Into the Machine

• Designer: Kasper Lapp
• Publisher: AEG
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 14+
• Time: 45-60 mins
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Do robots dream of electric sheep after a long day of manufacturing widgets and thingamabobs? Or do they sleep at all? Maybe they break off into teams and hop into the machine to blow off a little steam with a race for anodic glory and a chance at upgrading themselves into more skilled bots.  Into the Machine is a highly tactical race in which circle-bots race to one end of the machine to tag in their hex-bot teammates who race in reverse on the same track to win. A pit crew of bots outside the machine are sent to work the terminals, moving and manipulating their teammates in the machine.

To set up the game, place the Terminal board on the table and randomize the Circle, Triangle and Square terminal tiles onto the appropriate spaces.  Each player gets a box of bots and takes out 5 Circlebots, 2 Trianglebots and one Squarebot. Players also get a starting hand of Power cards. 

Stack the Machine boards above the Terminal board so you can see the appropriate player count board. The players place a circle bot on the space matching their starting order.   The Machine is where the race happens.  Circlebots start out and go to the right. When they reach the right end of the track, they can be upgraded to a Hexbot which goes from right to left. When a hexbot reaches the left end of the track, it is moved onto the podium.  Each space on the Machine track has an upgrade possibility above it.

The starting player is given the Ding-Ding tile. On a turn, the active player must take a Terminal Action (tile, junction or take home).  You may also play one Power card from your hand at any point in your turn.  Whenever you are finished, pass the Ding Ding token to the next player.

Terminal Tile actions are of 3 levels: Circle, Triangle and Square. The types of bots which can perform the actions are noted at the bottom of the tile. When you take an action, you must place a stack of bots on the space so that it is at least one bot taller than the current highest stack AND every bot in your stack is eligible to do the action.  While Squarebots are the most powerful bot as they can do every action tile, the weak Circlebots are useful as they are both numerous as well as the only type of bot which can be placed in the Machine as a racer. Examples of the actions are:

• Add bots to your supply
• Place a circlebot into the Machine
• Move bots in the Machine
• Upgrade a bot in the Machine
• Draw Power cards

Terminal Junction actions are special actions found in between tiles, and when activated, allow you to do both of the actions that they point to. Note that these Junctions must be unlocked before they can be activated; to do this a player must have bots in their color on both tiles adjacent to the junction.  You can do the two actions in either order, but you must fully complete the first action before starting the second. . 

Terminal Take Home actions can always be done; you remove all of your bots from the board AND you add a circlebot to your supply from your inactive box. 

Again, you can play one Power card per turn – they are of 5 types:

• Move 1 bot 2 spaces
• Move 2 bots 1 space each
• Hop a bot 3 spaces
• Add a bot to the Machine or upgrade a circlebox
• Have a bot catch up or you can ignore stacks this turn.

Continue playing until one of the two endgame conditions is met – either one player has 2 hexbots on the Podium and no other player has any there OR one player has 3 hexbots on the Podium.  

My thoughts on the game

Into the Machine is a super interesting engine building game hiding inside a race game.  The overall objective is to win the race – either get the first two racers home overall or be the first to get 3 racers home.

This split win condition instantly poses the first big decision for the gamer – do you try to rush the endgame and get two hexbots home quickly OR do you build up your bot crew with multiple upgrades, adding more advanced bots to your stable? While I think it’s theoretically possible to race two people home quickly; you’d have to be extremely lucky.  Without increasing the number of triangle and square bots at your disposal, you’ll not really have a lot of access to the more complex actions and you’ll get almost zero opportunity to double up with the junction actions.

The actions are well distributed amongst the three tiers, and the random arrangement of the tiles ensures that each game will play out moderately different – in the sense that particular combinations of actions will change positions.  Learning where you’d like to play your bots is paramount in the game; for both the base actions and then when you’re able to double up and take a junction action using both adjacent actions again.  Junction turns are often pivotal near the end of a cycle because they cannot be blocked AND they only ever take a single bot to perform.

I have mentioned that the game has a bit of engine building to it, but that’s possibly a misnomer.  For the most part, what you are building are the number of bots you have at your disposal.  The actions they can take depend on where you play them, and timing will determine just how many of those bots are necessary to take a particular action.  You’ll always slowly be increasing your stable as you get a new circlebot each time you reset your bots; but you’ll need squares to take the most powerful actions – and trust me, it’s not an easy decision to take a circle off the racetrack when it is nearly to the Hex conversion box at the end of the track!

The power cards are the weakest upgrade on the track, but they certainly have their time and place.  Though you don’t get to choose which type of card you get, there are only four varieties and each has a powerful action on it; often made more powerful because you can coordinate it with your board action for best effect.   If you have plenty of circlebots as racers, converting some of them into power cards can be a strong move.

Of course, while you’re working out which actions to take when – don’t lose track of the ultimate goal – that is the race at the top of the board!  Timing is key here given the movement rules.  In general, racing bots get the benefit of the doubt and they always slide in the good direction to the next open space.  Newly entering bots are the opposite, going backwards to find an empty space.  That being said, there are plenty of opportunities for you to take advantage of congestion on the racetrack to make some large movements for minimal cost.  

If there are advantageous moves to be had, this might make you rethink your strategy.  Defensively, you may also want to consider taking an upgrade to remove one of your bots from the track to prevent other people from being able to leapfrog over you so easily.  Again, everything about the game is tactical, and you’ll be constantly weighing out your different options to figure out which is the best move at the moment that your turn comes up.

Into the Machine was high on my list of games to try at Gen Con 2026, and it has lived up to its pre-show billing.  The combination of smart tactical play with a little bit of engine building is a compelling combo, and one that I will be exploring a lot this year.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!  Dale Y
• I like it.
• Neutral.
• Not for me…