Aquädukt
Aquädukt Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- Game board (countryside with 20 areas, each consisting of 4, 5 or 6 spaces)
- 112 house tiles (in each of the 4 colours: 8 x 1 house, 8 x 2 houses, 8 x 3 houses, 4 x 4 houses)
- 1 die (20-sided)
- 5 springs
- 36 canals
- 8 hills (the back only has any meaning in the variant)
Preparation
Each player is given the following number of house tiles of one colour:
| No. of players | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-house tiles | 8 | 7 | 6 |
| Two-house tiles | 8 | 7 | 6 |
| Three-house tiles | 8 | 7 | 6 |
| Four-house tiles | 4 | 4 | 4 |
In order to keep track of your tiles more easily, sort them according to their value (number of houses) and place them in front of yourself in 4 face-up stacks.
Hills are placed on any free spaces of the board, the number depending on the number of players. With 2 players 8 hills, with 3 players 6 hills, with 4 players 4 hills.
Springs and canals are placed ready for use.
Aim
The winner is the player who, at the end of the game, has built the most houses supplied with water.
Playing
The start player is decided by the highest die roll and then goes clockwise. On your turn you choose one of the following options:
- Build houses (=roll the die and place a house tile up to three times)
- Open up a spring (= place a spring on a cross-point of the board) or
- Build canals (= place up to two canals on available springs or canals)
Build houses (Die roll)
The player may roll the die and place one of his house tiles on a free space up to three times. The number rolled corresponds to the areas 1 to 20. The player may place any one of his tiles (with 1 to 4 houses) from his supply on a free space of this area (if there are no longer any free spaces, the player repeats this die-roll).
Spaces with hills cannot be built on.
If after one of the three die rolls, you decide that you do not want to place a tile, your turn ends immediately.
Usually you can choose freely which of your tiles you place. However there is one exception:
A free space that is already supplied with water (see 'Water Supply') may only have a tile built on it of the lowest value that the player still has in his supply.
Example: If a player still has a one-house tile then he may only place a one-house tile on such a space. If he has already used all his one-house tiles but still has a two-house tile then he is only allowed to place a two-house tile, etc.
Open up a spring
In order to supply their houses with water, the players must open up springs. From the springs, water flows to the houses along canals.
You place one spring on a free cross-point between the spaces (also within areas and on the edge of the board). Springs must be at least 5 cross-points away from each other.
Build canals
If at least one spring has been opened up, then the canal building can be started. Canals are placed between the spaces and they carry water to the houses. Only houses supplied with water count towards the victory at the end of the game!
You can place one or two individual canals on the board (also within areas and on the edge of the board).
Canals must always be connected to exactly one spring.
The two canals placed in a turn can also be placed on different springs and canals.
Canals are allowed to change direction but may not branch off.
Canals may only leave each spring in two directions at the most.
Double canals
A single canal can be developed into a double canal by adding an additional canal to it. The second one is placed next to the first.
Canals cannot take more water than the canal preceding it.
[Translator's comment: i.e. you cannot make a canal double unless all segments between it and the spring are already double].
Note: Springs and canals do not belong to any player and can be used by all the players during the game.
Water supply
A single canal supplies water to one space on either side. A double canal supplies water to two spaces on either side.
Full area!
If all the spaces of an area have been built on with house tiles, then all house tiles that are not supplied with water in this area are immediately removed and taken out of the game. They do not count at the end of the game. The spaces that have become free can again be built on. House tiles supplied with water remain in place until the end of the game and then give victory points to their owner.
Example: The three-house tile with the red houses will be taken out of the game as it is not supplied with water. The two-house tile with the white houses stays in place as it is supplied with water from the double canal on the upper edge of the picture. The other two tiles will also remain in place as they are both supplied with water.
End of the Game and Scoring
As soon as all the canals have been placed, the current round is played to the end so that all the players have the same number of turns. The scoring is then done:
All house tiles that are not supplied with water will be taken off the board. Each player adds together the number of houses on their tiles that are supplied with water.
Whoever has the most supplied houses, wins!
If two or more players have the same number of supplied houses, the winner is the one amongst them who has the most supplied tiles.
Variant
If you like the outcome of a game to be uncertain to the end, you can use the backs of the hills. Of the 8 hills that can be in the game, 6 indicate a positive event and 2 indicate a negative. An event will have an effect on up to 4 tiles, those which are horizontally and vertically adjacent to it.
The rules of the game remain unchanged with this addition:
The hills are shuffled face-down before the start of the game and in placing them there must be a gap of at least 2 spaces between each of them. They remain lying face down until the end of the game and are then turned over. They count as follows in the final scoring:
Mineral water spring (6 available)
The 4 surrounding tiles each have 2 points added to their value if they are supplied with water from at least 2 canals. If they are supplied with water from only one canal then they are only worth their [normal] house value.
Foul water (2 available)
The 4 surrounding tiles count their house value if they are supplied with water from at least 2 canals. If they are supplied with water from only one canal they are worthless.
Note: 'supplied with water from 2 canals' means:
- having a directly adjacent double canal or
- having two adjacent single canals or
- having an adjacent single canal and a double canal one space away or
- having two double canals which are both 1 space away.
What are Aqueducts?
In the ancient world water was brought to houses and towns from a spring via channels with the help of the natural gradient. The water flowed through these channels, the aqueducts, in open or closed conduits and often over three-storey arcades.
Normally the aqueducts had on average a fall of only 25cm per kilometre. The smallest drop of all the known aqueducts in the world is on the 'Pont-du-Gard' in France with only 7cm in 1000m! Due to the problematic terrain there, it was not possible to direct the canal in a straight line and numerous diversions had to be built because of the hills. Over a distance of only 25km as the crow flies, the canal is therefore nearly 50km long!
Roman aqueducts were made of wood, lead or leather and the main canals were usually of stone. The Romans also already used a kind of concrete from which the pipes were partly cast – a technique that thereafter remained forgotten for over 1000 years.
Translated from the German by Steve McKeogh.