Pampero

About this board game

Pampero is a hand-management, card-driven action-selection game for 1–4 players, with games lasting around 150 minutes.

Set in Uruguay, the game reflects a government seeking greater energy security without natural resources of its own. Biomass, wind energy, and end-use energy efficiency are central to this effort, alongside ambitions for economic growth and employment.

Each player begins with a personal set of eight cards. These cards are played onto an individual tableau containing two rows of spaces, with each space used to activate actions in different sectors of the board.

• Play a card to the leftmost empty space of either tableau row.
• Retrieve all cards from your tableau instead of playing one.
• After three actions, resolve the consolidation phase.

Consolidation provides several important opportunities. You retrieve the rightmost card from any row, generate batteries from stored energy, collect income, and advance the game timer. Managing when to commit cards and when to retrieve them is at the heart of the game’s action system.

The game’s title refers to the pampero, an extremely dry wind that blows from the southwest and can bring a change in weather. This atmospheric force connects the game’s energy-focused setting with the wider challenge of developing domestic resources.

As the game progresses, players balance their tableau actions, stored energy, batteries, income, and the advancing timer. At the end of Pampero, the player with the most money wins.