Summary
đĽ a game for 1 to 4 players
âł Play time is 90 – 150 minutes
đ˘ Publisher is Alley Cat Games
Introduction
Have you ever wanted to be a managing director within the German Bundesautobahn organization?
Well, now you can, and you will be responsible for developing the federal highway network over several eras, spanning from 1946 until the present day.
As you contribute to the development of the highways, you will gain seats on various construction offices of the Bundesautobahn, and as the game proceeds, some of your employees will be promoted through different departments of the administration.
Besides building roads, you will also facilitate the transportation of goods from Germany to neighboring countries and the construction of service stations, which can increase your spending budget and provide more opportunities for promotions.
Letâs get to work and build the Autobahn!
Setting up the game
Place the main board in the middle of the table in the play area, with the Administration and Construction Office boards to the side.
Place all the Road sections, Goods tokens, Delivery tokens, City tokens, and Deutschmark (DM) coins beside the game board in a common supply.
Shuffle the Bonus tiles facedown, and place them according to the player count.
Take 6 road sections from the supply and place them with the side showing a single carriageway face up. Place one on each of the 6 individual road sections along the central black road between the following cities: Hamburg, Hannover, Bad Hersfeld, WĂźrzburg, and Crailsheim.
Take 36 road sections from the supply and split them into groups of 10, 12, and 14 road sections to fill the three eras marked spaces on the Dashboard.
Take 5 city tokens of value 2 and place one on each of the 5 cities along the central black road: Hamburg, Hannover, Bad Hersfeld, WĂźrzburg, and Crailsheim.
Place the 5 roadblocks in the positions shown, over the road sections directly to the east of Hamburg, Hannover, and Bad Hersfeld, and directly to the north and east of NĂźrnberg.
Shuffle the 7 Route cards and reveal a number equal to the number of players plus 1.
Shuffle the 20 Improved cards and place the deck face down beside the game board. Then reveal 5 cards beside the deck to form a display.
Shuffle the 14 Advanced cards and place the deck face down beside the game board. At the start of the game, these cards are not in play.
Give each player a player board and a complete set of components related to the color that the player has chosen.
Place your four Action tiles along the top of your player board in the corresponding spaces, with the side with two cones facing up.
Shuffle the six Delivery boards and deal one to each player. Place your Delivery board adjacent to your player board.
Take your yellow Basic action card and set it aside. The yellow cards will be used in the third era of the game. The remaining six Basic action cards are your starting hand.
Keep your 25 employees in a supply beside your player board.
Place your 9 unlock tokens, 8 service stations, and 2 trucks on the matching spaces of your player board.
Place your development token on the first space of the development track. Make a stack of all the playersâ tokens; the order of the tokens in the stack doesnât matter.
Take DM coins to the value of DM 48 and split it equally among the players.
Randomly choose a starting player. The starting player places 1 Employee, taken from their supply, in the first (leftmost) seat in the black Construction Office. Then, going clockwise, each other player places 1 Employee in a seat in the black Construction Office, from left to right.
Finally, starting with the player to the right of the starting player and going anticlockwise, each player chooses one of the face-up Route cards and places it next to their Player board.
Now everybody is set to hit the road⌠No, build the Autobahn!
Let’s get in on the table
The game is played over three eras, each representing a few decades of development of the autobahn network:
First era: 1946â65
Second era: 1966â90. After the second era, German reunification occurs in 1990, allowing the road network to expand into the former East Germany, opening up new opportunities as the roadblocks are removed.
Third era: 1991â2020/Present day.
In each era, the main goal is to expand the Autobahn. Each autobahn is a road of one color that connects a number of German cities together and may also connect to cities in neighboring countries. Each length of road that connects two cities is called a link, and each link is made up of 1 or 2 road sections.
Each player will have 3 phases during their turn to achieve this:
Fase 1; Claim Delivery Bonus
If you have any, you may claim exactly one unclaimed delivery bonus.
Fase 2; Take one of the following Actions;
A) Play a card
Choose 1 card from your hand and play it face up above one of the 5 action spaces along the top edge of your Player board, then take the corresponding action. The color of the card you play will determine where on the board you can take your action. Each action space has a limit on the number of cards you may play in that space. More about the card options will be explained later.
B) Refresh your hand
Instead of playing a card, you can pick up all the face-up cards you have already played above your Player board and return them to your hand. This will earn you DM 1 for each card you pick up.
C) Claim funding
Instead of playing a card, and if you have not already done so during this era, you may place an Employee on the Dashboard in the funding space of the current era.
Fase 3; Move Truck
If you played a card this turn and your Truck is on a depot or road section, you can move your Truck.
Everybody starts with one Truck, but players are able to unlock a second Truck, and then you may move both Trucks.
Each truck movement refers to one road section.
Depending on the era, Trucks can move a distance of road tracks, as shown on the Dashboard.
The Truck cannot end its movement on a road section that contains another Truck.
Because each player has a unique delivery board, which specifies each countryâs desired type of goods and the corresponding reward, when a truck is loaded and delivers these to the correct country, the player earns a delivery token that can be placed on their delivery board. As explained earlier, during phase one, players can use this delivery token to unlock a bonus action. If a player delivers goods that are not needed by a country, then they will earn DM.
Getting back to when a card is played, the following actions are possible:
– Unlock Technology
Take the Unlock token from the space on your Player board that matches the color of the card you played, and place it on the lowest empty lock space in any one of the three technology columns on your Player board.
– Build Road Section
Build 1 new road section. Each time a road section is built, this player will place an employee in the leftmost empty seat in the Construction Office that matches the color of the card played. Each time an employee is placed in a seat of a color and this row is full, the first employee will be promoted and will be able to be part of the end scoring.
– Upgrade Link
Upgrade 1 completed single-carriageway link. When a Truck starts on a double-carriageway, they have an extra step.
– Load Truck
Place your Truck in any depot on the autobahn that matches the color of the card you played.
– Build Service Station
Take the leftmost Service Station from your Player board and place it on an empty Service Station space on the autobahn matching the color of the card you played.
Each era has a specific number of road sections; when they are all built, the end of the era triggers the Administration phase. During this phase, all players end their turn, and the following will take place:
⢠Construction budget: Players receive DM related to the employees in the Construction Office and the road color.
⢠Promotion: The player who built the road section that triggered the end of the era performs 1 promotion.
⢠Route card: All players picked a route card at the beginning of the game. These cards can now earn DM if this route is built. Based on the values of the cities in this route and upgrades, the correct amount of DM will be determined for each player.
When all players are done, the new era will start, or when itâs the last era, end scoring will begin.
The Game Ends
After the administration phase of the third era, the end scoring begins. All players calculate their scores and earn points solely for the position of their Employees in the Administration. And yes, you will probably already have a feeling that the player with the most points will be the winner? Thatâs correct đ¤Ş.
Conclusie & eindscore
Difficulty: 3.80/ 5
Re-playability:
Our score: 8 out of 10 dice
To start with the biggest piece of advice, buy the insert from Folded Space for Autobahn. This is really what will increase the playability and enjoyment when setting up the game. Otherwise, you will be spending too much time on it. This time is really needed to find your way through the rulebook. What a struggle that was! At some point, I had the idea that it was designed to confuse you and make you play with your own rules.
But after reading it a few times, you will recognize where the missing information is placed, and itâs slowly becoming clearer.
That being said, what a cool game! đ A lot is going on, but it has some nice game mechanics. The card drafting and upgrades make this game a real beauty. The eras are nicely set and balanced, so each player has an equal opportunity to be the best autobahn builder.
The review copy we received has a very nice quality of components and board parts. Although the player board could have been even better if it were double-layered, with all the pump stations on it and cards that could have been placed underneath it.
Still a very nice and smooth game. Meaning, when itâs on the table, it plays easily and also quickly. This is really something that I did not expect, but after a few plays, we both really like the game, and it can be a contender for our next list of 9.5: The Meeple Gamer list. đ
We want to thank Alley Cat Games for this review copy and the opportunity to write about this game.
