Tabletop games
Barrage
Intrafin GamesTommaso Battista, Simone Luciani2019
- players
- 1–4
- minutes
- 120
- years
- 14+
In the box
1 Alps board · Individual Company boards · Construction wheels · Plastic pieces: bases, elevations, conduits, powerhouses · Water drops · Contract and Technology tiles · Excavators, concrete mixers and credits
Box details
- Designers
- Tommaso Battista, Simone Luciani
- Artwork
- Mauro Alocci, Antonio De Luca
- Publisher
- Intrafin Games
- Mechanics
- Worker PlacementNetwork BuildingIncomeOnce-Per-Game AbilitiesObjectivesSolo Play
- Expansions
- Barrage: The Leeghwater Project · 2019
- Barrage: The Nile Affair · 2022
Where to buy it
Near you and online
In a shop
Within 50 km.
Online
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The basics
Each player runs a company developing the Alpine valleys to store water and produce energy. On your turn, place one or more engineers on an action space: build a dam, conduit or powerhouse with your construction wheel, produce energy by releasing water from a dam, take machinery or contracts… After five rounds and the final scoring, the highest victory point total wins.
The rules, step by step
Setup
1 company each, 1 Executive Officer, Construction wheel
- Each player takes a company, its engineers, its building pieces and a personal board with its construction wheel.
- Each player also receives an Executive Officer, whose power is specific to the game.
- The main board shows the valleys, from the glacier upstream down to the plain downstream.
- The round scoring tiles and the available contracts are placed in their spaces.
How to play
5 rounds, Place engineers, Produce energy
- The game lasts five rounds. Each round begins with income and water arriving from the headstreams upstream.
- On your turn, place one or more engineers on an action space: build, produce energy, take machinery, obtain contracts, file a patent…
- To build, place the structure's tile and the required machinery (excavators, concrete mixers) on your construction wheel; the wheel turns with each construction and returns the machinery once it comes back round to the start.
- Water flows downhill: it collects behind dams, otherwise it carries on downstream.
- Producing energy: release water from one of your dams into a conduit connected to a powerhouse. The more water and the bigger the conduit, the more you produce.
- The energy produced moves you along the energy track and lets you fulfil contracts, which give rewards.
Scoring
Points during play, Energy ranking, Round objective
- Victory points are scored during the game on the score track: contracts, structures built, various rewards.
- At the end of each round, the energy produced during the round is compared: the best-placed companies score points, and the round's objective rewards those who meet it.
- A final scoring adds a few end-of-game points, according to the rules.
End of the game
After the 5th round, Final scoring, Highest total
- The game ends after the fifth round and the final scoring.
- The highest victory point total wins.
Going further
Frequently asked questions · In the same family
Frequently asked questions
Can you use water from an opponent's dam?
Water follows the slope: water leaving a structure can fill a dam lower down, even if it belongs to another player. However, you only produce energy with water from your own dams.
Why doesn't my machinery come back straight away?
It stays on the construction wheel until a full turn of the wheel brings it back: so you need to plan your constructions.