Barrage: The Nile Affair Expansion
Barrage: The Nile Affair Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 3 new private contract tokens
- 24 irrigation tokens: 8 mountain, 8 hill, 8 plain
- 1 new game board
- 1 new bonus token
- 1 new goal token
- 8 new river source tokens
- 5 irrigation scoring tokens
- 1 new private building: pumping station
- 3 new third-party contract tokens
Overall Setup
Use all base game setup rules, with the following changes:
- Use the Nile board instead of the base game board.
- Use the river source tokens from this expansion instead of the base game ones.
- Shuffle the 3 new private contracts into their respective stacks.
- Add the new bonus token to the tokens from the base game and The Leeghwater Project (if you are playing with it), then randomly take 5 bonus tokens for the game. Return the rest to the box.
- Add the new goal token to the base goal tokens, then randomly take 1 of them for the game. Return the rest to the box.
In addition to base setup:
- Randomly place 4 stacks of irrigation tokens, each made of 2 tokens, face up on the irrigation spaces of each irrigation zone (mountain tokens go to the mountain zone, and so on).
- Place the 5 irrigation scoring tokens face up, in order of round number (the round number is on the back of each token), above the 5 bonus tokens.
If you are playing with The Leeghwater Project:
- Add the new private building token to the tokens from The Leeghwater Project, then randomly take 5 tokens for the game. Return the rest to the box.
- Add the new third-party contract tokens to the tokens from The Leeghwater Project. Separate the third-party contract tokens by back design, shuffle each stack separately, and remove 1 random token from each stack and return it to the box. (This way each game has a different set of third-party contracts.)
New Rules
The base game rules do not change, except as described below.
Income and River Sources Phase
Place as many water drops on the river source tokens as shown on the current round symbol, then add 2 more water drops to the river source token at the Nile's headwaters (the second river source from the left).
At the start of round 1, place 0 + 2 water drops on the second river source token.
Action Phase
New action: irrigation
The board shows 6 action spaces (2 for each irrigation zone). They allow you to perform the irrigation action. Follow these steps:
- Place 1 engineer on an available irrigation action space of the zone you want to irrigate. If you place your engineer on a space with a red border, you must pay an extra 3 credits.
- Remove 1 water drop held by your dam. This dam must be on a body of water connected to the chosen irrigation zone. Return the removed water drop to the general supply. You cannot perform this action if you have no dam with at least 1 water drop on a body of water connected to the chosen irrigation zone (you cannot use a neutral dam).
- Choose and take 1 visible irrigation token from the irrigation zone you irrigated, and place it face up in your personal supply. (If no available irrigation tokens remain in the zone, you cannot perform this action.)
New special action: activating an irrigation token
In addition to your main action, once per turn you may perform a special action by activating one of the irrigation tokens you have collected. You may do this before or after your main action, but not during it. Apply the effect of the activated irrigation token, then turn it face down. A face-down irrigation token cannot be activated again. You may activate only 1 irrigation token per turn.
Irrigation tokens have effects of eight types:
| Effect | Plain token | Hill token | Mountain token |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excavators and concrete mixers | Gain 2 excavators | Gain 1 excavator and 1 concrete mixer | Gain 2 concrete mixers |
| Credits | Gain 3 credits | Gain 4 credits | Gain 5 credits |
| Water drops | Place 2 water drops on 1 or more river source tokens. The drops move immediately | Place 2 water drops on 1 or more river source tokens. The drops move immediately | Place 3 water drops on 1 or more river source tokens. The drops move immediately |
| Build wheel | Turn the build wheel 1 sector | Turn the build wheel 2 sectors | Turn the build wheel 2 sectors |
| Contract | Complete 1 contract in your personal supply that is face up and requires 4 or fewer energy units. You do not need to produce the energy to do this | Complete 1 contract in your personal supply that is face up and requires 6 or fewer energy units. You do not need to produce the energy to do this |
About the Nile board
The Nile board has two innovations: the Nile river and irrigation zones.
- The Nile has a special source that gives more water than an ordinary river. Bodies of water on the Nile therefore receive more water. However, the pipeline capacity on these bodies of water is lower than on neighbouring ones.
- Irrigation zones are 3 special places between 2 bodies of water (1 in each horizontal zone). Each irrigation zone consists of 4 irrigation spaces and is connected to the body of water on its left and the body of water on its right. You may place engineers in the action spaces of irrigation zones on the board, removing water from the adjacent body of water with your dam and taking one of the available irrigation tokens. These tokens give irrigation points and special one-time actions that can be combined with main actions during a turn.
Scoring Phase
After scoring victory points (VP) under the base rules, players gain VP for irrigation.
First, each player totals the irrigation points on the irrigation tokens they have collected (whether they activated them or not) and on the irrigation scoring tokens they have received earlier.
- 1st place (highest irrigation total): gains 3 VP plus the sum of all VP visible at that moment in the 3 irrigation zones. This player also takes the current round's irrigation scoring token and turns it over. If there is a tie for first place, all tied players gain the 2nd-place VP instead, and the current round's irrigation scoring token is discarded. (This does not cancel the normal 2nd-place award.)
- 2nd place: gains half (rounded down) of the sum of all VP visible at that moment in the 3 irrigation zones.
- Last place (lowest irrigation total): loses 2 VP. If there is a tie for last place, all tied players lose 2 VP.
If all players have the same irrigation total, nobody gains or loses VP, and the current round's irrigation scoring token is discarded.
An irrigation scoring token you have received gives a penalty to your irrigation total in later rounds: the tokens for rounds 1 and 2 give a penalty of −1, and the tokens for rounds 3 and 4 give a penalty of −2.
Example, end of round 1. Alexei has 2 irrigation tokens with a total of 3 irrigation points. Daria has 1 irrigation token with 2 points. Evgenii has 1 irrigation token with 1 point. Svetlana has no irrigation tokens. There are no empty irrigation spaces on the board, so there are no visible VP. Alexei gains 3 VP, Evgenii and Daria gain none, and Svetlana loses 2 VP. Alexei then takes the irrigation scoring token and turns it over: from now on he has a −1 penalty to his irrigation total.
Example, end of round 2. Irrigation totals: Alexei 2 (3 from his tokens, −1 from his irrigation scoring token), Evgenii 3, Svetlana 3, Daria 4. There are 2 empty irrigation spaces on the board, showing 2 VP in total. Daria gains 5 VP (3 + 2). Evgenii and Svetlana each gain 1 VP (half of the visible VP). Alexei loses 2 VP.
New Tokens
New Private Contracts
There are three new private contracts, one of each type:
- Take an irrigation token from the plains (without using an engineer and without removing a water drop), or gain 3 VP.
- Take an irrigation token from the plains or hills (without using an engineer and without removing a water drop), or gain 5 VP.
- Take any irrigation token from the board (without using an engineer and without removing a water drop), or gain 7 VP.
New Third-Party Contracts
There are three new third-party contracts, one of each type:
- Place 2 water drops on 1 or more river sources. The drops move immediately. Gain a permanent "+2" bonus in all irrigation scoring.
- Turn face up up to 2 used irrigation tokens, and move the energy marker 4 steps along the energy track.
- Gain 3 VP immediately, plus the sum of all VP visible at that moment in the 3 irrigation zones.
New Private Building: Pumping Station
Activating this building lets you perform an irrigation action from any of your dams (as with a normal action; you do not need to place an engineer on an action space on the board). If you have enough water drops held by the chosen dam, you may also perform a second irrigation action from the same dam: remove a second water drop and take one more irrigation token.
New Goal Token
All foundations and embankments that you have built on bodies of water connected to irrigation zones.
New Bonus Token
Gain 2 VP for each of your irrigation tokens.