Aquadukt: A Game Where Water Matters
The game board is rather basic, it includes 20 regions with each region having anywhere from 4 to 6 spaces in it. To supply water to your houses you place a spring at an intersection and use canal pieces to supply water to your homes once you place them in a region. On your turn you have the option to do quite a few actions. You have to decide if you want to “build” houses, build a canal, or start a new spring.
When building houses, you will place up to three of your 28 pieces you have with houses on them. Each piece has between one and four houses on it. Once you decide the piece you wish to play, where you play it is not completely up to you. You must roll the 20 sided die. It will tell you what region to place your house tile in. If you choose not to place your tile then your turn ends. If you decide to place your house tile, you can repeat the process up to three times total. Your turn ends though if you decide not to place your house tile. Also, if you place a house tile and it fills up a region, any houses without water in that region are removed from the game and discarded. This is one reason you may choose not to place a tile.
If you choose to place a canal piece you have the option to place up to two of them on your turn. Any house you place a blue canal piece next to is now “supplied” with water. Canals can not cross previously created canals, not can they split at intersections. Another thing to keep in mind when choosing to play canal pieces is that there are thirty six of them in play total, and when the last one is played the game ends. Canal pieces may attach to another canal piece but the line of canal pieces must start at a spring. There are five springs in the game. Your final option out of your three choices on your turn is to play a spring. The only restriction on springs is they can not be within 5 intersections of another spring, and there are only five springs in the game.
When the final canal piece is played as mentioned above the game ends. All houses that are not supplied with water are removed from the playing board. At that point you add up the number of houses each player has, the winner is the one with most houses left that are supplied with water. If there is a tie, the person with the most tiles remaining on the board supplied by water wins.
As you can probably pick up on from the explanation above, the game rules are rather simple and easy to learn. The real strategy in the game is based on the choice of what action you take each turn and where canal pieces and springs are placed. Of course with the placement of the tiles with houses on them being dependent on the roll of a 20 sided die, there is some luck involved in this game as well. For serious gamers that might be enough to turn them away from this game, but I think it adds just enough variability in the game to make it interesting. At $15-20 this is a game that is worth the purchase, and can be a fun two player game as well. This game should have a strong appeal to people that enjoy doing puzzles.
