Entry #16 - Les Miserables: Barricades of Freedom

Overview

• One to four players
• Players cooperate to build barricades, defend against the army, and inspire an uprising across Paris.
• Players win by reaching 10 uprising points. Points are gained by “raising the flag” (placing a player piece) on top of a barricade (wall of wooden cubes). Higher barricades gain more points.
• Players lose if any street no longer has a complete barricade in it.

Components

• Board
• Map of three streets meeting in a Y-intersection. Evenly spaced along each street are three “chokepoints” (the width of 5 wooden cubes) where barricades can be built.
• Along each side of each street are two shopfronts (behind the outer and middle chokepoints).
• Uprising point track
• 60 wooden cubes.
• 50 Item cards
• 40 loot cards
  Used to claim cubes for barricades. Each card has a diagram specifying how cubes can be placed (eg. “Chair” 3 cubes in an L-shape, “Beam” a line of 3, “Table” a square of 4).
• 10 cobblestone cards
  Used to EITHER place 2-4 cubes in anywhere on a barricade, OR take a fight action.
• 4 player pieces
• 4 player ability cards (eg. take extra build action; take extra move action etc.)
• 15 army pieces (1 cannon and 4 unique soldiers per street)
• 18 army action cards
  Each card specifies which piece will take what action. Soldiers either wound a player in line of site, move up to a barricade, or remove a cube from an adjacent barricade. Cannons remove a cube from barricade in line of site.

Game setup

1. Place a cobblestone card behind each chokepoint.
2. Place five loot cards on each shopfront.
3. Place player pieces in the intersection.
4. Place barricades one cube high across the three chokepoints surrounding the intersection.
5. Start the Uprising track on 1

Round sequence

One player takes actions, followed by army and uprising phases.

Player

Player takes any three actions:

• Move: anywhere on a street
• Take: a cobblestone card from under you or loot a shopfront next to you.
• Drop: (for no action cost) Place a card you hold underneath you.
• Build: Discard a card from underneath you. Following the card diagram place the cubes on the nearest barricade.
• Fight: Discard a cobblestone from underneath you. Remove an adjacent army piece.

Raise the flag (optional): place your piece on the nearest barricade

Army

Draw and resolve three army cards. Pieces are initially deployed to end of a street. If a piece has already been deployed resolve its action.

If a player is wounded she returns her piece to an intersection and discards her ability.

If any street no longer has at least one complete barricade (five cubes across and one high) players lose the game.

Uprising

If active player’s piece is on a barricade:

1. Move Uprising track up the number of points equal to the number of complete layers in the barricade.
2. Move player piece behind the barricade.

At 10 Uprising points players win the game.