Back then, I wrote several reviews about card games which are adaptation from the bigger board game version. It shows how successful the board game version that the designer decided to create a smaller one to reach bigger audience.
This next game is actually the other way around. Oh My Goods! has been a well received card game that the designer made the board game version of it a few years later.
So, what is Oh My Goods! card game? How to play the game? Is there a solo mode? What are the expansions?
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 with you my Oh My Goods! Card Game Review, based on my experience and what I can find from the internet.
Hope this helps. Is Oh My Goods! going to be the best card game out there?
Click or tab on any sections from the table of contents to jump right to that part. Use the red arrow button on the bottom right corner of the screen to head back to the top.
Table of Contents
Overview
Game’s Title: Oh My Goods!
Genre: Card Game, Hand Management, Engine Building, Factory Building Theme, Push Your Luck, Competitive, Set Collection, Multi Use Card, Multi Purpose Card, Tableau Building, Medieval Setting, Worker Placement
Designer: Alexander Pfister
Artist: Klemens Franz
Publisher: Lookout Games
Number of Players: 2- 4
Playtime: 30 minutes
Age Range: 10+
Official Website: lookout-spiele.de
Release Year: 2015
Initial Price: $15
Components:
1 Rulebook (EN)
110 Cards (59 x 91 mm):
Charburner Cards (4)
Worker Cards (4)
Assistant Cards (8)
Wood Cards (26)
Wool Cards (17)
Grains Cards (17)
Ore Cards (17)
Clay Cards (17)
Expansions:
Longsdale in Revolt (2016)
Escape to Canyon Brook (2017)
About Oh My Goods! Card Game
This card game is formerly known as Royal Goods, published by Osterreichisches Spiele Museum. Not everybody loves the new title which came from the new publisher.
The designer said that there is no change in overall gameplay but somebody stated that there are some changes to the rule. The cards which are the only components remains the same.
It was also released as bilingual game with English and German but the game itself is language independent. The latest version that I got only comes with English with no German rulebook.
There is another German Easter edition where all of the characters in the cards are Easter Bunny. I think the game is the same, just different art.
Usually we can see a designer releasing a card game version of their board game. For Oh My Goods! it is the other way around. The card game is the original one and they released the board game version which is called Expedition to Newdale in 2019.
In terms of the story, it is the sequel to this card game. As the prequel, they also have Tybor the Builder Card Game with the same art but it is a card drafting game, a totally different gameplay.
All of them were designed by Alexander Pfister. who have won Kennerspiele des Jahres awards twice, the most prestigious award for tabletop game designer.
The next two videos display the gameplay of Oh My Goods! by Rahdo from Rahdo Runs Through YouTube channel for those who want to see how the game feels like.
Story and Gameplay
In Oh My Goods! game, we as the players are factory managers that will have to assign our worker in order to produce some goods and probably convert them into higher value ones. The goods that they are producing can also be used as money to build other factory or to hire assistant.
This is a competitive game and once any player build their 8th factory for their tableau, that will trigger the end of the game. The winner is the one who score the most points from their factory, assistants and the left over goods.
Each player will start with their Charburner factory and each of the Charburner requires different set of 3 resources. That means every player will start a bit differently from one to another.
We don’t start with zero but 7 goods that we can spend both as the charcoal or the money which each worth a single coin. If we can get the right resources, we can send the worker to the factory and let it generate more goods or money.
Players also will get a hand of 5 cards. as the setup The card is a multi use cards that can represent the resources or the factory that we can build. That means, everytime, players will need to consider which card to play as resources and which to keep that we can build later. Hand management is one of the main mechanism in this game.
Aside from the resources from our hand of cards and from the factory, each round there will be a market. The market will display some resources that we can use during the day or round in two steps, in the sunrise phase and sunset phase.
Players will have to make decision of how they are going to run their factories based on the resources and the first phase of the market. There will be a PUSH YOUR LUCK element because the second phase of the market may or may not provide the resources that we need to run our engine.
If it turns out there is not enough resources, the factory may not function or produce anything. Players can mitigate the risk by choosing to work sloppily that we may not need a full set of resources as opposed to work efficiently. This way we can produce less or not at all.
Later in the game, we might have several factories but each worker and assistant can only work at one factory at a time. Then the game can become more complex. We may need to produce from specific factory but the available resources are only to run the other factory that we don’t need.
In this game, we also cannot just build any factory. There is a possibility to create a production chain. The goods from one factory can be spent to boost the production of another.
It is said that the player who manages their Production chains best will gain the most Victory Points and win.
With that in mind, the push your luck element might force us to play tactically and be flexible but we can still make a long term plan strategically. The starting resources for our Charburner may already set the development path we should take.
Components
The components of Oh My Goods! Card game is just a deck of cards and a rulebook. As I mentioned earlier that the previous edition may support two languages, EN and DE in the same game with 2 separate rulebook and each card will have a name in both.
However, the latest version will keep them separated. This article is based on the latest English version.
The game comes with just a small box that will fit in the palm of our hand. The size of the lid is 13 x 10 x 1.6 cm. The base box is just slightly bigger than two deck of Euro size cards and just paper insert.
We definitely want to sleeve these cards as they will get shuffled a lot. The right size sleeve definitely will fit the footprint of the box but depending on the thickness, it will probably lift the lid up a bit.
That is to the point we can no longer store the game vertically. We have to lay it down or use some elastic band.
For those who use the ROYAL GOOD version or the first edition, the designer said that the components are the same. But there is a change of rules. Read the next section for link of the new rulebook.
The Rulebook
Here is the digital file for the rulebook v1.5 from the official website. Oddly, the printed rulebook from my copy is version 1.6.
If I understand correctly, the only addendum part between the 2 version is the email contact info for rules questions, suggestion and criticism. I’m not even sure if that email address is still working.
The rulebook is a 12 page rulebook with almost the same size as the footprint of the box. I guess the first complaint would be that they use the last page only to show that this game has some expansions that we can purchase from the publisher directly.
They could have used that space to explain something further like the list of these different cards instead of just stating 110 cards. Anybody who buy this game can only assume that the cards are complete. There is no information whether there are more cards with the same exact copy.
The game, or the cards themselves are language independent but we do need to read all of the examples from the rulebook to learn how the game works. Like rulebook from other games, some elements of the game don’t have any dedicated section that will explain them.
For example, for the Assistant the explanation can be found scattered on page 7, page 9 and 10. I understand they want to reduce the number of pages from the rulebook and make them as compact as possible. However, I wish there will be a link to dedicated webpage that anybody can access to find a further explanation for the game.
Table of contents
Here is the table of contents of the rulebook.
Objective (Page 1). This is the summary of what I said in the previous section about this game, specifically the overall gameplay.
Components (Page 1). It just says the total number of cards and the rulebook itself.
Setup (Page 2). This explains the starting tableau, which cards each player will take and the number of cards for Assistant based on the number of players.
Detail for The Multi Use Card (Page 3). This explain every aspect depicted on the card with illustration.
Course of Play (Page 3 -10). The four phases of each round in the game. The illustration that summarize this can be found on either side of the Worker Card.
New Hand Cards Phase (Page 4). This part explains how we can discard all cards from our hand and draw the same number of cards during this phase then deal 2 cards for each player. Also, there is an explanation about running out of cards from the deck.
Sunrise Phase (Page 4 – 5). This explains how the market reveal a number of cards during this phase. Players can find how to use their Worker Card and choose a card to build during the given round.
Sunset Phase (Page 6). The second part of revealing more cards in the market for the round.
Producing and Building Phase (Page 6 – 10). This explains how Producing, Production Chain, Building and Assistant works. There are a lot of examples for each part.
Game End (Page 10-11). This explains the condition that will trigger the end game, the Final Round, Scoring and Tie Breaker.
Detail of The Cards (Page 11). This explains specifically about how Grey Buildings or Market Office and Glassmaker work.
Expansions and About the Publisher (Page 12). Contact info to purchase expansions, ask questions for rules or missing components.
Worker Cards
There are 4 Worker cards that come with this game to support 4 players. All of them have the same copy. Each has two sides which works the same, just with different illustration between a male or female character.
Essentially this game can be considered as a Worker Placement game. Instead of using meeple or tokens, we use card. Moreover, this one Worker can work differently.
Notice that half of the card and the illustration is upside down. That is the way we will be using these cards. One long side that indicates the worker is working efficiently with 2 cards as the reward.
On the other side, indicates the worker is working sloppily that the result is just 1 card but the required resources is reduced by one. If we look closely to the illustration, the efficient one is smiling unlike the other.
In this game, there will be times when we will not get all of the required resources to run our factory or engine. We have to make decision based on the first half of the market whether to work efficiently or sloppily.
The second half may or may not display the missing resources. If we choose to work efficiently hoping that the second half will provide the missing resources, but it doesn’t, we will produce nothing at all.
That way working sloppily can be a better choice. The different between the result may not that many, just 1 card but by turning on the engine, even if we work sloppily, there is a chance to boost the result. That comes from the Production Chain element. More about this later.
As Turn Reference Card
These cards also serve another purpose. The middle part of the card display the summary of 4 phases for each round. Here are the brief explanations for those icons.
1st Phase. The + 2 Cards icons means, at the start of the round, each player will get 2 additional cards from the deck. There is no icon to remind us about discarding our entire hand and draw back the same number of cards.
Maybe something like cycling or refresh icon can do. But that is an additional rule and this card is from the original version.
2nd Phase. There are several overlapping cards and a sun icon followed by a character. This means revealing the resources for the market until we get 2 half sun icons.
The character means, we get to assign our worker and assistant during this phase only. There is no character icon during the third one.
3rd phase. Similar to the 2nd phase but without the character. That means we for the Sunset phase, we reveal more resources cards until we get 2 half sun icons.
4th phase. Finally, there is a character and an icon of several gears. That indicates Producing by the worker and assistant and Production Chain. I think they should have another icon for BUILDING but it is already crowded.
Since, that is all what we will be doing each round, I don’t really think we need those reminder. There are details that will be easier to forget like that we can’t move the assistant freely or such.
Charburner Cards
These are the second card that every player will take as their starting tableau. The cards have a blue light color with a single factory building as illustration at the back.
The top half of the card has an illustration the same as the back of the card but with additional setting. The bottom half have several icons that can be categorized in three separate columns.
First, we might want to look at the middle column. There is a charcoal icon which this card or building can produce and at the bottom part a coin with a number 1. That indicates that each charcoal is worth 1 coin.
Notice that the charcoal is inside a white gear. That indicates the charcoal can only come from production, from a building. The resources that can come from cards will have a square border.
At the left column, there will be two resources. These are the required resources to start the engine or the charburner to produce charcoal. The first resources requires 2 goods while the second one requires just 1 and always Wood.
For the first resource, each card will require differently from clay (red), wool (white), ore (black), or wheat (yellow). That means, every player will start differently. Players can even start making plan based on those.
It is not like one card is better than others. The number of resources cards in this game for these 4 different resources is equal.
The right column indicates what the game is referring to as Production Chain. What it means is, after we start the engine by providing the resources on the left column, we can boost the production by adding the resources from this right column.
All of these 4 cards will only require one resource for the Production Chain and that will be Wood. Which is why there are more Wood Cards in this game.
Notice that there are two CHAIN illustration above and below the required resources. Hopefully that can remind the player about the PRODUCTION CHAIN.
Assistant Cards
Assistants are the other Worker for this Worker Placement game that we can hire during the game. We start with just 1 factory building but we can have more. The problem is we only have 1 Worker. By having Assistant, we may run two or more engines each round, increasing the production capacity.
The Assistant cards are the other horizontal cards in this game. There are 8 cards and each of them has two sides for a totally different assistant. We will only use all 8 cards in 4 player game and less number of that for lower player count.
During the game, players will try to compete to hire one of these first from general market.
That means, even if we use all of them, we can flip some of them and that will give us another setup variable with different experience each game.
The way we use this card is similar to the WORKER CARD, except that the Assistant can only produce 1 each round, indicated by a single card at the middle, for starting their engine but they require full resources. So, they are still weaker than the Worker but we do need them.
At the top left corner of the card there is a number and a Coin icon. This represents the cost to hire the Assistant. The number on the top right corner has a shield icon which indicates a Victory Point.
So, even if the Assistant can’t help us much during the game, They are still VP at the end which can help us win the game.
The cost is between 2 to 6 coins but the VP is only 2 or 3 points not necessarily the more expensive the higher the VP. That is because there is an additional requirements before we can hire these assistant.
At the bottom part of the cards, we can see a number of cards between 2 cards up to 5 and with colors from 1 color to 5 colors. These represent the number and type of factory or building that we need to have in our tableau before we can hire the corresponding Assistant.
Somehow the requirements and cost don’t always align with the VP. Some can be very cheap but with the same VP.
I think these Assistants should not be considered as if they are objective goal to pursue from the start. There are 4 of them that require 4 buildings of the same type.
I think it is rather impossible to pursue and that will sacrifice the type of building we can have and the goods we can produce and probably limited potential for production chain. We have to remember that once we have 8 buildings, that will trigger the end of the game.
So, with that in mind, we may have to ignore certain Assistants for focus on the cheaper and easier ones. Since we will use them randomly, it is possible to get those most difficult Assistants in the same game.
The rule doesn’t suggest anything about the setup like to avoid those kind of combination. I say we should just be flexible but we do can make plan based on which Assistant are available. How likely we can hire them first before our opponents. Be tactical depending on how the game progress.
Multipurpose Cards
The remaining 94 cards are the last components of this game. All of them have the same back side with brown color and a crate icon. However, the front side of the card can be put into several categories.
These are the multipurpose cards. What it means is, depending on the situation in the game, the card can be different things.
For me, they are also a multi use cards that the player may choose to use the card differently. There are other games where the cards are multipurpose but when it goes to the player, player can only use them for a single use.
I may need to find a better term between the two. Usually a multiuse card is always a multi purpose card but not vice versa. Multi use is about how the player decide how to use the card but multi purpose is about how the game decide and one of the purpose can become the player’s hand of cards.
Because of the multiple uses, we may refer these cards as Resources Cards or Building Cards. Those are two choices of how the player can use when they get any of those cards.
Aside to become the player’s hand, these cards will also serve as Good Cards or Coin Cards. Players will not have the control for other use when the cards serve this purposes.
As a Goods Card or Coin Card
I already mentioned that in this game we are creating a factory building that can produce some goods. Other games may use wooden tokens or other game pieces to indicates the goods but in this card game, we use the back side of these cards.
The way it works is we place this card face down on a Factory Building card that we already build or have. That represent a single goods. Depending on the money value of the goods, each of these same goods cards can be more expensive between one and the other.
The goods from our starting Charburner is worth just 1 coin per goods. The other building that we can add later will have goods with higher value.
It doesn’t matter what the other side of the Goods Card is, only the number of cards. However, in reality, that means at the same time, we don’t have access to the Resources or the Building of those Goods Card.
It may be a bigger deal in higher player counts. Otherwise, there are enough copies of the same resources or buildings and recycling through this deck is very fast.
We just need to make sure we shuffle the cards very well so the same type of cards will not all be used for this purposes. I think somebody on the forum says they use tokens from probably other games so they can still have full access of those cards.
Now let’s talk about the front side of the cards which have some elements that we need to consider separately for different purposes.
As mARKET Resource Cards
The first use of the card is for resources. For that, we only look at the main color of the card or the resource icon at the middle left side of the card.
Red Card means CLAY. Black means ORE. Green means WOOD. Yellow means GRAIN or WHEAT. White means WOOL.
The resources can either be part of the market or goes into the player’s hand. In player’s hand, players will have to choose between using the card as resources or as building. More about the building later.
For the Market’s Resources, we ignore the bottom part of the card about what type of building it is. Each round, the market will display a random number of resources which are accessible to all of the players.
It is a good thing that the designer use colors so that we can figure out what type of resources the card is without the need to look at the small icons. I guess that can be a bit of a problem for people with blind color. They may have to rely on the name but there is no list of cards in the rulebook.
The left part of the illustration is actually represents the resources of the card. Yellow has the Wheat field, Black has Ore Mine, Green has Woods, White has sheep farm for Wool, and Red has clay field.
Another point to remember which also makes the game different that other games is that player will not take the cards from the market. They are accessible to every player and every building that the player has.
As long as the market displays the required resources with the same amount as the building that the player has in their tableau, the player can start their engine or factory. That is assuming they have assigned a worker or assistant for the given building.
These market resources, however, cannot be used for production chain of the factory. That will require resources cards from the player’s hand.
As Market Timer Cards
Some of these cards have a half sun icon right below the resources icon in the middle left of the card. These are the timer to indicate either the SUNRISE or SUNSET, the 2nd and 3rd phases of each round.
Effectively, these are timers for the phases and a layer of randomizer for the market resources. The way it works is that during these phases, we will draw resources cards until we see these 2 HALF SUNS that indicates either sunrise or sunsets.
That means, the number of cards drawn will be different each time from two cards can be up to 48 cards. It is very unlikely but possible based on the number of cards that has or has no sun icon. Which is why we need to shuffle the cards well.
It is not that we can choose what we will be drawing because it is a blind draw from face down deck. However this system will some kind of uneven experience between each round.
Some round the market can provide a lot and some others cannot. Since this works in two phases, half of the round we will have shortage but the other half will not or both can be a lot of shortage.
As the player, we have to make decision only based on the Sunrise phase or just the first half of the market each round. This is how they introduce the PUSH YOUR LUCK mechanism to the game.
The second half of the market may or may not add the mission resources we need to start our engine. Players can still mitigate their bad luck by using the cards from their hand but that card can be useful later.
As Player’s Resource Cards
We start the game with 5 cards and spend some during the round. Each new round we will get additional 2 cards as our hand of cards and there is no limit.
Then, the player will have access to different uses of the cards from their hand. One of them is as RESOURCES CARDS to either start the factory’s engine, or to run the production chain.
The required resources to start the engine can be provided by the market. Sometimes not all of them are provided so we can fill the missing one or all of them from our hand.
The problem is, the same card we spend to start the engine can be used for the production chain of the same or different factories. If we spend the card just to start the engine, at most, we will get 2 Goods but the amount we spend can be from 1 up to 6 cards, except for the Glassmaker.
On the other hand, if we spend them for the production chain, each card is worth 1 Goods. The problem is the production chain will only work if we can start the corresponding engine.
There will be a lot of tactical planning we will do each round to make sure we get the best result. The resources that we can get from either the market or our hands are random.
I guess the key is the second use of the card as BUILDING. We can always plan what to build. More about this next.
As Building Cards
Aside from resources, the other use from our hand of cards is to choose them to build as additional engine or factory to produce. For this use, the remaining aspect of the cards becomes matter.
From the top, we can see two numbers. The left one is the cost to build the building and the right one with shield icon is the Victory Points we get at the end of the game if we build it.
The cost can be from 2 coins up to 21 coins and the VP from 2 up to 5 VP. Some buildings can be cheaper but with the same or even higher VP. The value of each goods it can produce what makes them different.
Then there is an illustration. As I said above that the left part of the illustration indicates the resources but the building illustration on the right represents the type of factory. Although some may be more obvious than others.
The bottom part of the card starts with the name of the factory or building. The earlier version of the game has both the name in English and German. My copy has the latest one which only comes with English name.
Then the next part is the three columns similar to the CHARBURNER CARDS. The left one is the required resources to start the engine, the middle one is the goods the building can produce and the money value, and the right column is the required resources for production chain.
There are several differences between these Building Cards and the Charburner Cards for these lower portion of the card.
The resources on the left to start the engine can go up to a total of 6 but still with 2 different resources. For the coin value it can be from 2 up to 8 coins per goods.
The required resources for the production chain for these Building cards can be from 1 resource (square icon border) or 1 produced goods (gear icon border) up to a combination of each or 2 produced goods.
The exception for these are the MARKET OFFICE Building Cards or the Black one. They are not considered as production building where we can assign workers to start engine and producing. If we build them, they will give permanent benefit.
One of the benefit is the owner will get as if one additional resource as depicted on the card from the Market’s resources. The other possible benefit is that the owner can get 3 cards at the start of the round instead of 2. Unless the owner already have more than 3 cards during that phase.
There are 17 cards for these Market Office with 3 copy for each resources and for the additional card, except for Wood with just 2.All of them are Black or Ore Cards.
In this game, we can only build like 8 buildings at most because that will trigger the end game. We can probably add 1 more during final round but we still need to use the resources from our hand to maximize the output of existing building.
With so limited number of buildings and the number of workers and assistants in a game session, we might want to make a plan for our tableau. Focus on just specific production line to have that each produced goods can supply the next via production chain.
Trying to just build anything will not get us a lot of points. We cannot start every engine because of the limited worker. Relying on the production chain, especially during the final round is a must.
Even the rulebook states: the player who manages their Production Chains the best will gain the Most VP and win.
Detail for Each Building
Market Office (Black / Ore)
Number of Cards: 17
Cost: 8 for resources and 6 for card benefit
VP: 3 for resources and 2 for card benefit
Benefit: Get additional Market Resource or Additional card during Phase 1.
As mentioned earlier, these are not considered as Production Building. It will take our tableau space but if we do get the right resource, it can help us with production without the need for worker or assistant.
Brick Manufacturer (Red /Clay)
Number of Cards: 8
Cost: 2 – 5 Coins
VP: 2
Starting Resources: 4
Goods Value: 2 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Charcoal (P) + Clay (R)
Target Buildings for PC: none
We already start with Charcoal from Charburner, this is the first potential combo. But then we do need to work on both. It will be a good boost during final round if we can keep the Charcoal supply and have some Clay cards.
There are other building that can use Charcoal but Brick Manufacturer is probably the one with most cards in the game.
Cattle Ranch (Red / Clay)
Number of Cards: 6
Cost: 6 or 8 Coins
VP: 2
Starting Resources: 4
Goods Value: 3 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Wheat (R)
Target Buildings for PC: Butcher (White) and Tannery (Red)
This is a good one to start. The required resources to start engine is low, and just one for the production chain and that is from a resource. Then, there are two possible buildings where the goods can feed the production chain.
Even the Tannery building does not produce final product. There are 2 cards where the required starting resources that are not clay or wheat. We might want to build one of those.
Tannery (Red / Clay)
Number of Cards: 3
Cost: 13 or 15 Coins
VP: 3
Starting Resources: 5
Goods Value: 6 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Cattle Ranch (P)
Target Buildings for PC: Shoemaker (8)
For this, we need to build the Cattle Ranch first. Even if we send our worker here, the starting resources is high.
We may just use this for the Final Round but this is not the final product. We can still supply the goods from this to Shoemaker for higher value. If we can get both, that would be great but Cattle Ranch is a must have.
Sawmill (Green / Wood)
Number of Cards: 5
Cost: 2 to 4 Coins
VP: 2
Starting Resources: 4
Goods Value: 2 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Wood (R)
Target Buildings for PC: Window Manufacturer (Green) and Cooperage (Green)
This is probably the next best combo starters after Cattle Ranch. Starting resources is very low, with just one resource for production chain and no good.
We probably have to avoid building the most expensive version of this. That one will also need 2 resources of wood to start the engine.
After we can work on this, the next easy route would be to aim for Cooperage which is a final product and we only need goods from Sawmill. For Window Manufacturer, we still need some other produced goods.
Iron Smelter (Green / Wood)
Number of Cards: 6
Cost: 6 to 9 Coins
VP: 2
Starting Resources: 4
Goods Value: 3 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Ore (R) + Charcoal (P)
Target Buildings for PC: Tool Maker (Green)
This one is similar to Brick Manufacturer. Higher cost to build but the goods value is also higher. This is also not the final product unlike brick.
However, the next product is Tool Maker which require not just goods from Iron Smelter but Charcoal as well. So, if we have to work on both the Charburner and this.
At least, we can increase the value from 1 coin of each Charcoal into 3 coins each. That is if we can keep some Ore or Black cards.
Half of the variants will require Ore as the starting resources. We might want to avoid those and the one that require Wood as well.
Glassmaker (Green / Wood)
Number of Cards: 4
Cost: 2 to 5 Coins
VP: 2
Starting Resources: 11 or 12
Goods Value: 4 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: none
Target Buildings for PC: Window Manufacturer (Green)
This is a rather weird one. On one hand, it doesn’t really matter about the starting resources but getting 11 or 12 is rather impossible to plan. It is very situational and based mostly on the market. We can use cards from our hand but that would be very wasteful.
That also means even if we can start producing, we only get one per round since there is no production chain to boost the result.
I guess it is maybe possible if we play with higher player count. Otherwise it is rather difficult to take this route and the Window Manufacturer route as the final product as well.
Window Manufacturer (Green / Wood)
Number of Cards: 3
Cost: 7 to 9 Coins
VP: 3
Starting Resources: 5
Goods Value: 5 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Sawmill (P) + Glass (P)
Target Buildings for PC: none
The produced goods from this is a final product. We really have to rely on the production chain during the Final Round. If we can have both goods for the production chain, that will increase the value from 4 (Glass) + 2 (Sawmill) into 2 goods of 5 Coins each.
The question is, how likely can we produce the goods from Glass Manufacturer. The one from Sawmill is rather easy but that means we still need to work on both.
With the bottleneck situation from the middle product, this is not the best route for production chain to take.
Cooperage (Green / Wood)
Number of Cards: 4
Cost: 11 Coins
VP: 3
Starting Resources: 5
Goods Value: 5 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Sawmill (P)
Target Buildings for PC: none
So, this is probably one of the easiest production chain combo, from Sawmill to Cooperage. Unlike the Cattle route which we can get at least 6 coins per goods, the value from this is just 5. Not that we can only choose one over the other.
The goods from this is the final product. It doesn’t really matter which variant of these cards if we want to rely only on the production chain of the final round.
Tool Maker (Green / Wood)
Number of Cards: 4
Cost: 15 or 17 Coins
VP: 4
Starting Resources: 6
Goods Value: 6 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: iron Smelter (P) + Charcoal (P)
Target Buildings for PC: none.
This will produce the final product of the production chain from Charburner to Iron Smelter, then this. Each time we do the production chain, we will increase the value from 3 (Sawmill) + 1 (Charburner) into 2 x 6 coins of Tool Maker goods.
We just have to make sure that we have enough Charcoal for both Iron Smelter and this. The ore cards for iron Smelter can be a bottleneck though.
Weaving Mill (White / Wool)
Number of Cards: 8
Cost: 5 to 8 Coins
VP: 2
Starting Resources: 4
Goods Value: 3 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Wool (R)
Target Buildings for PC: Tailor’s Shop (White).
This is similar to Cattle Ranch but for Wool. The resources for production chain is very easy to supply, just 1 Wool.
There are 8 cards so this one is similar to Brick Manufacturer as well. However, this one is better because Brick Manufacturer requires two for production chain.
The goods from this can supply the production chain of Tailor’s Shop which is the final product. That means if we want to go for this route, we just focus on producing from this Weaving Mill and the final round will take care the rest.
The problem is that each goods from the Tailor’s Shop, only worth 4 coins each. That is less than the Sawmill to Cooperage route or Cattle to Tannery or even Butcher route. Also, the Tailor’s Shop would require Charcoal as well for the production chain.
That part is similar as Mill to Bakery and Bakery can supply the Food Factory. I guess Weaving Mill to Talior’s Shop is still better than Mill to Bakery without the Food Factory.
From 8 cards, there are 5 which the starting resources don’t require Wool as well. We might as well just spend Wool for other factory.
Tailor’s Shop (White / Wool)
Number of Cards: 6
Cost: 5 to 10 Coins
VP: 3
Starting Resources: 5
Goods Value: 4 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Weaving Mill (P) + Charcoal (P)
Target Buildings for PC: none.
The produced goods from this is the final product. If we just want to rely on the final round, it doesn’t matter about the starting resources.
The problem is this requires two produced goods. That means we need to work on both the Charburner and the Weaving Mill. Each production chain will convert 3 coin goods and 1 coin good into 2 goods worth 4 coins each.
Butcher (White / Wool)
Number of Cards: 3
Cost: 12 to 16 Coins
VP: 4
Starting Resources: 6
Goods Value: 7 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Cattle Ranch (P)
Target Buildings for PC: none.
If we can start with Cattle Ranch, Butcher is just one of the next product. This is also a final product and to run the production chain, it only requires goods from Cattle Ranch.
There are only 3 cards, similar to Tannery. We might want to choose just one of them. For Tannery, the goods is not the final product though, can supply the Shoemaker.
Mill (Yellow / Wheat or Grain)
Number of Cards: 6
Cost: 2 to 4 Coins
VP: 2
Starting Resources: 4
Goods Value: 2 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Wheat (R)
Target Buildings for PC: Bakery (Yellow)
This is similar to Cattle Ranch (Red) , Weaving Mill (White) or Sawmill (Green) in the sense that how easy to run the production chain and the value of the goods. We just need a Wheat which is a resources.
However, it is very hard to convert the goods into the final product. which is Food Factory. For that, we need Bakery as well as the intermediate goods. Bakery also needs goods from Charburner in order to run the production chain.
The problem with Mill is from 6 cards, only two of them require starting resources that are not Wheat as well. That means, if the market doesn’t provide, we probably have to spend our Wheat cards just to start the engine.
So, for this route, there are two bottlenecks. Getting the right Market Office might be the best solution. It is not going to help much if the required Wheat is three, we might want to avoid that.
Bakery (Yellow / Wheat or Grain)
Number of Cards: 5
Cost: 9 to 12 Coins
VP: 3
Starting Resources: 5
Goods Value: 4 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Mill (P) + Charcoal (P)
Target Buildings for PC: Food Factory (Yellow)
This produce the intermediate goods between Mill and Food Factory. Because the Bakery requires two goods to run the Production Chain, this is similar to Tailor’s Shop (White) but that one produce the final product.
We need to work on both the Mill and Charburner to run the production chain of Bakery. From the 5 available cards, two of them requires Wheat just to start the engine.
Food Factory (Yellow / Wheat or Grain)
Number of Cards: 3
Cost: 19 to 21 Coins
VP: 5
Starting Resources: 6
Goods Value: 8 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Bakery (P)
Target Buildings for PC: none.
This produce the final product from Mill to Bakery then this. During the Final Round, it will just convert the goods from Bakery but the Bakery itself requires two produced goods.
This is also probably the most expensive building to build but also the highest VP per building and highest value per goods.
Shoemaker (Yellow / Wheat or Grain)
Number of Cards: 3
Cost: 12 or 15 Coins
VP: 4
Starting Resources: 6
Goods Value: 8 Coins each
Production Chain Resources: Tannery (P)
Target Buildings for PC: none.
This also produces the highest value goods with 8 coins per goods, similar as Food Factory. However, to reach this final product, we only need from Cattle Ranch to Tannery then this. All three will require just 1 goods to run the production chain.
That means, during the final round, if we have all 3 of them, we simply move the goods. From 3 coins per goods from Cattle Ranch to 8 coins per goods from Shoemaker.
Even if we can’t get this building because there are only 3 of them, we can change the course of production line from Cattle to Butcher. If that is the case, during the final round, we stop supplying the Tannery and go to Butcher instead.
With all of that the possible production lines are as follows.
Cattle Ranch (red) to Tannery (red) to Shoemaker (yellow).
Cattle Ranch (red) to Butcher (White)
Charburner to Iron Smelter (green) to Tool Maker (green).
Charburner to Sawmill (Green) to Glassmaker (Green) to Window Manufacturer (Green).
Sawmill (Green) to Cooperage (Green).
Charburner to Weaving Mill (White) to Tailor’s Shop (White).
Charburner to Mill (yellow) to Bakery (Yellow) to Food Factory (Yellow).
The bold ones are the final producers. That leaves us Brick Manufacturer (red) out of any production line. Clearly, we can see which of them will be easier to take.
Those are all of the components to play Oh My Goods! card game, just the base game. It is very portable that we can bring along and play anywhere.
How to Play
Oh My Goods! card game is a competitive game for 2 to 4 players. If I understand correctly there is a big change for rules from the Royal Goods edition or the original version. I’m not sure what they are so I will only explain the final version of this game.
The designer has stated that if we want to play with more than 4 players, we can use two copies of this game.
The next video is a tutorial to play Oh My Goods! by Ryan from Nights Around a Table YouTube Channel about tabletop games.
Setup
First, each player takes a random CHARBURNER CARD. We can place this card on the table and return the remaining unused cards to the box.
Second, each player takes one WORKER CARD. All of the cards are duplicates, we can use either side. We can return the unused cards to the box.
Third, we set aside some ASSISTANT CARDS, depending on the number of players. We use all 8 Assistants cards for 4 player, 6 for 3, and 4 for 2 players.
Each of these cards has two sides, we choose the card and the sides randomly. Then, we place those cards on the table, in the middle, where any player can reach. Return the unused cards to the box.
Fourth, we shuffle all of the remaining cards which are the RESOURCE / BUILDING CARDS with the brown back side into a single deck. We put this deck on the table, face down, where any player can reach.
Make sure there is enough space nearby the deck for DISCARD PILE and TWO ROWS OF CARDS FOR MARKET DISPLAY.
Fifth, each player will DRAW 5 RESOURCE CARDS as the STARTING HAND from the deck.
Sixth, each player will DRAW 7 RESOURCE CARDS as their starting COIN CARDS. Then, we put these cards sideways face down on each player’s Charburner card, covering the top half part of the card. These also represents GOOD CARDS for Charburner.
Seventh, we can CHOOSE the FIRST ACTIVE PLAYER randomly. The game suggests the one recently worked the hardest.
This active player will take control of the RESOURCE CARD DECK, for drawing and revealing the market for the round. The next players will take turns in clockwise order until everybody gets their turn.
Then, the first active player moves to the next player and start the round.
That’s the setup and we can start playing.
Course of Gameplay
The game is played over several rounds. Officially, the rule states that each round consists of 4 phases. I will expand and elaborate each of the phases further.
We can see the summary of these phases from our WORKER CARD in the middle of either side. The 4 phases are as follows.
1st. New Hand of Cards Phase
2nd. Sunrise Phase
3rd. Sunset Phase
4th. Production and Building Phase
Phase 1 – 1: Discard and Draw Back (Optional)
The first part of the first phase is where every player can discard all of the cards from their hand and draw back the same number of cards. This is optional but we are not allowed to discard partially.
If we think that the cards are not useful for our building, we might want to push our luck by discarding the cards and see if we can get better cards. Later in the game, we might want to keep more of these bad cards and discard them during next round.
THERE IS NO HAND LIMIT. The more, preferably bad cards we discard, the better chance on getting more better cards.
Phase 1 – 2: Deal New Cards
For the second half of the first phase, the active player will deal 2 cards to each player from the RESOURCE DECK. This will add to the player’s hand.
If the draw deck ever runs out of cards, we can shuffle the discard pile to form a new one. In the very unlikely case where no cards from either the draw deck or discard pile because the players are hoarding the cards, the player MUST DISCARD HALF OF THE CARDS IN THEIR HAND (rounded down).
Phase 2 – 1: REVEAL THE MARKET
For the first half of this SUNRISE phase, the active player will turn over the Resources Card from the deck and place them in the middle of play area as the MARKET DISPLAY.
The player will keep doing this until they can see TWO HALF SUN ICONS from those cards. That means during this phase the Market will have at least 2 cards but up to any number depending on the draw.
For the Market Display only the resource icon at the left middle part of the card that matters. We can place the card overlapping each other, only revealing these icons.
All of the cards from the Market are accessible for all players and all of their buildings. Players will not take them. There will be no drafting and competition for getting those cards first.
After the Market has been revealed, now, it is time for all of the players to make some plans. During this phase, they can assign their Worker, choose how they work, move Assistant and choose a Building to build.
The plans will be executed during Phase 4 : Production and Building. The main consideration would be how many cards from our hand to discard or build and coins to pay in order to run those plans.
We can discard the card from our hand during phase 4 to make up the missing resources to start producing or to run the PRODUCTION CHAIN.
All of these decisions are done by all players SIMULTANEOUSLY after the market has been revealed.
Phase 2 – 2: Assign Worker
At the start of the game, player only have the Charburner building and 1 Worker. Later in the game they can have multiple buildings that we have to choose which building we will send the Worker to.
Depending on the available resources from the current Market display and the cards in our hand, we have to decide whether the Worker will work EFFICIENTLY or SLOPPILY.
Efficiently means all of the required resources must be available during Phase 4 for the building to produce 2 goods. Otherwise, it will not produce at all.
Sloppily means, we may skip 1 of the required resources during Phase 4 for the building to produce just 1 goods.
NOTE: We have to remember there will be more cards revealed during the next phase in the Market. Also, if we have built MARKET OFFICE in our tableau, we can get additional resources as depicted from the card to start producing.
The plan should be assigning the Worker to a building that we know for sure can produce during Phase 4 because all of the required resources are available.
To assign Worker means we take our WORKER CARD and place them below one of the buildings that we want it to produce. If efficiently, use the long side with 2 cards icon in the middle of the card and if sloppily we use the other long side.
Once we enter the next phase, we cannot move or change how they work again.
Note: We can only assign Worker to a building without any Assistant. Otherwise, we have to move the Assistant first, for better production result. See next about Moving Assistant.
Phase 2 – 3: Moving Assistant
Later in the game, we may also have ASSISTANTS that work similar to the WORKER. Hiring them happens during Phase 4.
During this 2nd phase, we can only move Assistant from their previously assigned buildings if we want to another building that we have with no other Assistant. Each building can only have 1 Worker or Assistant.
However, to MOVE THE ASSISTANT, we need to PAY 2 COINS. We can take any Good Cards worth a total of 2 coins from any building that we have and put them into discard pile as payment.
So, the consideration to move would be whether it will pay off between the cost to move and the production result. Assistant can still run production chain.
So, usually it is because the required starting resources is missing just one and we can still assign the sloppy worker. That way, we can still boost the result with production chain, assuming we have the Resource cards.
Phase 2 – 4: Plan to Build
The last plan that we need to make during this second phase is to choose which building to build from one of the cards in our hand. The actual building part happens during phase 4.
To do that, we take the card from our hand that we want to build and place them on the table face down. This is the building that we can build for this round.
If we have the money, we can spend the money later and have them built. Otherwise the cards will go back to our hand.
The rule doesn’t explicitly states, but we can probably build more than one each round by placing all of the cards during phase 2.
By planning those cards to be built, that means, during phase 4 later of this round, we cannot use those cards as resources to pay for Production or the Production Chain.
We don’t have to actually build during phase 4 even if we have the money. If we don’t place the card, we are not allowed to build anything this round.
Phase 3: SUNSET PHASE
After all players have done with their planning, we can proceed to phase 3 of the round, Sunset phase. This is similar to Phase 2-1: Reveal New Market.
The active player turn over cards from the draw deck again, placing them on the second row of Market Display. Just like the previous one, the active player will do that until we can see TWO HALF SUN ICONS again.
This indicates that the sun has set and the market is now closed.
Like the previous market, we can get at least 2 cards up to any number of cards depending on the draw. I think we can combine both market into just one row, as long as we can still see all of the half sun icons.
We can immediately proceed to the next phase to execute all of our plans based on all of the resources from both Sunrise and Sunset market.
Phase 4-1: Producing
During phase 4, players will take turn executing their plans from producing, do production chain before they can either build the building or hire an Assistant. Start with the active player, and once the player has done, continue with the next player until all of the player have taken their turn.
The first part of this phase is Producing. Remember: only buildings with Worker or Assistant can produce this round. Also, only if the required resources for the building are available which are indicated at the bottom left part of the card.
NOTE: Players are not taking any card from the Market. If there are available, they simply can use them without discarding to initiate the production of all of the buildings that require them.
We can make up the missing resources that are not available in the market with the Resource Card in our hand. Simply discard the cards for the missing resources to the discard pile.
For this purpose, the discarded cards only works for 1 building. We have to pay each building individually. That means, we may have to prioritize with limited number of cards in hand.
As a result for Producing, the building will get additional goods. What it means is we draw cards from draw pile and put them on the building sideways face down, just like the setup for Charburner.
We get either 2 or 1 goods card depending on how the worker work, efficiently or sloppily. Assistant will only generate 1 goods card with all of the required resources.
Phase 4-2: Production Chain
This is actually still part of the previous Producing phase. If the building is producing in this round, we can boost the result using the Production Chain. The required resources or goods for production chain is indicated at the lower right part of the producing Building card.
If it requires a resources, we need to have the resources card in our hand, the market will not provide that. We take the card and put it or put them on the producing building as Good Cards, face down, sideways.
If it requires good from another building, we simply move the good cards from the other building and put them on the producing building that requires it. That usually means the goods is now have higher value of coins each.
If it requires both, both the resources and the goods from other buildings must be available and move them to the producing building. That means, the producing building will get extra 2 goods from 1 production chain.
We can multiply the result from production chain as long as we have the required resources and goods from another building. Also, this only works if the building is producing, regardless of by the worker or assistant, whether efficiently or sloppily.
We can of course use the production chain next round but we still need to have the building producing again that round.
NOTE: There is an exception for Production Chain in FINAL ROUND. See below.
Also, we are not allowed to use the cards we choose to build during Sunrise Phase. Which is why we have to plan carefully.
Of course we might want to use all of the resource cards to boost the production chain. However, there are other things to consider.
We may also need those resource card to initiate production of another building, maybe when we have Assistant. If we are about to enter the final round, we probably need to plan the production line.
At this point calculating to find out which from possible course of actions will give the highest result. Remember that the goal is to score the highest Victory Points.
Maybe we don’t get a lot of variety of produced goods, but when we can convert the goods to coins and then become VP, there is a chance we can score higher that way. Another possible reason would be the card we can spend is a good one to build next round.
So, there are a lot of things to consider.
Note: At the end of this part, the Worker leaves the Building, allowing the newly hired Assistant to be assigned to the building.
Phase 4-3: Building or Hire Assistant
We can only choose one of them. If we want to build, we need to have chosen the card to build during the Sunrise phase. Those face down cards are the buildings we can build this round.
To build, we first have to pay using the good cards from any building. Remember that each good cards is worth an value of coins differently depending on the building they are on.
We can see the value at the middle part at the bottom of the building card. For example, each good on Charburner is worth 1 Coin.
To pay, we simply take those good cards and put them to the discard pile. NOTE: WE CAN OVERPAY BUT NO CHANGE.
Then, we simply flip the card we want to build and add them to the tableau.
If we somehow decide not to build or cannot build, we simply take back those card to our hand.
Phase 4-4: Hire and Assign Assistant
Alternatively, instead of building the chosen card we can hire an Assistant. We can only hire 1 Assistant per round at most.
Not only we have to pay the coins for them, but we also need to have buildings in the colors depicted on the Assistant Card. We keep the building, not removing them just to hire the Assistant.
Like building a building, we pay by taking good cards with the same or higher value of coins as the cost on the top left corner of the Assistant card. We discard those cards, put them on the discard pile as payment.
Once we hire an Assistant, we need to immediately ASSIGN ASSISTANT.
What that means is we need to choose which of our buildings the Assistant will work at. To do that, we take the Assistant card and place them below the chosen building.
The Assistant will stay there until we pay the cost to move them. We can only move the Assistant during Sunrise phase.
Note: Remove the Worker from the building after Producing (and production chain) part of phase 4. So that the new Assistant can be assigned to that building.
Remember that only 1 Worker or 1 Assistant can work on the same building. That means, depending on the resources, we may want to replace the Assistant with the Worker because it can generate higher result.
Which is why, we need to play carefully as where the Assistant will work. Even if they do not produce at all, the Assistant will still give us VP as indicated at the top right corner of the card.
End of Round
At the end of phase 4, after all of players have taken their turn, we prepare for the next round.
We first need to discard all of the cards in Market display to the discard pile. Then, the next player in clockwise order will be the first active player and will control of the draw pile.
The new active player can start with the NEW HAND CARDS PHASE.
Game End Trigger
The game end is triggered when any player has 8 buildings in their tableau, including their Charburner. So, this will happen during Phase 4.
When that happens, we finish the round until all of the players have taken their turn. Then, we can proceed to FINAL ROUND. See Below.
Final Round
This is like a regular round where we can assign worker, produce, then build or hire. The difference is only about the Production Chain. From my step by step here the only difference is the Phase 4-2: Production Chain.
During the Final Round, we can initiate the Production Chain of all of the buildings that we have built even though there is no Worker or Assistant and even if the buildings don’t produce at all.
That means, if the required resources or the goods are available for the Production chain, we can simply move those cards. The idea is to convert all of the goods from a lower value one to the highest value one. That way, we can get higher value of coins which is worth higher Victory Points.
See the detail of each Building Cards section above to find out the possible PRODUCTION LINES.
Remember that we can still score VP from Hire an Assistant or Build a Building action. Producing by the Assistant may or may not score higher points.
At this point, we might want to calculate again which course of actions will deliver the highest point at the end.
However, the decision must be made during the Sunrise Phase of this Final Round.
Scoring, Winning and Tie Breaker
After the end of Phase 4 of Final Round, every player will count their Victory Points from these.
1st. The Buildings, indicated at the top right corner of the card.
2nd. The Assistants, indicated at the top right corner of the card.
3rd. Buying 1 VP for every 5 Coins worth of Goods remaining on Buildings. The remaining hand of cards doesn’t count.
The rule suggests placing 1 card for each purchased VP on the Worker Card. Discard the rest of the spent cards to the discard pile. The remaining goods, not spent to purchase VP will be the tie breaker.
The player with the most VPs wins.
In case of a tie, the player with the most coins left after purchasing VP wins. That means not the number of Good Cards but the total value of coins.
That is it with how to play Oh My Goods! card game.
My Experience and Thoughts
About the strategy for this game. Well, this is a push your luck game. Some people said that we should use the discarding all of our hand as often as we can.
I’m not sure that is really the case. Based on my experience, I think we can increase the chance to get better cards by first holding on to the bad cards. Then, after we get like 5 cards or more, we can expect for some of them to get a better one.
The worst scenario, we will get those same bad cards again which I think it is very unlikely. With that in mind, we can’t really invest on every resources.
I think we can and need to diversify the required resources for our buildings. That way if the market is bad for one, we can still produce on other buildings.
Also, I thought at first that we need to build as fast as we can since we are racing against the opponents to build 8 first. However, That is not really a good strategy.
There is no point on building many buildings right away if we don’t have the worker and the resources. That is also a good way to build up our hand of cards so that we can push our luck, discard more cards and get a better chance of better cards.
At the same time, we also build up the coins in earlier rounds. Since we can build multiple buildings in a round, we really don’t have to worry.
Maybe with full player counts things would be a bit different since there will be a player who will just build and probably can win the game.
To win the game, understanding the production line from one goods to the final product is essential. However, it turns out not every route is as good as the other. Clearly, building Cattle Ranch is the best way to win.
In just 2 or maybe 3 players, it is very easy for all of the players pursuing the same strategy. So, maybe the game is better or just different with 4 players since some of the production route is limited to just 3 buildings.
I think, if we can play with 4 and all of the players have the same mind set not to just race, this will be a great game. Not sure if we can add some rules for that but the current one do nothing to make sure that will happen.
I haven’t tried with 4, so, I cannot say for sure.
Maybe we can do like Gizmos game with another rule to trigger the end game. In Gizmos, we can either build 16 total Gizmos with lower value or just 3 with higher value ones to trigger the end game.
We can try implement something similar to Oh My Goods! game. For example, maybe we still need 8 buildings but one of them must produce higher value goods.
Even though there are a lot of building types, since they are not equal, the game will tend to feel the same. Well, this is typical for any card games with just 110 or so cards.
Fleet, another engine building card game also suffer the same problem.
We really need an expansion that will offer more cards, more building types with rather equal chance on winning that we can mix and match.
The available expansions don’t necessarily address this though but they do offer something different and interesting. More about expansions below.
The use of multi use card mechanism really makes the game very interesting. That is if we do have the cards. Most of the times, after we get a very productive round, we ended up the next one with just 1 or 2 cards in hand.
So, we have to build up again. Then, the decision of how to use a good number of cards become more interesting. If we don’t really do that, stuck with just 1 or 2 card, it is possible in the entire game to always getting bad cards.
On the other hand, in terms of multipurpose cards where we have to ignore certain part of the card, sometimes it can get confusing. Sometimes I get mixed up between the card’s resources icons and the icons from either production chain at the bottom.
I feel like I want or need to close the bottom part for Market display. That is if the required goods for production chain is just resource and not produced goods. Maybe it is just me.
Another problem with this card game type that we will recycle through the deck quite often, we really need to shuffle the cards thoroughly everytime. The way the production chain works will gather all of the same cards in the discard pile.
If we don’t shuffle enough, there will be some rounds with very limited variety of resource types. I guess that is another reason to diversify.
One of the major problem of Oh My Goods! game is that there is almost no player interaction. There is no hate drafting or drafting at all from the Market Display, something that is actually makes the game different than other card game.
At most the interaction would be whether to get Assistants. I think even the Assistant is a minor thing in this game. Sure, they can help with production but at the same time it can be expensive to just moving them.
I think even some of the required building types can ruin our progress if we try to follow them. Maybe that is the intention so we have to compete for less number of assistants. But not every player will be aware of that.
Another possible interaction would be near the end of game where players have to be aware of the opponent’s progress. We have to make sure how likely we can still execute our plan before the opponents trigger the end game.
With all of that in mind, we can actually play the game solo. We don’t have to worry about the time pressure because of the racing element. In fact, I learn the game better because play the game with just 1 player. I recommend trying them out to learn the strategy of the game.
Some of the buildings that produce higher value of goods are really not meant to be producing until the final round. More like rather impossible trying to run that engine.
Clearly the latest edition rule fix the game by letting the production chain run even without worker during final round. Without that rule, some buildings are not even possible to produce at all, let alone the production chain.
In conclusion, I think Oh My Goods! is still a great card game with a lot of potential. It is not perfect but good enough for its size.
Fan Made Solo Automa Variant
As I said in previous section, Oh My Goods! card game is pretty much a multiplayer solitaire game with very minimum player interaction. With that in mind, we can actually play solo mode using the 2 player setup.
What we will do in this mode is just to build as efficient as we can and try to beat our own score. We will trigger the end game once we have built our 8th building just like the normal rule.
If we want to use the idea from the expansion, we can set a time limit of 10 rounds. Just take 10 cards from the draw deck and at the end of each round, we return one card.
Some people don’t like the idea of solo mode where we have to beat our previous score. On BGG, a fan with @peakhope as the username introduce his automa variant for solo mode.
Read more about the rules here.
Basically, we will play solo mode that I just described above but there will be a virtual player. This virtual player will collect cards each round and can trigger the end game before we do. At the end, we will compare the score and see who has the most victory points.
How the AI works
The way the AI works is, each round the number of cards revealed in Market Display during Sunrise phase will represent the number of coin for the AI. The AI can then spend those coins to build one of the most expensive building available in the Market Display of the day, both sunrise and sunsets.
The AI will then take the building card from the market and that card become the AI’s collection. These cards from the AI’s collection will also become additional coins for the AI to purchase building again during next round.
So, overtime, Alex, the AI’s name, will increase his buying power. However, the AI will also suffer his productivity if the Market Display during sunrise phase only has limited number of cards.
If the Alex cannot purchase anything, he will simply take the first card from the market and put the card face down in his collection. This will not increase his buying power but will be counted for end game trigger.
The game will end if either the player build 8 buildings first or Alex has 10 cards in his collection first. Either way, players will proceed to the final round.
Alex’s score is the total of point value from each of his face up cards and additional 1 VP for each face down cards.
Alex will not use any Worker card or Charburner card. There will be no hiring Assistant or doing production or production chain.
The author also suggests more difficult variant in that article. He also said that the AI will score about 25 to 30 VP.
Some people said that because of how the AI works, players will have to build faster. The author does state that as part of the design goal.
Expansions
This section will only discuss about the expansions specifically for Oh My Goods! card game. The designer already published two separate games that share the same story universe with different style of gameplay.
Tybor the Builder is another card game with card drafting mechanism and prequel story from Oh My Goods! Read more from my review here.
Expedition to Newdale is the board game adaptation of Oh My Goods! from the same designer. The story starts 5 years after the event from Escape to Canyon Brook or the second expansion of Oh My Goods!.
Longsdale in Revolt (2016)
This one is called a story expansion. The reason is because this expansion introduce a story driven campaign to the game. Players can now play solo or multiplayer through 7 chapters.
Each of the chapters will have some objective and if we fail to complete, we have to redo that chapter.
There will be a setup card for each chapter that tell us which new building cards, person cards and event cards to add for the given chapter. Many of these new added elements will then be carried over to the next chapters.
Here is the video from Rahdo Runs Through YouTube channel, talking about the expansion.
There are 8 SETUP CARDS, 7 for the Chapters, and 1 for All Inclusive Setup. All Inclusive means that we can ignore the chapter and just add the modules of new buildings, events and person cards to the base game.
Then there are 14 CHAPTER CARDS, 7 for multiplayer and 7 for solo mode. The actual story is just 5 chapters but depending on the choices we make for the previous chapter, we can end up to different version of the following chapter.
Each chapter card displays a story and the objective that we will have to pursue or suffer some penalty at the end of the session. For example, we may need to build and produce some specific type of goods instead of just trying to score points.
Next are 19 EVENT CARDS and 3 GAME END CARDS. This will create a separate deck which will modify some of the basic rules from the base game just for the current chapter.
Each chapter will only use like 9 or 10 of these cards and since they create a random deck, we may not know exactly which card will come and in what order. That also means we will get another setup variable that even though we play the same chapter, these temporary rules will offer different experience.
Another change is that these cards will also server as timer. The game will end once we reach the last card. Unlike the original rule where the 8th buildings will trigger the end game.
One of the new element is PERSON CARD, there are 4 of them. Person cards will be added to the Building or Resources deck. If a player draws one of them, they can discard the card and get some immediate bonus like drawing more cards.
The expansion also comes with 34 NEW BUILDING CARDS. The new type of buildings are ARMORY, CORN FARM, OVEN BUILDER, SMALL WATCHTOWER, VINEYARD and LARGE WATCHTOWER.
Oven Builder is like regular buildings that can produce goods worth 5 coins each. The production chain for this building comes from the Brick Manufacturer from the base game. So, we get a new production line we can pursue.
Corn Farm and Vineyard are two buildings that can produce without the need of any worker. There is nothing that can boost the production volume for Corn Farm but for Vineyard, we get more based on the same type of building in our tableau.
Small Watchtower introduce another a new resources of STRENGTH with a fist icon. If we build them, we get exactly a strength of 1.
Armory on the other hand, requires the player to have a strength of 1 before they can build it. For the other part, Armory works just like regular building with starting resources and production chain that produce Weapon worth 4 coins each.
Large Watchtower, introduce an enhancing the existing building. When we build this, we can slide this card under the existing one from the left side revealing only the left most column of the card.
What it does is the existing building will require 1 less resource to start the production engine, or 2 for sloppy worker.
These new type of buildings will not be added to the regular building deck if we follow the campaign. But instead it will create a separate market where any player can access them everytime. During the Building phase, player can choose to build one of these instead of the chosen card during the Sunrise phase.
The last type of cards from the expansions are 5 GOODS CARDS. There are 6 of them. The rule only states that these can replace any Good Cards on a building with 5 or more Goods on it.
That means we can trade every 5 regular Good Cards we have produced from one building into one card of these.
PDF rule for this expansion can be found on their official webpage here.
Originally, the expansion was released as bilingual copy in English and German with 110 cards. The latest version will only have one language with 60 cards and packed in a bottom lid box instead of folded box.
The next video displays the solo mode playthrough using this expansion by Tom from slickerdrips YouTube channel.
Escape to Canyon Brook (2017)
To play with this expansion, we also need the Longsdale in Revolt expansion. This continue the stories from the first expansion and start with chapter VI.
We can still play the All Inclusive mode, ignoring the story progress. The rulebook states at the very top, which cards to be carried over from the first expansion to mix with this new one.
We can find the rulebook from the official website here.
According to the rulebook, there will be 66 new cards. Unlike the previous one the rulebook for this doesn’t specify any new element added to the game that is different from the previous expansion.
There will be 26 EVENT CARDS and 2 GAME END CARDS. We will still only use a combination from several of these cards for each chapter.
Next are CHAPTER CARDS. We will get 9 for multiplayer and 9 for solo mode just like before. However, this time there is no SETUP CARDS but we can see which cards to use for each chapter from the rulebook.
For BUILDING CARDS we will get only 9 cards this time and no new element introduced to the game. I guess that means we only get variants from the regular building from the base game or the expansions. Hopefully there will be new possible production lines we can try.
For this expansion, we only get 1 PERSON CARD or Character card. Just like before, we will add this one to the Building deck or resources deck.
The big change would be the new ASSISTANT CARDS. As we can see from the picture above, these Assistants can produce 2 goods but there is still no way for sloppy productivity.
The illustrations are also different than just generic character with different color. From the rulebook, there is a change of how to play these Assistants.
With this expansion, we don’t need to assign the Assistants immediately after we hire them. The problem is, we can only assign them during the final phase.
So, that means we have to wait for a whole turn if we don’t assign them immediately. The rule also states that we should leave one building without any Worker at all so we can assign or move the Worker or Assistants.
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 #OhMyGoodsAtHomeOfMark on IG for all of the sessions.
May 2024 session and more pictures of that session on Instagram or TikTok. 2-handed session. Scored 35 vs 29. The Winner got a combo of 3 factories.
January 2024 session and more pictures of that session on IG. This was the full session report for 2-player session.
February 2023 session and more pictures of that session on IG.
November 2022 session and more pictures of that session on IG.
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Summary
Oh My Goods! is one of the engine building type card game with push your luck as the main mechanism. It is also a competitive tableau building game where players will have to manage their factories.
We start with a Charburner building and based on whether the resources are available in the market or not, we can send our 1 Worker to start producing goods. The Worker, also in card form, can work either efficiently or sloppily and choosing a wrong the work mode may result not producing at all.
If we can produce enough goods, it can be converted into coins which we can pay to build another factory or buildings or hire assistant, increasing the productivity. The other building let us produce different type of goods with higher value.
Aside from starting a production, there is an element of production chain where we can spend one of our resources cards to boost the production result. Even if the worker work sloppily, we can still boost them as long as the required resources to start the engine are available.
To win the game, understanding the production chain of the possible production line is essential. Production chain also means that the goods from one building can supply and boost the production of another.
Knowing what we can produce at the start and what it can supply, what will be the final product of the production line is the key instead of just trying to build anything.
There is a central Market but there will be no drafting by players which makes the game very unique. We don’t have to worry about other players taking the resources from that market but at the same time, there is a minimum amount of player interaction in this game.
The Market will only reveal a random number of resources with different types in two parts. Players will have to make decision how they are going to run their factories based on the first half of the market and in the hopes of what will be in the second part of the market.
We do get a hand of cards which has several functions either as resources to spend or as factory building to build. Hand management is also one of the mechanism here coupled with multi use card and the uncertainty of the market, there are a lot of things to consider when doing the action.
With a lot of things that can happen in this game, I think we do need more cards or contents of this game. The possible production lines are limited and there is a clear winner of which of them is the easiest to be build.
Without any expansions, the strategy will tend to be the same from game to game, especially for lower player count. It is typical for any card game with just 110 cards.
There have been two expansions so far but both of them don’t necessarily address this issue. However, they both offer a story based campaign and change some of the core rules which make the game even more interesting.
Oh My Goods! is not the best card game out there but for its size, it offers an interesting gameplay. What we do in this game is very simple but with a lot of considerations for each action, the game can be a deep one.
More Similar Games
There are many tabletop games out there whether a board or card game that might share some similarities with Oh My Goods! 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.
Assigning Multiuse Cards for Different Phases
One thing that makes Oh My Goods! game interesting is the Multiuse cards aspect. In player’s hand, these cards works as either the depicted resources or the Factory that the player can build and use later. When using the card for the depicted resources itself, it can go for 2 things, to initiate the factory engine or to boosts it.
With those possibilities, in every round, players have to assign these cards in their hand for at least 2 phases, the running factories part and the building new factory part. Depending on the random resources available on the market, the game may forces the player to use the card the other way. Players, of course, have to be prepared and mitigate that.
There are a lot of games with Multiuse cards. Here are some where players have to assign them at a time for various phases in a round.
The first game that I’ve played with similar idea is Adventure of D. In this one, we will be moving the pawn or character in a grid from one space to the adjacent one.
We have a hand of multiuse cards that can be used for movement, to complete the challenge or activate some abilities. The difference is that there is a random element between moving and taking action which can cost more cards. So, we need to carefully plan or we can end up doing very inefficient move.
Aerion is another one with Multiuse card. However, in this one, we don’t actually have a hand of cards. Instead there are up to 6 cards that we can try to get by having the right set of dice. However, to manipulate the dice, we can discard those cards to reroll. If we are not careful enough, we might end up discarding the card that we are trying to get.
So, while we are doing just 1 action, taking up to just 1 card, we need to plan ahead. Based on the initial dice roll and the available cards to be discarded, we need to figure out how likely we can get that required poker set from the dice.
I think The Lost Expedition can be considered as well. In this one, every round, we will get like 6 cards and we have to assign them into 2 phases to create a line of cards. Each card will have icons that becomes the action and penalties that the character must take.
The goal is to make sure that the character can go through those cards from left to right safely while getting the necessary resources. Some cards can even cancel or skip the effect of another card. Each phase will then rearrange the card differently.
Another game with this idea is Peloponnes Card Game. In this one, we need to choose some cards to pay the Auction, then we also need to choose those that depict resources to build the buildings. If we are lucky enough to get cards that show either Wheat or Population, we need to hold them for the future Supply Phase or end of the game.
The auction itself and the disaster that might happen and even loan can force us to spend more cards than we have prepared for. So, we might even need to have plan B and use the cards differently.
Fleet, the card game version is another similar one. Each round, there is a auction phase, launch a boat phase, hire captain phase where each of them has a cost. To pay the cost, players have to use Boat cards in their hand. Each boat card has its own money value, the type of boat to launch to get specific fish.
During the auction as the first phase, players have to outbid the other player by playing more cards or bidding higher. Players may choose to stop because they want to use the card for the later phase. But maybe, winning the license during auction is worth it by sacrificing the chance to do something in later phase.
Regicide also has a bit of that aspect. This is a cooperative game that can be played with the Standard deck of playing cards with 52 cards in 4 suits. Each card is character card with a value and a suit.
The value determines the character’s attack power and how powerful their ability. At the same time, the value determines the health or how much damage they can take from the enemy’s attack.
Each round, player will attack first and they might want to use certain character. However, if that attack was not strong enough to beat the enemy, the enemy will counterattack right after. At that point, maybe the attacking character was the only one that can take the damage. That means, the game may force players to use the card the other way.
For non card, multiuse components, Voyages has similar experience. Every round, we roll 3 d6 and have to assign each for 3 different uses. One for the Speed of the ship or how far the ship moves, another one for direction and the last one to complete some tracks and gain bonuses. The current position and spatial aspect will become the restriction to use one value over the other for that specific purpose.
For this aspect, also check Lux Aeterna and Pocket Master Builder from this list of more tabletop games that I haven’t written a review for.
Production Chains
The other part that makes Oh My Goods! interesting is the Production Chains. In this one, one factory can produce one type of goods and that goods can become the supply of a different factory. A single production chain can involve several factories and each player can work on multiple chains.
Working on the chain means getting specific factory to combine 2 factories, So, this is not just an engine building game where the growth can be in any direction but specific to one. If the player did well then at the end of the game, they may score a lot.
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.
We just trying to get goods or Marbles of one color more to buy those Gizmos. While Oh My Goods! has 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.
Inspired by Oh My Goods!, I think Firm with Brownies has that similarity. But in this one the chaining can be triggered in a turn or round instead of between one round to another. So, this is closer to Gizmos than Oh My Goods!.
What makes this different is that the chaining or combo between one action to trigger the next is dictated by cards on the market. In Oh My Goods! there is only a concept of supply while Firm with Brownies, both the Supply from cards in hand and Demand determined by cards in the market must be met.
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 Oh My Goods! a card game. This is a second game that I have tried from the same designer, Alexander Pfister.
I probably have missed something. 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 more player interaction.
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