Barrage (2019)

How to play Barrage

Setup the Game

Put the map in the middle of the playing area. Place the energy track and management board beside the map. Making the supply by placing the mixers and excavators beside the map. Separate the credits into different piles based on their values and organize them into the supply.

Put the water drops into the general supply. Shuffle all of the Headstream tiles well and put four of them into their assigned place on the Map. Five random Bonus tiles are placed in their assigned places on the Energy Track. Place a random Objective tile in the assigned spot on the Energy Track as well. Contract tiles will be randomly drawn, and there should be one less tile than there are players. These are placed on the Management board.

The final tile to place is the Neutral Dam tiles, which are divided by type. One is drawn from each of the types and placed in the building spaces assigned to them.

Players are assigned their Company and Executive Officer based on the player order. After they have been assigned, they will collect all of their components in the color that is associated with their company.

The first player is assigned the USA board, which is red, and Wilhelm Adler. The second player is assigned Germany, which is black, and Jill McDowell. The next player is assigned Italy, which is green, and Solomon P. Jordan. Finally, the fourth player is assigned France, which is white, and Viktor Fiesler.

Each player will collect 6 Credits, 6 Excavators, 4 Concrete Mixers, and a Contract tile. Energy markers are placed at the starting space on the Energy Track. VP markers are then placed in the number 10 space on the scoring track. The game is ready to begin.

Gameplay

The game is played over the course of five rounds, each consisting of five phases. The phases are to be played in order.

Phase 1

All players will complete this phase simultaneously. Players collect the income found on their Company boards. To activate income, players will build structures. As the players continue to add pieces to their structures, they will earn more income.

Two water drops are placed on the Headstream tile during the first round.

Phase 2

Players will play sequentially during this phase. Players have to place Engineers on a free action space if they want to perform their action. Each action requires up to three Engineers, depending on the action. The player will take the Engineers from their supply to complete the action, and if they do not have enough, then the action cannot be completed.

Once a player has completed an action, their turn comes to an end. Players must pass if they do not have any Engineers in their supply. Once all players have passed, this phase comes to an end.

Phase 3

When the action phase has ended, the water flow begins. The water drops on the headstream tiles flow down, according to normal rules. They slowly fill the dams that they flow into. The dam is full once the total of the water drops equals the dam’s maximum capacity.

The rest of the water drops will then flow past it, filling the next one. After all of the drops have been placed or lost when reaching the lower basin, this phase ends.

Phase 4

During the scoring phase, points are tallied. The player that is on the first spot of the energy track earns six Victory Points, and the second player earns two Victory Points. Players will then collect credits depending on their space on the energy track.

Players score a bonus tile if their marker is in the current round or farther. If it is in a previous section, they score four points less than the bonus tile. The left bonus tile is then removed, and when the last one is removed, the game comes to an end.

Phase 5

The player with the least energy becomes the first player for the next round. All of the new Advanced Technology tiles are placed face up in their assigned spaces. This phase is not completed during round 5.

How to win Barrage

The game comes to an end after 5 rounds of gameplay. Players will tally their Victory Points won from their Objective tiles and leftover resources that they have available. The player who has the most Victory Points, wins the game!

Barrage Review

“Barrage is a game that has generated much displeasure due to a poorly-run Kickstarter. But once played, those disgruntled opinions of Barrage should fade away. With gameplay that is tight and thinky, Barrage also offers variability due to variable player powers and different set-up each game. While there are flaws (particularly from a component standpoint), they aren’t enough to take away from the fact that Barrage is an incredible design. Huge thumbs up for me and, as of now, my favorite release from 2019.”

Dylan St. Clair, boardgamequest.com

“Barrage is usually referred to as a ‘heavy euro’ and although I’d certainly agree with that statement, it’s not ‘heavy’ in the sense that it’s difficult to play, quite the opposite actually: despite what looks like a hugely intimidating footprint –with a multitude of bits and bobs and a lot of set-up time (at least 10-15 minutes)– the game itself is easy to explain and to play once the main principles are covered. The various Action spaces for your engineers are largely self-explanatory, and the iconography is quite easy to grasp once you start revealing additional ‘unique’ bonuses on your player board, and have seen or completed a few contract and scoring tiles…”

mangozoid, mangosgaming.uk

The content of this article is originally from Board Game Geek and gamerules.com. For more information and a better understanding of the game, you can watch the videos below.