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Patchwork creator’s next board game is a thrilling dive into historical German canals

Uwe Rosenburg’s wild river ride.

The next board game from the creator of Patchwork, Uwe Rosenburg, will take players on a thrilling dive into the world of historical German canals.

Entitled Oranienburger Kanal, the upcoming board game, similar to many of the designer’s previous releases – such as the aforementioned Patchwork - the theme Oranienburger Kanal revolves around a seemingly unassuming topic, that of the historical canals of Brandenburg during the 19th century. The Oranienburger Kanal was constructed during the years of 1832 to 1837 in order to enable goods to be transported along from the Havel River to the various businesses that required them.

Situated just outside of Berlin, the Oranienburger Kanal supported Germany’s industrial revolution, with various companies being formed alongside the waterway in order to take advantage of its connections to the mills and the city. As business owners operating during the 1800s, players in Oranienburger Kanal will be competing to develop their industries around the passageway. On top of the various structures that can be built, players will also be able to construct roads, tracks and bridges to further connect the canal with the region.

Cover image for YouTube video

The two-player game will take place over the course of seven rounds, which will begin with players taking part in an action phase. The action phase of Oranienburger Kanal has the duo taking a total of five actions, with the staring player for the round being able to perform three actions whilst the other player can only take two. Using their assigned number of action tokens, players place them on the spaces of the board that represent the actions that they want to perform that round.

Each space will offer players different options, with some enabling the building of a structure and a path, whilst others allowing the player to gain a certain number and type of resource. Building structures costs resources, which players can also get at the end of each round depending on where the hands of their resource wheels are pointed. Players can score points from their industry boards whenever a structure is either surrounded by four routes or is connected to two other structures via two bridges. Whichever player has the most points by the end of seven rounds is named the winner. An optional solo game mode will also be available.

Oranienburger Kanal board image

Besides Patchwork and Oranienburger Kanal, Rosenburg has also designed other board games such as Cottage Garden, Agricola and A Feast for Odin. Spiekworxx will be publishing Oranienburger Kanal in both English and German languages.

The Gamefound crowdfunding campaign for Oranienburger Kanal is live until 14 May, with a pledge of €40 (£33/$42) getting backers a copy of the game in December.

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Oranienburger Kanal

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Alex Meehan avatar

Alex Meehan

Senior Staff Writer

After writing for Kotaku UK, Waypoint and Official Xbox Magazine, Alex became a member of the Dicebreaker editorial family. Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. Besides writing, Alex appears in Dicebreaker’s D&D actual play series Storybreakers and haunts the occasional stream on the Dicebreaker YouTube channel.

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