Highway

What is Highway?

Highway is a heavy strategy game by Fabio Lopiano and Nestore Mangone, published in Dutch by Intrafin Games. The game is suitable for 1 to 4 players, ages 14 and up, with a playing time of 90 to 150 minutes. Highway is playable immediately without expansions and includes an official solo mode. The game material is language-independent.

In Highway You are a director within the BundesAutobahn Organisation, responsible for the development of the German federal motorway system. You play across three historical eras, from post-war reconstruction to the present day. The turning point of the game is 1990: the reunification of Germany opens the network for expansion into the former East Germany, bringing with it new opportunities and new competition.

How does a game proceed?

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Network and Route Building You build national highways and upgrade existing roads. Every road you contribute to the network increases your influence on that highway corridor. Corridors are the central unit of the game: connections between cities and regions that can be co-managed by multiple players.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. worker placement Deploy your workers to action slots for construction, transport, gas stations, and organizational positions. Each turn, you weigh your available budget against the actions you wish to perform. Budget is scarce and is replenished periodically based on your acquired positions within the highway organizations.

The board seat acquisition mechanism is a distinguishing element. Anyone who makes a significant contribution to a specific corridor earns a seat on the board of that highway. That seat increases the budget at the start of the next period and gives priority to certain construction actions. Whoever dominates the best corridors builds an ever-increasing financial lead.

Freight transport to neighboring countries is a second scoring horse. Through transport over the network to the German borders, you earn points and bonuses that further strengthen your own corridor development. Gas stations are a third scoring horse: whoever builds a gas station on a busy corridor benefits from the traffic generated by other players along that same route.

The three eras give the game a clear escalation structure. The first period is the build-up phase with a limited budget and few corridors available. The second period accelerates through larger budgets and increased competition. The third period, after 1990, adds the eastern network and offers the most competitive phase of the game.

Is it difficult to learn?

Highway It is a heavy strategy game with a learning curve comparable to other heavy eurogames. The basic actions can be understood after the first period, but optimizing corridor dominance, transport routes, and budget management over three eras requires multiple games. The game materials contain no text. The Dutch game rules are extensive but structured.

Who is Highway suitable?

Highway It is ideally suited for experienced strategy players who enjoy heavy eurogames with a historical infrastructure theme, multiple simultaneous scoring paths, and a strong economic engine. The game is also appealing to fans of network-building games seeking more economic depth than standard route-building games offer. The solo mode also makes it suitable for solo players who want complex economic puzzles.

Why this game is worth it

The combination of corridor dominance via board seats, freight transport, and petrol stations gives Highway Three simultaneous scoring paths that influence each other. Those who build only corridors without transport miss out on points. Those who transport only without dominating corridors have insufficient budget. The three paths force a balance that plays out differently in each game due to the available corridors and the actions of opponents. The historical timeline, with the reunion as a key gameplay moment, also gives the game a narrative layer that is lacking in purely abstract eurogames.

Comparison with other games

Highway is located in the same heavy infrastructure eurogame segment as Age of Steam en Brass: Birmingham. Towards Brass: Birmingham is Highway historically more specific and the highway organizational structure mechanically more original than the industry chain of BrassCompared to Age of Steam the theme is more modern and the game structure less punitive for beginning players. Whoever also likes Alubari: A Nice Cup of Tea as a historical worker placement game with infrastructure construction and multiple scoring paths, the approach of Highway recognize as mechanically related but significantly more complex.

Ready to see how Snowflake works?

Highway is a heavy historical strategy game in which, as Director of the BundesAutobahn, you build the German highway system over three eras, dominate corridors via board seats, transport goods, and operate gas stations. Includes solo mode. Game materials are language-independent. Dutch language. Order Highway Now at Boardgameshop.nl.