electrify
Harness the power of ELECTRICITY in this dynamic new engine builder from John D Clair, designer of such classics as Space Base and Dead Reckoning! You are a visionary competing to satisfy the energy demand of a developing, solar-punk world. Fulfill the most demand using the cleanest forms of energy to score the most points and win!
Your industry is built by playing cards on five revolving sectors over 12 rounds. Each sector you activate changes the power and configuration of all of your cards, creating a perpetually rearranging engine that will have you feeling like a true innovator! Manage your cards correctly to perform chains of actions across sectors and pull off supercharged combos.
You’ll never use the same strategy twice! Shuffle in your choice of the available Tech Packs to instantly add exciting new technologies and tactics to discover. Test your skills in various challenging Solo mode scenarios, or play competitively and earn your place at the forefront of the energy revolution!
LB_NUMBER_OF_PLAYERS: 1 - 4
Game duration: 52 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
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Play electrify and 1388 other games online.
No download, directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
Welcome, innovator, to Electrify! It is up to you to provide electricity to a blossoming solar-punk world.
In each of 12 rounds you will choose 1 of 5 sectors of your industry to activate. Each industry card you buy and place on sectors will add to the icons available when that sector is used and improve your engine. At the end of the 12th round, the player with the most energy points from fulfilling demand goals and performing research wins.
Most of the game is simultaneous. BGA will progress to the next round when all players have ended their previous round and selected their sector for the next round. Otherwise, all actions can be taken simultaneously. Your actions will be hidden from other players until all players have ended their turns and locked in their actions.
Fundamental Concepts
Your Player Board represents your energy network. The seven columns represent different energy sources, from the dirtiest (fossil fuel) on the left to the cleanest (solar) on the right.
- Energy cubes on the bottom partition of your board represent energy in your DEPOTS. They can be spent for cards, developed into better cubes, and transmitted to the grid.
- Energy cubes transmitted to the top partition of your board have been sent out to the GRID. They can be spent to fulfill demand goals or to perform research, but may no longer be spent to buy Industry Cards.
Production (green) industry cards will allow you to generate more energy cubes, and can be discarded at any time for fossil fuel. Infrastructure (blue) industry cards allow you to do most everything else. When you draw cards, you choose how many you wish to draw from each deck. You may never have more than 9 cards in your hand. If an effect would cause you to draw above 9 cards, the additional cards are lost.
Industry Sectors
Your five Industry Sectors are arranged below your Player Board. Their position is important: the further to the right a sector is, the more powerful its actions become, based on the Clean () and Dirty () tracks above the sectors. Look for the matching green and black badges on icons, as they will multiply that icon by the value of the corresponding track in its column when used. Some icons also have a static multiplier (E.g. ) that never changes.
When a sector is charged, you gain access to the actions on the sector and on any cards you have played on it. Some cards also have arrows () that charge other cards, creating chains of available actions across your industry.
At the end of each round, the sector you selected is reset to the first column. This bumps the other sectors to the right according to the normal bumping rules. As a result, activating one sector changes the position and power of the others for future rounds.
The game is therefore built around a continuous cycle: charge a sector, activate its Industry Cards and any cards connected by arrows, produce and manage energy, transmit it to your Grid, and use that energy to fulfill Demand and advance Research.
Energy Production (): This sector produces 4 fossil fuel energy cubes. Any action icon that matches one of the energy types on the player board will generate cubes of that energy type.
Business Operations (): This sector will generate two energy cubes matching the energy type of the column it is in. When upgraded to the B side, it will also allow you to use the planning action, sending another sector back any number of spaces. You can use this cleverly to bump other sectors up.
Investments (): This sector will draw cards equal to the value of the black track in the column it is in.
Research & Development (): This sector will allow you to develop (move a cube one column to the right) a number of times equal to the value of the black track in the column it is in. When upgraded, it will also allow you to research, moving up the research track.
Transmission (): This sector will allow you to transmit (move a cube from its depot to the grid) a number of times equal to the value of the black track in the column it is in.
Research
Research () advances your Research marker along its track. For every 6 research performed, you earn a Research Breakthrough before circling back to the beginning of the track.
Transmitted energy in your grid may also be spent to advance Research according to the values () shown on your player board
Breakthroughs
Research Breakthrough: Choose an instant bonus from the available breakthrough spaces along the top of the player board. Completing a group of breakthroughs also provides its associated bonus (usually an energy point).
Sector Breakthrough (): Upgrade a sector of your choice from the A side to the B side. A preview of the B side icons can be found at the bottom of each sector.
Clean Breakthrough (): All of your green multipliers are worth 1 more in every column.
Industry Breakthrough (): Play a card from hand (or the basic industry cards) of the listed value or less for free, using its icons immediately.
Round Structure
Each round is played through the following six steps.
1. Plan
- Each player secretly chooses one Industry Sector to charge. All choices are revealed simultaneously.
- If you are the only player who chose a sector, you gain an Innovation boost and may move that sector one column to the right, bumping other up to make room.
- If one or more other players chose the same sector, you gain a Collaboration boost and advance your Research marker one space.
- The round marker advances as the round begins.
2. Acquire
- You may purchase up to one Industry card by paying its cost with energy from your depots. Each cube has a value in as depicted on the board. There is no change for overpaying.
- Choose a slot for the card to go on any one of your Industry Sectors. If you play a card into an occupied slot, the existing card(s) will be nudged down to make room. Sectors are always filled top to bottom.
3. Charge
- Your chosen sector, all cards on that sector, and any card indicated by a charged arrow card will automatically become charged.
- Arrows only charge cards, not sectors.
4. Discharge
- Select a charged (highlighted) card to discharge it, using its actions. Some actions, like producing energy, will resolve automatically. Others will trigger a prompt asking you how you wish to spend it.
5. Fulfill Demand
- You may spend the required energy cubes from your grid to fulfill Demand cards if you have the correct quantities to do so, receiving its rewards.
- You may fulfill Demand cards in any order, including multiple cards in the same round, but you will only receive the gold (priority) rewards for the FIRST TWO that you fulfill. Any further goals fulfilled will award only the grey (basic) rewards
- Each player may fulfill each Demand card only once, although multiple players may fulfill the same card.
6. Reset
- Once you choose to end your turn, you will have an opportunity to preselect your sector for the next round. You can change your selection at any time before all players have ended their turn.
Game End and Scoring
The game ends at the conclusion of Round 12.
The player with the most Energy Points (gained primarily by fulfilling Demand cards and from groups of Research Breakthroughs) wins.
If players are tied, the player who performed the most total Research wins. Count Research Breakthroughs first, then the current position of the Research marker.
If the tie remains, the player with the highest total value of remaining energy cubes wins, counting any transmitted energy cubes for their pre-transmission value, if necessary.
Tech Pack Icons
Discard multiplier (): When resolving an icon with this multiplier, you will choose a number of cards to discard to determine its value.
Sectors multiplier (): The value of this multiplier is equal to the number of sectors located to the right of it at the time of resolution.
Planning (): Choose another sector to set back any number of columns, bumping sectors up to make room. Also found on Business Operations "B" side.
Ongoing (): SO LONG AS THIS CARD IS CHARGED, performing the action on the left triggers the action on the right (up to the same number of times when resolving an icon with a multiplier). It is not recommended to discharge these cards until the very end of your turn.
Solo Mode
When you choose your sector, the token on it will be mixed with the two tokens not currently on any sectors (at the beginning, this will always be one innovation and one collaboration token). One of the three will then be selected at random to determine what boost you get (a research or bumping your sector up) and is placed back on the sector.
When you complete your special objective for your scenario or fulfill one of the demand goals that awards a bonus star (), you will collect the leftmost star above the round track. At the end of the game, you will earn bonus energy points (or lose points!) depending on the number of stars collected. When the round marker overlaps a star, it is lost, and can no longer be claimed, so act quick!
At the end of the game, if you equal or exceed the energy point threshold required by your difficulty level, you win!