour (Level 1)
Requiring Buildings: none
Processing Buildings: Bakery, Restaurant. Market

Meat
Coin Value: 8
Required Materials: Sheep (Level 1), Cow (Level 1)
Requiring Buildings: none
Processing Buildings: Abattoir. Butcher, Restaurant. Market

Leather
Coin Value: 8
Required Materials: Cow (Level 1)
Requiring Buildings: none
Processing Buildings: Tannery, Shoe Store, Accessory Shop. Market

Milk
Coin Value: 4
Required Materials: Cow (Level 1)
Requiring Buildings: none
Processing Buildings: Dairy, Milk Shop. Market

Stone Wall
Coin Value: 11
Required Materials: Cut Stone (Level 1), Clay (Resources)
Requiring Buildings: Cheese Factory, Restaurant, Tailor, Castle
Processing Buildings: Masonry. Market

Fishing Rod
Coin Value: 8
Required Materials: Thread (Level 1), Wood (Resources)
Requiring Buildings: none
Processing Buildings: Fishing Pond. Market

Cloth
Coin Value: 6
Required Materials: Thread (Level 1)
Requiring Buildings: none
Processing Buildings: Accessory Shop, Textile Factory, Tailor. Market

Starting Building Cards

These are the 5 cards with beige or light brown color on the back of the card. The back still has the silhouette of the Brownie character. Behind that character we can see a shop as opposed to a bigger building or house like the other Building cards.

On the front, the card will have the similar structure of information like the Products or Resource cards. The difference is that at the bottom we can see the action we can activate for having that building. Next to that action icons, we can also see the VP value between 1 to 5.

The major difference is the art that shows not just a building but the building with Brownies doing their job, related to that said building. Sometimes they only show between 1 or 2 characters.

The art is very cute and well done, takes probably more than half of the card itself. Specifically, about the Starting Buildings, the artwork of Buildings doesn’t clearly show what they are producing like the other Building cards. The other building has a plaque above its door to show what service they are providing.

On the background, they show the same scenery. This secret Brownie village seems to be in between mountains and forest.

Writing this article actually gives me some time to really observe and enjoy the art. Before that, I only see the bottom part which is the important part of the gameplay. I appreciate the English word for the name of the card instead of just Japanese. However, if they mention the name, I don’t think I can tell for sure what they are doing. Maybe I have an idea but not specifically.

The reason these are classified as different type of buildings is because they will show up at the start of the game. From the Building Row on the Market we can see up to 5 of these depending on the player count.

We will pick a number of cards equal to the number of players plus 1 and return the rest to the box. Since the market will show 5 buildings at a time, if we play with less than 4, then the non-starting building cards will also available randomly.

Another reason for these being a starting building is that they will process a single resource and turn them into Level 1 products. The other building types will process at least 2 resources or at least 1 Level 1 products or higher.

The cost or coin value of these Starting Buildings are 6 except for one that is worth 8.  There are other building cards with those same values. While these Starting Buildings can help early but players might aim for the other buildings if they think those are more valuable in long term.

This also means that if one player manages to claim all of the Starting Buildings, the other players may have a shot on a better option. The point is supposed to get buildings that can help those Production chains. Even though diversifying might be a good idea as well.

Players cannot claim any of the building cards from the market row unless they can pay for it, whether with the coin value or the required materials. The building cards will stay there until one player pays for it and a new one will show up.

If nobody is taking it, those Starting Buildings can stay until the end of the game. Once claimed, no building will go back to the market, There will be no discard pile for buildings.

Like the other types of buildings, these Starting Ones also have a VP value, even if just 1 VP per building. So, having them can help player’s progress to trigger the end of the game and get more points to win.

So, there are two ways that any player can claim the buildings. Either by spending the specific required materials or pay for the coin value with the other Product cards.

If we choose the coin value, the value that we have to pay is actually more expensive than if we choose to spend the required material. However, by paying with the coin value, we are saving the time.

This is important because the other player can take it out first if we take more time to get the material first. Since each building card is unique, maybe it is not a bad option to get it with the least amount of time or turns to get. I guess the bigger point is to make an overall plan or strategy so that this building can work with the other.

In this game, players don’t share the function of their claimed buildings. Almost every building is unique, including these Starting ones. Once taken, then there is no way to take it from the other players. No take-that mechanism in this game. Hate drafting is still possible, though.

Unlike the product cards, when we claim buildings, they don’t go to our hand. Instead, we place them on the table in front of us.

Building’s Action or as they call it the Brownie’s Action is basically replicating one specific trade action that the player can do on their turn. However, the trading that they can do is specific as stated by the card.

The exception is that players cannot convert goods into VP in the form of cards. These kinds of trades can only be done by having certain buildings but not any of the starting ones.

Player’s turn structure is as follows.

Building Actions, then Player’s Action and then Building Actions again

Players can activate as many buildings as they have, assuming the supply and demand is available but only once per building per turn. That means players have two chances of when they activate certain buildings. Maybe 2 in the first part and one in the 2nd.

In that case, the Player’s Action part is about connecting the chains of those buildings ideally but not necessarily so.

Just like the Player Action, buildings cannot operate unless the player has cards in their hand as the supply and the product demand is available on the market. This means that even if we have the buildings, we cannot always use them.

Early in the game, we might feel stuck with these buildings like they are useless. There will be moments when we feel like we can do that action on our own during the Player Action part, no need help from those buildings.

However, there will be moments when we see several actions we want to do during that Player Action and yet we can only do one. That’s when we need to make sure the Brownie do their help and we do the other actions.

The point is, besides getting VP is to increase the chance so that we can trigger them.

Having buildings that can work together doesn’t always mean we can trigger them at the same turn, due to the availability of the card. This is why diversifying and creating multiple production chains or lines is a good idea.

Since our hand of cards is the only supply, we might want to diversify holding different cards in hand. This is to support different Production lines. There is a limit of 7 cards in hand.

These Starting Building is a good way to process resources. So, if somehow we don’t have any cards at the start of our turn, the only thing we can do during Player Action is to take 1 resource card, which is very inefficient.

However, if we do have one of these Starting Cards and the demand is available on the market, we can immediately activate that building and get 2 actions that turn.

So, it is not a bad idea for each player to have at least one. Otherwise, the player has to make sure that they always have a card in hand to trade or upgrade. Then again, actions can only happen when the supply and demand is available at a time.

Detail of Starting Building Cards

Brick Factory
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Requirement to Build: Charcoal (Level 1)
Action: Process Clay (Resource) into Brick (Level 1)

Charcoal Factory
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Requirement to Build: Cut Stone (Level 1)
Action: Process Wood (Resource) into Charcoal (Level 1)

Quarry
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Requirement to Build: Brick (Level 1)
Action: Process Stone (Resource) into Cut Stone (Level 1)

Spinning Mill
Coin Value: 8
VP: 1
Requirement to Build: Timber (Level 1)
Action: Process Cotton (Resource) into Thread (Level 1) or Show Sheep (Level 1) for Thread (Level 1)

Water Mill
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Requirement to Build: Brick (Level 1)
Action: Process Wheat (Resource) into Flour (Level 1)

Building Cards

This is the last type of components of Firm with Brownies, the Building Cards. There are 25 unique buildings. On the back, each of them has brown color with a Brownie Silhouette and behind that a shape of a house or building.

The front will show similar information set as the Starting Building cards, with their name, required products to build, artwork, VP and action. In fact, in the game, when they show these cards face up on the market along with the Starting Building cards, players might not be able to tell the difference for sure. They will show up randomly from the face down deck. We will use all of them regardless of player counts.

The Coin Value is either 6, 8, 11, 12 and a single 18 and 30 while the VP value are mostly 1, 2 and single 3 and 5. As mentioned before, the actions represent one of the possible Player Actions with the exception for a couple of buildings that can process Products into VP cards.

The artwork on the card definitely shows the unique service of the buildings. Not only they show the product but also the plaque above the room with one or two of these Brownie characters. Several of them have a background that depicts the main town part showing more buildings instead of just country side of the village. Some still show just the forest or mountains.

Just like the starting building cards, most of the time, my focus is on the action at the bottom. Now that I had a good chance to look at the art, I guess they are depicting the action itself. I still think I can get mixed up between two buildings where the production involves processing the same products.

For example, Butcher and Abattoir. The former sells the meat to get points while the latter process Sheep or Cow into meat. Only the latter shows the Sheep and Cow on the art so that should give idea to the player. I think players can eventually tell the difference once they see all of the cards. It’s just safer to check on the action and make decision from that instead of just guessing based on name and artwork.

Like the Starting Building cards, players have to claim the buildings by either spending the required materials or for the same coin value. After claiming the card, they place the Building on the table in front of that player. The building is then ready to activate their action assuming the supply and demand is available.

Players can activate each building once per turn but can be done before or after their Player Action phase. There is no limit to how many buildings that they can have. Again, the goal is to get the most points as fast as possible while managing money by having multiple production chains.

There are 2 Buildings that are just worth points but we cannot activate any action from them. They are the Castle and The Mansion and the purpose for both is just to get higher points. One is worth 5 points but a cost of 30 coins and the other is worth 3 points with the cost of 18.

So, the ratio is still 1:6 just like most buildings. However, the other buildings can help do more actions along the way. If then that 3 or 5 points was enough to get to 10 points and trigger the end of the game, maybe it is worth to try. Definitely not something to do early in the game. If anything, their opponent can try to prevent that player from winning.

Everything else about these buildings works similarly as the 5 Starting Building Cards. We will use all 25 cards in any game and there is a chance that we may run out of cards. It is very unlikely that the game has not ended before we reach that point.

From these 25 buildings, 4 of them will process Resource cards into Level 1 Product, 9 process Level 1 Product into Level 2, 10 process Level 2 Product into VP and the last 2 cards are just VP.

Where each of them land on Production Lines, will be discussed further below.

Detail of Building Cards

Abattoir
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Required Materials: Charcoal (Level 1)
Action: Spend Sheep /  Cow (Level 1) to take Meat (Level 2)

Accessory Shop
Coin Value: 10
VP: 1
Required Materials: Cloth (Level 2)
Action: Spend Leather / Iron (Level 2) for 2 VP

Bakery
Coin Value: 11
VP: 2
Required Materials: Brick + Cut Stone (Level 1)
Action: Spend Bread (Level 2) for 2 VP

Bar
Coin Value: 11
VP: 2
Required Materials: Brick + Charcoal (Level 1)
Action: Spend Barrel Level 2) + Wheat (Resource) for 2 VP

Barrel Factory
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Required Materials: Cut Stone (Level 1)
Action: Spend Timber (Level 1) to take Barrel (Level 2)

Bread Factory
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Required Materials: Brick (Level 1)
Action: Spend Charcoal + Flour (Level 1) to take Bread (Level 2)

Butcher
Coin Value: 12
VP: 2
Required Materials: Iron (Level 2)
Action: Spend Meat (Level 2) for 2 VP

Castle
Coin Value: 30
VP: 5
Required Materials: Iron + Stone Wall (Level 2 ) + Timber (Level 1)
Action: none

Cattle Ranch
Coin Value: 8
VP: 1
Required Materials: Timber (Level 1)
Action: Spend Wheat + Clay (Resource) to take Cow (Level 1)

Cheese Factory
Coin Value: 12
VP: 1
Required Materials: Stone Wall (Level 2)
Action: Spend Barrel + Milk (Level 2) for 3 VP

Dairy
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Required Materials: Cut Stone (Level 1)
Action: Show Cow (Level 1) to take Milk (Level 2)

Fishing Pond
Coin Value: 8
VP: 1
Required Materials: Timber (Level 1)
Action: Spend Stone (Resource ) / Show Fishing Rod (Level 2) to take Fish (Level 1)

Fish Shop
Coin Value: 8
VP: 1
Required Materials: Timber (Level 1)
Action: Spend Fish (Level 1) for 1 VP

Ironworks
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Required Materials: Brick (Level 1)
Action: Spend Charcoal (Level 1) + Stone (Resource) to take Iron (Level 2)

Market
Coin Value: 8
VP: 1
Required Materials: Fish (Level 1)
Action: Spend any 1 Level 2 Product (Level 1) to buy or sell

Mansion
Coin Value: 18
VP: 3
Required Materials: Timber + Brick + Cut Stone (Level 1)
Action: none

Masonry
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Required Materials: Flour (Level 1)
Action: Spend Cut Stone (Level 1) + Clay (Resource) to take Stone Wall (Level 2)

Milk Shop
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Required Materials: Brick (Level 1)
Action: Spend Milk (Level 2) for 1 VP

Restaurant
Coin Value: 12
VP: 2
Required Materials: Stone Wall (Level 2)
Action: Spend Bread + Meat (Level 2) for 4 VP

Sawmill
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Required Materials: Cut Stone (Level 1)
Action: Spend 2 Wood (Resource) to take Timber (Level 1)

Sheep Ranch
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Required Materials: Brick (Level 1)
Action: Spend Wood + Wheat (Resource) to take Sheep (Level 1)

Shoe Store
Coin Value: 12
VP: 2
Required Materials: Iron (Level 1)
Action: Spend Leather (Level 2) + Thread (Level 1) for 3 VP

Tailor
Coin Value: 12
VP: 2
Required Materials: Stone Wall (Level 2)
Action: Spend Cloth (Level 2) + Thread (Level 1) for 2 VP

Tannery
Coin Value: 6
VP: 1
Required Materials: Cut Stone (Level 1)
Action: Spend Cow (Level 1) to take Leather (Level 2)

Textile Factory
Coin Value: 8
VP: 1
Required Materials: Timber (Level 1)
Action: Spend Thread (Level 1) to take Cloth (Level 2)

So, those are all of the components that comes in the game box. Now, we can learn how to play Firm with Brownies Card Game by using them.

How to Play

Firm with Brownies is designed for 2 to 4 players. There is actually an official solo variant in the expansion rule that we can play with just the component from the base game. Check out the Shokai Training! expansion entry below for the solo.

Regardless of the player counts, the gameplay is the same. The difference is just the first market setup.  Unfortunately, there is no tutorial video in English, specifically for this version.

This next video from Purple Moose Plays channel is a playthrough for the solo variant but since the gameplay is similar. Hopefully that can help giving an idea how it works.

Setup

1st. We have to create the Market or Display area for about 4 rows of cards and 7 columns. The first 5 columns are for face up cards, the 6th is for face down decks and the 7th is for discard piles for each row.

The first row is for Building Cards. Shuffle the 25 BUILDING CARDS and put all of them in a single deck face down in the first row, 6th column.

2nd. From the 5 Starting or Basic Building Cards, take a number of cards the same as the number of players plus 1. Put them face up in the 1st Row and return the rest back to the box. If those cards are less than 5, fill the remaining by revealing the top cards from the Building cards deck.

So, with 2 players, 3 of the face up cards will be the Basic Buildings, 4 cards for 3 and all 5 cards for 4 players.

3rd. The 2nd row is for Level 2 Product cards with the Red color on the background. Shuffle all 9 LEVEL 2 PRODUCT CARDS and put them face down on 2nd row, 6th column. From that deck, reveal 5 cards face up in the first 5 columns.

4th. The 3rd Row is for Level 1 Product cards with the Blue background color. Shuffle all 19 LEVEL 1 PRODUCT CARDS and put them face down as a single deck on 3rd row 6th column.

After that, reveal the cards face up in the first 5 columns until there are 5 different Level 1 Product cards.  Face up cards of the same product should be placed in the same slot of those 5 columns. That means, there should be 5 different products and some of them can have more than 1 card.

5th. Next is the 4th row which is for the Resource Cards. There are 5 different types of Resources and all of them will be used in every session. However, depending on the player count, we will only use some of them and return the rest to the box. The number at the bottom right corner of the cards indicates the number of copy used in specific player count.

Here are the resources and the number of cards used in 2/3/4 players.

Woods (Green): 3 / 4 / 5
Wheat (Yellow): 2 / 3 / 3
Clay (Brown): 2 / 3 / 3
Stone (Gray): 2 / 2 / 3
Cotton (Pink): 1 / 1 / 2

Place each type of resource face up in a single slot of the 4th row. Cards of the same copy should be placed in the same slots similar to Level 1 Product cards but without a deck. This means every Resource Card used in the game is available at the start of the game.

6th. Take all 12 VICTORY POINT CARDS and place them on the 4th row 6th column.

7th. Determine the first player and give that player the Coin Card with a value of 3. Each next player in clockwise order gets Coin Card with 1 value higher.

8th. Each player may take one of the PLAYER SHEETS if they want to help them as the reminder. All Player Sheets are identical.

Each player should leave some room in front of them for their building cards or tableau. During the game, players don’t need to place the building cards in a single row. They will tap the card to indicate the activation so they might want to leave extra room for each card. The number of building cards can go up to 10.

That’s the setup and we are ready to play Firm with Brownies.

Gameplay

In Firm with Brownies, players take turns until the end of the game is triggered. The first to score 10 points or more is the winner.

However, the game can end before that happens and that is when there is no more VP Cards that players can take. In that case, the winner is determined by whoever score the most.

On player’s turn, the turn structure is: BUILDING ACTION, then MAIN ACTION then BUILDING ACTIONS again.

Each player can activate any number of their buildings once per turn during any of the Building Action Phases. The Main Action part is only one action.

Refresh the Market

At the start of player’s turn, before doing any action, they should refill the empty space of the market row with the corresponding type of card. This applies to all rows except the Resource row as there is no deck to draw from. Player should reveal the top card from the face down deck and place it in the empty spot.

However, for Level 1 Product, if the revealed card already has the same copy face up, the revealed card should be placed in the same stack or spot.  Most of the time, there should be 5 different types of cards for each row.

If any of the deck is empty, player should shuffle the discard pile and create a new deck. Then, they draw from it.  In case there is no card in either the deck or the discard pile, then player should leave that space empty and play with less options.

Main Action

During this Main Action phase of player’s turn, the active player can do one of 2 things. PRODUCE or TRADE.

Both of them involve discarding cards from player’s hand to take one or more face up cards including the building cards from the market.

Produce means taking a card from the market by discarding the required cards from player’s hand as indicated by the icons at the top right corner. The required cards can be a single card or up to 3 cards.

For Resource cards, they show hand symbol as requirement. This means player can take a single card during this Main Action. Of course, this is considered as the least efficient action.

Some cards also have a card icon as requirement like Thread (Level 1) or Milk (Level 2). To produce this and take any of those cards, player can just show the required card from their hand without discarding it.

Trade means discarding one or more cards from player’s hand to take one or more cards from the market with the same or lower Coin Value.

There is one important rule for doing Trade. The number of cards must be 1 in one side of the equation.

This means player can discard 1 card from their hand to take one or more cards from the market. Or they can take only 1 card from the market by discarding one or more cards from their hand.

Thematically, player should discard (or sell) 1 single card with high coin value to buy several cheaper cards. Or they should sell a couple of low value cards to buy a single expensive one.

When discarding a card, if it is Level 2 or Level 1 Products, the card should go to the discard pile of each type. For discarding Resource cards, the card should be placed face up to the market. No discard pile for Resource Cards.

At the start of the game, each player starts with a Coin Card. They can discard it for doing TRADE with the indicated value. These cards should be removed from the game right after they get discarded. They are one time use only.

When taking a non-building card from the market, there is a HAND LIMIT of 7 CARDS. This is a hard limit so when player has reached this number, they should stop taking cards.

When taking a building card, player should place the card on the table in front of them. Player can activate that Building card right after that Main Action.

NOTE: Do not refresh the market. That happens at the start of next player’s turn. So, there is a limit to what a player can take during a single turn.

During this phase, players can get their 10th VP by getting a Building card. If that is their 10th VP, the game ends immediately. Otherwise, the game continues.

Once the player has done taking one Main Action, they can proceed to do more Building Action or they can pass.

Building Actions

If the player has no Building card in front of them, they skip this phase and proceeds to Main Action phase or pass their turn.

As mentioned before, this Building Action Phase can happen before and/or after the Main Action phase of player’s turn. In any of those 2, the active player can activate any number of their buildings by tapping it.

Player can only activate their buildings ONCE PER TURN per building. So, if they have activated before the Main Action phase, they cannot do it again after that Main Action phase of the same turn.

Most of the Building actions are basically an extra action of the Main Action phase but specific to the stated TRADE or PRODUCE. That way, player can do something else during the Main Action phase of that turn.

The player has to resolve it the same way as doing the Main Action. They have to discard cards from their hand and then take cards from the Market.

Player can tap the building card, like rotating it 90 degrees to indicate that they have activated it.

NOTE: Players might forget whether they are in before or after their Main Action phase, especially after having a lot of buildings. The base game doesn’t include a reminder card for it.

Some buildings allow player to trade cards from their hand with VP cards. This is not available in Main Action Phase. To resolve it, the player still have to discard the required cards, then tap the building and take a number of VP cards from the supply.

Players can get their 10th VP from these cards and win the game. When there is no more VP CARDS from the supply, the game ends immediately and players proceed to Scoring.

NOTE: There is only 1 Building Card, the MARKET that allows player to sell 1 Level 2 Product card to buy one or more cards, including a Building Card.  So, that player can also get their 10th VP during this phase.

If the end game hasn’t been triggered, the game continues and the active player can proceed to either their Main Action phase if they haven’t done it or pass to end their turn.

End Game and Scoring

As mentioned above, the game ends immediately once a player scored 10 or more VP first and that player is the winner. Players can get VP from VP cards or from having Building Cards.

The game can also end when the VP cards run out. In that case, the game ends immediately and players proceed to scoring. This can happen during the Building Action phase or Main Action Phase. Players may not get the same number of turns.

During Scoring, Players count their VP from their Building and VP cards. Whoever score the most wins the game.

In case of a tie, the rule says players share the victory. That is how to play Firm with Brownies.

My Experience & Thoughts on the Game

Up to this point, I’ve only played Firm with Brownies either the solo variant or with 2 players. Even the 2-player sessions were just me playing 2-handed. So, I don’t know how different it is with all 4 players compared to the lower counts.

Considering that we still play the game with all cards mostly, more players means more competition to the same path to victory. With just 2 or even solo, admittedly I have certain favorite strategies or path to victory.

Going for Bread is the first thing. Not exactly because of the potential production chains but more because that is the one with the highest value with 11 coins. Having that card means we can at least, trade it for a lot more cards later, possibly a good one. More flexibility. This includes the ability to hold down the efficiency of the opponent’s progress,

On top of that, Bread product itself opens the opportunity to generate VP, in 2 ways even, with Bread Factory and Restaurant. Having control of any aspect of this means control the flow of the game.

Higher value products also means the ability to buy Buildings plus a couple of product cards. Or for more expensive buildings, the possibility to acquire them with just fewer cards if we have this Bread.

The next one is probably the Cattle or Cow Product. This can lead to getting different kind of Level 2 Products like Leather, Meat or even Milk. Those are 3 Level 2 Products out of 9 in the game. If all those 3 are in the market, we can trade the Cattle to either Leather or Meat for 8 and in the next round, immediately sell that for 8 to get the other 8 or the Milk for 4.

It felt like a waste of time but in 2 players, denying the opponent to progress can be very powerful. I guess with 2 players, the other one needs to focus on other Production chain potentials. That way, the one focusing on Cattle will waste their turn worrying.

My next favorite production chains is either the Thread to Cloth or Wood to Timber and Barrel. What’s interesting is that they are not exactly powerful. They don’t open the flexibility that much, maybe except for Timber to a lot of Buildings.

I think it’s more that they caught my attention better and the path is straight forward. For example, with the Bread case, I know I need Flour to produce bread but the other requirement, which is Charcoal is not that memorable. I guess straight forward here means really straight line,

With Bread chain, the Flour starts from Wheat and Charcoal starts from Wood, 2 different resources. While with Timber, we just need 2 Woods or for Thread, just Cotton. So, at least for me, when the chains involve multiple different resources, they feel more complex and it doesn’t come in mind right away. Or just flexibility issue.

I think the next powerful product is Brick. Brick is required to build 9 buildings. The next one after that is probably Timber with just 6. So, if we can claim a Brick Factory and take any Clay every chance we have, it’s just one step away from turning it into Brick and spend it to claim more buildings. Even if we don’t get any VP cards, we can win the game just with Bricks. Not that I have tried it yet.

In 2-player game, once the Brick factory is claimed, the other player must prevent it by either taking the Clay or Brick from the market. Maybe even hold those cards in hand for a long time.

Other than those, Iron and Stone Walls are the 2 least played Production Chains in my sessions. I cannot say for sure that they are less powerful but it feels that way so I avoid them mostly. That means, Stone as resources and Cut Stone from Level 1 are the least taken cards. Even if I do take the Stone, sometimes it’s more because of the Fish.

Iron itself is required by 3 buildings to build. Stone Wall has 4 buildings. Iron can generate VP from 1 Building while Stone Wall doesn’t have any to convert it. The only way it works is if we have the MARKET building.

Even without focusing on those 2 Level 2 Products, Market building is super powerful. We just need to make sure we have a card to turn it inot Level 2 during our Main Action and then we can sell that Level 2 using Market. Again, even if it is not producing something, a chance to deny the opponent from taking something. Maybe not a bad idea to have Fish and keep it until this building shows up in the display.

Knowing the Production charts definitely helps but I don’t know if we can easily execute those strategies. The thing is, in order to make it work, both the Supply and the Demand must be available. Maybe experienced player can get a lot of advantage from a new player.

I assumed with 4 players, everything is spread out. Nobody can monopolize a single chain, except maybe the experienced player but less of a problem. It will change the market a lot before that player’s turn again.

I think I would like to point out how significant getting one of the Starting or Basic Buildings right from the start. If one player has 2 and the other doesn’t take the rest, the latter might have huge disadvantage. I can even see an advantage of being the first player. At least, first player has less money to start.

Also, I think if we play with new player, giving each of them one of the Basic Building is an important variant. This ensure that everybody has better chance to play well instead of being dominated by one player.

By giving them the building card right from the start, it also helps the teaching. Instead of explaining the Building and turn structure after when one player gets a building, we can teach everything right from the start.

Players without the Basic building can still keep up but usually the Basic Buildings will improve the take 1 Resource action so it is not just a waste of turn. Having at least one of them just to ensure the player gets a smoother experience. I saw some people complaint that they feel stuck and I assume that is because they don’t have those cards.

Firm with Brownies definitely has more player interactions than let’s say Oh My Goods!, another tableau and engine-building card game. Even if the interaction is mostly hate drafting or something like that. Players have to kind of wrestlers their way out to overcome their opponents. At least for 2 players.

So, this is not really a game where we can do our thing and ignore the opponent. Of course, that can work if both kind of agree to play that way. It’s just in a very competitive play, the focus can be about messing the opponent more than focusing their progress.

Players have to remember that this is a race game, racing for points. On the other hand, getting immediate points early doesn’t help much and can lead to feeling stuck. I think even if all players agree to just mind their own business, the score is not going to be that much different.

They just need to focus on when the other player is very close to 10. If nobody gets to 10, they can at least aim for 9 and have a chance to even win probably. Again, that is based from 2-player experience.

So far, I haven’t managed to win or even build the Castle for 5 points. Part of it is because to build using the requirement, the Castle requires the 2 least taken Level 2 Products, the Stone Wall and Iron. Maybe only the player who are invested in that chain has a chance to do so.

Even the Mansion that requires products that I usually take is not that appealing to take. Surely, we get 3 points. The total value of the required products are about 11 but we can buy it for 18. So, maybe if I have a Bread for 11 and those 3 are available, I can trade them and on the next turn, buy that Mansion.

On the other hand, if we cannot use that Bread for points, the chances are, we probably sell that Bread to buy lower value buildings and a couple of low value products that can also lead to points.

I mean, unless we get those 3 points which makes up the 10th points to win, that might be not a good idea. There was moment when I managed to score to 9 but then I did poorly the turn after while the opponent managed to get the first 10th points.

Well, it’s interesting that it’s there. But then if it shows up early in the game and nobody is taking it, we have less options of buildings. Even worse if both Mansion and Castle were on the market early. I don’t think it’s that bad to remove or to keep them available all the time besides the other 5 face up buildings.

Regarding feeling stuck for not getting the right product cards, I don’t know how beneficial to keep track where the cards are. It feels like there is also a chance to make cycling the product deck faster.  But then if it doesn’t exactly help the player, it will be a waste of turn and more beneficial for the opponent. Especially with just 2.

Overall, Firm with Brownies is an interesting small card game. In a genre of engine-building and tableau building with card combo, this has more player interactions than similar games. Maybe not for those who focus on building a good combo instead of trying to beat the opponent.

As mentioned, I have preferable overall strategy which I assume the game has limited replay value as players will always focus on those. The different play only comes from random order of cards to come out.

There is no incentive to create those perfect production chains. If anything the game will try to block it with their Supply and Demand restriction. This is more like how to fill the missing gap of those combos with clever hand management play.

For me, that Supply and Demand aspect is what stands out from this. But I can see how people might not enjoy this one because of that limiting factor. Well, for its size, I recommend trying it.

Expansions and Accessories

While Firm with Brownies is the same game as Little Factory, the English version, the different design makes it impossible to use the expansion of one to another. So, these are specific just for Firm with Brownies.

There is also another game set in this same Brownies world from the same designer called Frontier with Brownies. This one is completely a different game, a reimplementation of Sheep and Garden.

Shokai Training!

This expansion comes with 12 cards a rule sheet and a tuckbox that we can construct to contain the base game box and the expansion contents. It seems when constructed, the tuckbox is just slightly bigger than the base box.

Learn more about the product from the official page here.

From the 12 cards, 8 of them are new buildings and the other 4 are called PLAYER ACTION CARDS. Each of 4 players will take 1 of these. The purpose of this card is just a reminder whether the player has resolved their main action or not. They flip the card after resolving their main action.

The 8 building cards are new cards, Wheat Farm, Trading Post, General Store, Wholesale, Building Supply Store, Old Wood Factory, Building Firm and Furniture Shop.

Trading Post is like Market Building from the base game, except, we can discard Level 1 Product to buy or sell.

Wheat Farm is something new. This card allows player to take the Wheat if there are 2 Wheat cards in the market. That means whenever a player returns that 2nd Wheat card, whoever has this building can start using it.

General Store also introduced something new. This building allows player to sell or discard cards with a value of 3 or higher to take random card from the top of Level 1 Product. This is like push-your-luck mechanism. Since the value of Level 1 is at least 3 or higher, it can be a good deal. If the player keeps track on what is left in that deck, they can take advantage of it.

Wholesaler is like the opposite of Market building from the base game. Market allows player to sell their Level 2 Product but this one they can buy the Level 2 Product. A good combo with the Market card.

Building Firm is like real estate agent. We can activate it to buy 1 building by paying or discarding a number of cards with the same or higher value.

Furniture Shop, Old Wood Factory and Building Supply Store work similarly as other buildings that convert cards for VP but for different set of products.  The interesting part is probably the Old Wood Factory where we can sell Barrel for 1 VP and get 1 Timber if it is available.

Funiture Shop and General Store are also interesting because we can build them by paying Cattle and Fishing Rod in that respective order.

Single Player Mode

This expansion also comes with the rule to play Firm with Brownies but with just a single player. Apparently, to play this mode, we don’t need additional contents from this expansion. it is fully playable using just the base game.

In this mode, the player plays the game similarly as the multiplayer mode except 1 extra action that the player can choose. On their turn, before activating building or do their action, they can choose to not do any action but refresh the Level 1 Product row. They discard all cards and reveal new cards to fill 5 slots.

The goal is to get at least 10 points within time limit. At the end of each turn, the player has to discard one Building card, either from the 5 face up cards or randomly from the top of the deck.

The game ends when the deck of building cards runs out. Due to translation, it is not clear to me whether player gets one more turn or the game ends immediately after removing that last card.

To play the solo mode, we will be using the same setup as 2 players but with 2 changes.

One is that we will only use 5 Level 2 product cards. So, there will be no deck for Level 2 Products. Everytime player discard a Level 2 product, it will go back to the face up market like the resource cards.

Two, we will use all 5 Basic or Starting Building cards face up instead of using a number of players plus 1 from the basic mode. This means with 25 + 5 building cards, we get at most 30 or 31 turns.

The rule also has suggestions to change the difficulty. We can add more building cards to make it easier or remove some of them. Adding more cards requires using cards from the expansion.

To lower the difficulty, the rule suggests adding either all 8 new cards for Introductory Level and then 3 for Elementary Level.

For higher difficulty, the rule has 3 extra rules we can add all or individually to the game. It’s like campaign scenarios or achievements that we can try.

1st Scenario: PRODUCT KING.

To win in this scenario, we need to have 5 Level 2 Product cards in our hand at the end of our turn.  If we want to play with this scenario, we will use all Level 2 Product cards instead of just 5.

Not challenging enough? We can also try to get all 7 cards with Level 2 Products.

I’m not sure why but the rule suggests to setup the game with 5 Level 2 Products face up but not the Milk, with the rest in the deck.

 2nd Scenario: STORE KING.

In this one, we win the game if we can get 10 points but only from Buildings not VP from the VP cards. For this one, we only use 5 specific Level 2 Products which are Cloth, Leather, Barrel, Iron and Stone Wall. No deck for Level 2.

3rd Scenario: SALES KING

In this one, to win the game, we only need to score 6 VP. However, those 6 VP has to be from VP cards. This one also only uses 5 specific Level 2 Products: Milk, Bread, Fishing Rod, Barrel and Meat. No deck for Level 2.

I’m actually not sure if we can combine all 3 or even 2 of these to play. At least, it is a nice challenges that we can try.

From what I understand, there is an issue of using just 5 Level 2 Products where one of them is Milk. Player can easily abuse it to score very high.

Northern Branch

This is actually a standalone alternative to Firm with Brownies. We can play the game on its own, without having the basic Firm with Brownies itself. The art is different but with the same style or same universe with Brownies characters.

For the most part, the gameplay is the same. it seems some new buildings from the expansion has been included in this version. They introduced one new feature.

In this one, if we have a Livestock card, we also have to take “Dung” card which is a waste produced by those livestock with a value of -1. This will stay in our hand, taking spot from hand limit. On the other hand, there are building that can convert it to another resources.

Learn more information from the official page here.

Session Reports and Pictures

Usually, I share a session report of playing a game on BGG. Here are the links of each session for this game.

I also put turn-by-turn pictures of a session and unboxing pictures for every game on my collection that anybody can find on my Instagram. For this game, search for #FirmWithBrowniesAtHomeOfMark on IG for all of the sessions.

Also, check out my blog on BGG. I occasionally write a detailed session report / written playthrough for a game that I’ve played. In each, I will explain the decision process during the game every turn.

August 2024 session and more pictures of that session on Instagram and on TikTok. Another solo play. I think I managed to score exactly 10 within that time limit. During the game I forgot to take cards with a total value of 3 that could have helped me afforded a building worth 2 points.

May 2024 session and more pictures of that session on Instagram and on TikTok. This was solo play, lost by 1 VP short according to the rule.

December 2023 session and more pictures of that session on IG. 2-players, BGG Blog, Full Session Report.

February 2023 session and more pictures of that session on IG. Solo Play.

January 2023 session and more pictures of that session on IG. Solo Play.

December 2022 session and more pictures of that session on IG. Solo Play.

November 2022 session and more pictures of that session on IG. Solo Play.

October 2022 session and more pictures of that session on IG. Solo Play.

Summary

Firm with Brownies is a competitive card game for 2 to 4 players with engine-building like or card combo genre. There is a solo variant in the expansion rule that can be implemented using just the base game.

The theme is about running a business by trading different products for better value or to gain access to the production of certain factories or buildings. This was inspired by another card game called Oh My Goods! with the same theme but it creates a totally different game.

In this game, there are 3 level of product cards. From the cheapest which is Resources, that almost always available. Then a Level 1 Product cards, with higher value sometimes available in large quantity and sometimes we have to wait until it enters the market.  To the most expensive and very rarely available which is the Level 2 Product cards which there are only 9 unique cards.

Each of these 3 Product cards are Multiuse cards. We can use them for their Money Value or their own specific product. To get the higher value products we can trade or discard cards from our hand that match with the requirement. If we get that card this way, usually for cheaper and better value.

Alternatively, we can instead discard one or more other cards with the same or higher value than that target products. Usually this will be more expensive but more flexible. While waiting for the specific required cards, the opponent might take that target card first from the market.

There is a rule in the trading action. Between cards that we discard from our hand and the one we are taking from the market, one of the equation must be a single card.

Ideally, we want to sell many lower value cards to get a single one with the higher value. Or we want to sell a single high value products to get multiple less valuable cards.

The goal is to be the first to get 10 points or to get the most points when we run out of VP cards which triggers the end of the game. Points come from building and VP cards.

Only one trade action per turn. However, when we do get access to some buildings, the building may do one specific trade for us once per turn. Activating the building can happen before or after our main action.

So that is how we can get certain combos. The building action before the main can supply the main action itself. Then the main action can supply the next building action.

Both Main and Building action can only happen when we have the required cards in our hand for that operation and when the produced cards are available in the market. This simulates the idea of SUPPLY (cards in our hand) and DEMAND (cards in the Market).

If one of the equation is not available, the production is stuck. Sometimes we have to wait for the Market while keeping the supply in our hand. This is where the player interaction comes into play. The other players can take the cards from the market first. They can even hold some cards that we might need as supply and we have to wait longer.

So, the game is not about creating engine-building feel where we always get stronger and can do more stuffs, produce more goods than previously.  Most of the time, it is more like creating opportunity and when the market is right, we can do multiple actions in a single turn.

While getting points is the end goal but it doesn’t help doing more actions along the way. Ideally, we want to have multiple Production chains.

As an example of a Production Chain, we can start with getting a Wheat (Resource) to produce Flour (Level 1) and if we also have Charcoal (Level 1) we can spend those 2 Level 1 to make Bread (Level 2). We can then sell that Bread for 11 coins to buy a building or more cards of Level 1 and other Level 2. If we have Bread Factory, we can sell that Bread for 2 points maybe.

Ideally, we want to have one Production chain that convert products from the Lowest value to Highest. After getting to the highest value, we can sell them partially to start a new cycle of production chain.

Hopefully, the other chain can be supply to score points. This is also to avoid getting stuck because the opponent keeps taking the cards we need.

Some production chains has higher flexibility to switch to different products or chains. Like between Cattle to Meat, Leather and Milk while Sheep is limited to just Meat and maybe Thread which can lead to Cloth.  The game comes with all Production charts in player sheet to help players make a long term strategy while being flexible in tactical level.

Mechanically, this is mainly a hand management game of how we use or keep those Product cards. There is a hard limit of 7 cards in hand so we don’t have much luxury to hoard cards. Building cards don’t count to this limit.

Each product card will tell us the number of available cards in the game. At least with lower player count, it is easier to keep track where all of those cards are, between other players ‘ hand, discard pile, face up market or the face down deck.

On the other hand, with higher player count, using the same number of cards, we might cycle those products faster. There is no direct player interaction and like other similar games, the interaction mostly happens in taking cards from the market. As mentioned before, holding certain cards might be a viable plan to hold down the opponent’s efficiency.

The game also encourages player to pay attention to the opponent’s progress. Which building card that they have and try to prevent them from using it.

There is also an element of push your luck a bit. Sometimes we want to wait a bit because we believe that cards we need will show up soon. However, there will be moments when we sell a card and then shortly after, another one that can work well with that card show up.

Compared to Oh My Goods!, I think Oh My Goods! is still a better design, more creative in how they utilize the card and higher potential in play. However, in practice, with the randomness, I think Firm with Brownies can provide similar level of experience. Maybe even better if we consider the interaction that can happen this one is better as in Oh My Goods!, players cannot really affect the other players.

To reach the maximum potential of play with Oh My Goods!, players have to really dig in and play the game a lot. Only after that, they may or may not even try to get the best combo, assuming they get that exact chance. In Firm with Brownies, on the other hand, players might see everything even from just a single play.

I do recommend if one player like either of them, they should try the other as well. They might prefer one over the other but still enjoy both.

More Similar Games

There are many tabletop games out there whether a board or card game that might share some similarities with Firm with Brownies game. Some people may look for those similarities that they enjoy. It can be the mechanism or even just the same theme or setting.

Usually, a board game will have a lot of elements. It is kind of difficult find another game where everything is similar. Which is why, in this section, I try to break them into things that I enjoy from the game and point out games that share the same experience.

These next games are just some games that I have tried, played and written a review for them, up to this point.  Check out the link to each article to find out more and also check this Complete list for more games.

Also, check out my blog on BGG. There are more games that I’ve played but I haven’t had the chance to write a review for each.

Multiple Paths to Reach the Objective

For me, the main highlight of Firm with Brownies game is the idea of having multiple paths to complete the same objective. This is a bit different from a game with multiple strategy or multiple ways to win.

In this game, in order to get certain cards, we can either pay the required exact cards for the best value or we can pay extra but utilizing other cards just for their money value.  It’s like having an alternate route even if longer to reach the same destination. This gives a lot of flexibility and makes the game more dynamic. Players have to be aware or they can feel stuck waiting for the right card.

I guess, the idea of Wild Resource in a game can be considered as the same for this experience. No need to focus on just 1 type. At least, in Firm with Brownies, almost every card can work as Wild with their money value.

The first game that I can think of with this feature that I’ve played and reviewed is Aerion. In this game, we are trying to build 6 airships. Each of them requires 3 cards, the Blueprint, the Material and the Crew to complete. With the exception of the Blueprint, the other two are distributed in usually 2 of 6 different decks of cards.

To access the decks cards, we have to create a poker set by rolling 6 d6. Each deck requires different poker sets like two pairs, 3 of a kind, full house, and other sets. Depending on the dice roll, we can try to aim on different decks to get those same cards, no need to get stuck in just one deck.

Also, if we include some of the expansions, they offer more ways to access those cards or more ways to manipulate the dice.

Ankh’or is another one but this is a small tile laying game. Each tile will have one of 5 different colors with one of different objects on it. There are 3 different animals as the object. The goal is to place the tile with either the same color or the same animal to be adjacent to each other. To score we need to get two at least.  The adjacency works with the upper level as we can place the tile on top of 4 tiles at the bottom.

Ideally, we want to focus on just minimal colors and maybe the same animals. Of course, we cannot get that easily. In that case, we might want to settle with just one aspect. Trying to get the same color but different objects or animal or the same animal but different colors. The key is where to place those different tiles strategically so the sets still work for multiple scoring. This might require a bit of long term planning or strategy instead of just being tactical.

Another card game with similar feature is Dale of Merchants. This is a deck building game where we have to create stacks of ascending total value from 1 to 8. Each stack must be made of card from just 1 type of animalfolk where each card has a value between 1 to 5.

So, to create the 6th stack with the value of 6, we can use 5+1, 2 +4 or 3 + 3. We can also use cards from different animalfolks for each stack as long as one stack just for 1 type. That way, we can diversify on different types, not just focusing on one type.

I think Peloponnes Card Game also has this experience. The game itself already uses Multiuse Card system where every resource card works as Coin cards for the auction. There is also the Luxury Items that works as Wild Resource from the excess production of our civilization.

The challenge of the game itself is to prevent or mitigate upcoming Catastrophes by claiming certain building or territory card. Some of them can contribute partially or fully for that mitigation. So, if we cannot win the bid for 1 card, we might get the same result for purchasing another card.

Quests of Valeria is another one. This game is about recruiting characters and deploy them to complete Quest. Each quest requires a set of certain resources like Fight, Magic and Money.  We can get all of those from the characters.

One character can generate like 1 Money and 2 Magic while another can give 1 of each.  This means one quest can be completed by different groups of different set of characters as long as they match the requirements. Sometimes it can feel a bit wasteful or inefficient but like Firm with Brownies, completing the quest first is more important.

For city building card game, I think Walking in Burano fits this criteria. In this game, we are trying to build 5 houses. Each of them has 3 floors to complete and ideally with just a single color per house but different from the adjacent house.

Each part of the house can also display different objects like cats, lamps, flowers that attract different characters for scoring. So, while trying to focus on one color, we can work on different scoring based on the objects shown by the house cards. Alternatively, we can also break the color restriction just to get the best object but with some penalties.

Multiuse Card System

As I said above, another highlight of Firm with Brownies is the Multiuse card mechanism. We can use the cards in our hand for multiple different uses. The cards usually have several icons for those separate uses. We can pick one use and at the same time denying ourselves the benefit of the other icons.

This mechanism opens up possibilities of what we can do during our turn. At the same time, it can make a tougher choice as sometimes we already set our mind to use that specific card for specific uses, and yet the situation forces us to the other way.

In this Firm with Brownies game, the resource and product cards in our hand can be used for their specific items or for the money value. If we use them for that specific item to either upgrade or produce, we can get better value than just using the stated money value.

The challenge of this game is that we can only perform the action while the target card is still available on the market. If we wait to get the right set of products to produce or upgrade, then maybe the opponent can take that result card before us.  In that case, we might want to do less efficient action just to get the card before the opponent.

Other games with similar idea that I’ve mentioned above in other section are Aerion and Peloponnes Card Game. In Aerion, we can discard the card from the display to reroll dice or we can try to take it by spending the dice with the right poker set.

For Peloponnes, they have Coin Cards, which on the other side can show either Resources like Wood or Stone, Wheat or even Workers. Each of them is worth 1 coin, which is useful during the auction while the resources side can be used for more limited specific uses.

There is also a card game called Fleet. This one has Boat cards as the multiuse cards.  Each card can show one of 5 different types of Boat, each with different money value.

We can use them to launch Boat, assuming we have the matching license. Or we can use the money value for bidding for License, hiring Captain, paying the cost to launch the boat.

The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game is an interesting example for Multiuse card system. In this one, each card has a value of a d6 face between 1 to 6. We can then spend them for 7 different actions and each action can have between 1 to 6 options depending on the situation.

Unlike the other games that I have mentioned so far where we can have a lot of cards at a time and make plan with all of them, in this one, we only have up to 2 cards at a time. So, it is not as flexible but that’s where the challenge is. We have to manage a resource that can change the die face of the card by plus or minus 1 to open more possibilities.

Another game that I have to mention is Oh My Goods!, which was the design  inspiration behind Firm with Brownies. In this one, the cards can be used as the Factory or the products to boost or run a factory. So, if we set aside the card because we want to use it as Factory, we lose the access to use it as resources.

The card also works for another purpose, as a token. If our Factory produces a goods, we place a face down cards on that Factory and that card represents 1 goods with its own uses and value. This is a very creative design of how to utilize a card.

I guess I also have to mention Tybor the Builder, a different game but with the same setting and similar theme to Oh My Goods!, also from the same designer. This is a card drafting game. Every turn, we have to pick 1 Character card and we can use it for one of 3 uses.

They can become citizen which helps the player getting discount when building certain types of buildings, We can also use them for their workforce to build buildings or we can spend them to activate the build action.

For a game in fantasy settings with this experience, I’ve played Adventure of D. This one has multiuse and multipurpose card system. When the cards are in our hand, they represent the health point of our character. The card itself has color and value that we can use to complete an action or a challenge on the board. Some actions and challenges require specific value and/or color and the others can take any color but with less benefit.

When the cards are not in our hand, they serve other purposes like event, modifier, items or randomizer. While players don’t have much control when the cards serve these purposes, the challenge of the game is about cycling cards and to find the specific one that can help progressing the game and hold on to it. This is probably the game that utilizes that single deck for the most purposes.

There is also Regicide, a game that we can play using Standard deck of playing cards. In this one, each card represents a character with the special power according to their suit.

The value of each card represents the health points for how much damage that they can take and determines how powerful the character’s attack and their special powers. With that idea, sometimes we have to sacrifice a card and let them take the damage while they can be useful for their special power.

This next one, Voyages doesn’t use multiuse card but instead multiuse dice. In this roll and write game, each turn, we will roll 3 d6 and we can assign them for 3 different and individual ways.

One to determine the direction of ship movements. Two is to determine how far their movement and the last one to fill tracks to activate some bonuses. There is a chance that we roll all 3 dice with the same value or we cannot use certain value depending on the ship position. For that, there is a resource that we can collect and spend to change the die value.

Production Chains

Firm with Brownies might seem like an engine-building game but not quite.  In this one, we don’t produce goods and increase the production capacity, more than previous round consistently. What we do is mostly increasing the chance for smoother goods conversion processes.

From Product A to B to C and eventually either more money or Victory points. We are trying to connect the dots like a chain of Production. More like creating combos. Ideally, even two chains where one that can generate money loop and the other to generate points.

It can feel like we can get unlimited actions but it is rather rare. In this one we will feel stuck. Even if we have the ideal chain, the efficiency is still dictated by the supply and demand system.

Oh My Goods! the inspiration behind this game also has that stuck feeling. In this one, we still do or run at most one or two factories at a time because of the worker. The combo can happen between one round to another, with the exception of end game phase where we run all factories.

We still need to diversify by having multiple production chains but mostly because to mitigate the randomness of the supply. Compared to this, Firm with Brownies can feel more like Engine-Building game.

I think the similarity of chaining or combo is closer to Gizmos. In Gizmos, the main strategy is to improve the result of an action by getting a Gizmo card that can be triggered by that action. But this one is more of an engine-building game compared to Firm with Brownies.

We just trying to get goods or Marbles of one color more to buy those Gizmos. While Firm with Brownies and Oh My Goods! have aspect of upgrading the Goods into a different product but with better value. Simpler thematic concept but still gives that satisfaction of chaining or combos.

Another card game with similar idea is Café. This is about processing different coffee beans through several processes in the same order before we can deliver it to various coffee shops. The main mechanism is overlapping cards with grid so that similar icons can be next to each other.

Each icon on the card represents one part of processing coffee beans steps which can be activated by Action Points. If we can put the same type of icons next to each other, we can trigger more actions with a single Action Point.

Sometimes the process gets stuck in certain phases. We have to wait until that process is done with one type of beans before we can process the other. We may try to create multiple production paths but eventually the action points will be the limiting factor.

So this may have the same thematic idea but translated into a more spatial mechanism.

I guess I should mention Imperial Settlers as well. This one is definitely more like Engine-Building game. We will produce a number of resources each round and we will try to increase the production.

The difference is that I rarely think of different and separate paths of productions. Just produce more and later find a way to spend them. Which one to build first usually is the main challenge of this game.

For a totally different theme, maybe One Deck Dungeon: Forest of Shadows. This is a dice placement game in fantasy setting. Where we place the dice to avoid getting penalties have requirements for specific color and value.

Getting the right skill is a way to mitigate the randomness. However, most of the time, one skill is not enough. In fact, we probably need to change the dice through a couple of conversion processes before we get the required dice.

Because of that, the focus of the game is about creating those chains of skills to make sure we can change useless dice into a useful one. We have to pick the one that can connect between those skills.

Final Words

That is all I can share with you about Firm with Brownies, an engine-building card game in small box. There are many other games like this but the idea that the engine is restricted by both supply and demand is new to me.

I may have missed something that I should have discussed regarding the game. Please don’t hesitate to point that out and share what you know related to this game and I will update this article.

I keep saying that these tabletop games can be a good way to spend some time without looking at the screen of our gadget. If we do have someone close, that we can play with, there are other games where we can play cooperatively or competitively but with a lot of player interaction.

The game can be very fast or like a filler type or it can take hours to play. Some games can also be played in solitaire mode and they are still more engaging than other entertainment activity. Some may say, it’s like a workout for the gray matter of our brain.

So, what is your experience on playing this game? If you know other games similar or even better than this, please do share via the comment section below. I would love to learn and play that game, assuming I can get a copy.

This article is just my notes about what I can find from the internet. Hopefully this can help anybody who reads it.

Thanks for reading.

 

Mark M.