Gamehelpriverbend

Riverbend

Riverbend is a tactical route-building and hydraulic strategy game for 2 to 4 players by Jayadev Haddadi. Players carve irrigation canals across a stepped river valley, directing precious alpine mountain water down terraces to turn their mills and fill fertile valley ponds.

Components and Map

• The Board (table option Board size; Compact is the default):
  • Compact: 2 players 4x4 grid with 4 springs and 6 rounds; 3 players 4x5 grid with 5 springs and 6 rounds; 4 players 5x5 grid with 6 springs and 6 rounds.
  • Classic: 2 players 5x5 (4 springs), 3 players 5x6 (5 springs), 4 players 6x6 (6 springs), always 6 rounds.
• The Map (table option Map; Meadow is the default):
  • Meadow (random springs): the springs are placed on random squares, never two side by side. A spring has elevation 5 and every other square is flat meadow of elevation 1 (so the tile numbers are not shown).
  • Valley (height map): the springs are placed on random squares and the other squares step down from them: elevation is 5 minus the distance to the nearest spring, never below 1 and never above 4.
• Springs: Clear mountain springs mark where streams originate. Each spring produces 4 water.
• Watermills: Each player controls 2 watermills in their player colour.
• Other table option: Flow Splitting (see below). The tile art is a personal preference.

Objective

Score the most Victory Points over 6 rounds by positioning your mills along powerful torrents of rushing water.

Turn Overview

The game is played over 6 rounds. In each round, starting with the round's first player, play proceeds clockwise. On your turn, you may take up to 2 actions of any kind (0, 1 or 2) in any order and any mix:

• Dig + Dig: Carve two streams.
• Dig + Mill: Carve a stream, then place or relocate a watermill.
• Mill + Dig: Place or relocate a watermill, then carve a stream.
• Mill + Mill: Place or relocate two watermills.

Each action happens as soon as you tap it. After your second action (or after End turn, which skips the second action) you get a Confirm turn step with an Undo button: Undo takes back everything you did this turn. With the table preference Confirm turn set to Off, the turn ends right after the second action. Before any action, Pass turn (with a confirmation) skips your whole turn. If you have no legal moves remaining, the turn can only be passed.

The round track (top of the right column, above the board on a phone) shows the current round, and a flag in a player's panel marks the first player of the round.

The Actions

1. Dig a Stream: Carve a new channel from a watered tile to an orthogonally adjacent tile. The target may be dry or already watered: when a stream runs into a tile that already has water, the flows merge and continue together.
   • Gravity Rule: Water can only flow downhill (to a lower elevation) or along flat ground (same elevation). Water never flows uphill, so nothing can flow into a spring except another spring.
   • Branching Limit: A normal tile can branch into at most 3 outbound streams. Springs may branch into at most 4 outbound streams.
   • No Cycles or Backflow: Water cannot flow in loops or back into an existing stream.
   • Spring Link: Digging a canal between two existing springs adds their water together (4 + 4 = 8).
2. Place or Relocate a Watermill:
   • If you have a mill in your reserve, place it onto any watered tile that does not already contain a watermill.
   • If both of your mills are already on the board, you may pick up one of your mills and relocate it to any other legal watered tile: click the target tile, then click which of your two mills moves there.
3. Skip: You do not have to use both actions. Click End turn after your first action, or Pass turn to take no action at all.

Water Flow and Splitting

• Water always flows outward from the springs.
• Splitting Rule: When a canal splits into multiple downstream branches:
  • Under the standard rule (Round-down), flow divides equally among all branches, rounded down (e.g. 5 flow splitting 2 ways yields 2 flow per branch; 1 flow is dispersed into irrigation).
  • If the Oldest Branch table option is selected, the oldest dug canal receives any remainder.
• Dead Ends and Ponds: Every watered tile shows a pond with the tile's total water in a number (a spring shows its total too: 4, or more when springs are linked). The number on an arrow-shaped badge on a stream is the water flowing along that stream, and the arrow points the way it flows. A watered tile (not a spring) with no stream leaving it is a dead end (gold ring round its number). At each round's scoring, a player whose watermill stands on a dead end earns a +3 Delta Bonus for that mill.

Round Scoring

At the end of each round (after all players have taken their turns):

1. Each player earns Victory Points equal to the total water flow passing through the tiles occupied by their watermills.
2. Each of their mills standing on a dead-end pond earns +3 more.
3. The starter token rotates clockwise to the next player.

Game End and Tie-Breakers

The game ends after the last round has been scored. The player with the highest total score wins.

If players are tied, the winner is determined by the natural hierarchical tie-breaker:

1. Most mill flow on the final board (the last round).
2. Lowest elevation occupied by one of their watermills (closer to the fertile delta).
3. Highest single-mill flow achieved.
4. If still tied, victory is shared!