Dam It!

About this board game

Dam It! is a 20-minute dam-building competition for 2–4 players, released in 2018. Build valuable dams from different types of wood, collect wood cubes, and keep garbage away from your construction efforts to finish with the highest score.

Before play begins, the fifteen dam cards are arranged in five piles according to their dam-sum totals. Cards with the same total are stacked with the higher-value card on top. A shared row of four cards is then filled from a shuffled deck containing wood, garbage, and garbage-removal cards, while each player receives four wood cubes.

On your turn, choose between building a dam and taking a card. The leftmost card is free, but taking a card farther along the row requires you to place one wood cube on every card you skip. Any cubes on the card you take join your supply, giving you an incentive to consider cards that other players have passed over.

• Wood cards go into your hand for later construction.
• Garbage must be discarded with a garbage-removal card or placed in your scored dam pile.
• Garbage-removal cards can handle garbage drawn later or serve in a dam as a joker wood worth 2.

To build, play wood cards of all different types. Each wood card is worth 1–3, and the total determines which available dam card you claim. Taller, more valuable dams can bring more points, but neglecting garbage can seriously hurt your final result.

The game ends when the deck runs out or all dam cards have been claimed. Add the points on your dam cards and 1 point for every two remaining wood cubes, then subtract the square of your garbage total, up to a maximum penalty of 25 points. In Dam It!, careful card taking and clean construction are essential to victory.