I like victory points … who doesn’t? Point salads (games that reward players various amounts of VPs no matter what they do) are my jam and Barcelona fits the bill. As you play this game, you will be moving your scoring markers constantly. Judging by the 100/200 + 300/400 VP tiles, when the stars align you even have the potential to loop the board four times! Pretty much everything you do gives you points in Barcelona, and this article will outline a few combinations that seem to offer the best returns.

Each turn, depending on which intersection the citizens are placed, a player can do 2-3 things and 95% of the time they would get points as a result. Thematically, the main task is to expand the city and construct buildings. There are three building categories and they each correspond with a citizen track at the bottom of the main board for scoring. Since players score as many victory points as the lowest VP number visible among all citizen tracks, the building rewards increase as the game goes on inevitably; therefore you’d want to be the player that covers the lowest visible citizen when you score and not the player who sets up their opponent to score higher on their next turn.

There are three Modernisme tiles and three Cerdà scoring tile relating to Buildings:

Gain 2 VPs per for each of your Building markers that are placed at the bottom of their stack on non-corner buildings [Modernisme & Cerdà]

Gain 3 VPs each of your Corner Buildings that are not part the same block [Modernisme & Cerdà]
Gain 2 VPs per block in your longest uninterrupted vertical or horizontal line of blocks (max 4) [Modernisme & Cerdà]

Other than constructing regular buildings, players can also build Intersections, Wide/Narrow Streets, or Public Service buildings. They could also place a Cobblestone, move their Trams, or take/improve a Modernisme Project. We recommend choosing on one or two of these options to focus on rather than trying to dabble in everything.

Intersections - Focusing on building Intersections in Barcelona can be very rewarding, and it is best to start early and plan the subsequent moves accordingly.

Placing Intersections gains you benefits everytime citizens are placed on them. We recommend building these along the diagonal street for best returns (these popular spots let players do 3 actions rather than just 2), or a spot adjacent to one or more printed benefits on the main board if you need resources/Cerdà track advancement. Investing in Intersections early, especially is a 3-4 player game, can be very lucrative as a higher player count means more chance for “intersection activation”. Nevertheless, it can still viable with two as a player can trigger the effect on their own offering a flexible way to obtain resources or Cerdà/Sagrada Família track advancement at the start of their turn.

There are two Modernisme tiles and one Cerdà scoring tile relating to Intersections:

Gain 2 VPs per Intersection placed [Modernisme & Cerdà]
Gain 3 VPs per Intersection placed that is adjacent to 3 or more buildings [Modernisme]

Wide & Narrow Streets - When you place a Wide or Narrow Street tile, you score the number of all the connected tiles (yours and opponent’s) on that row or column. It is great to seize the opportunity by piggybacking on other people’s hard work and build the last street tile on a street. Nevertheless, building/connecting multiple of your own street tiles can pay off in a big way if you combine this with the Tram & Passenger strategy, as the Tram can move more efficiently on your street tiles. Having more street tiles out on the map also means having more places to drop off your passengers so you score those street tiles once again.

**The 4 Narrow/Wide Street Modernisme tiles**

There are four Modernisme tiles and two Cerdà scoring tile relating to Wide/Narrow streets:

Gain 1 VPs per Narrow Street placed [Modernisme & Cerdà]
Gain 2 VPs per Wide Street placed [Modernisme & Cerdà]
Gain 2 VPs per Narrow Street Tile in your longest uninterrupted vertical or horizontal line (max 4) [Modernisme]
Gain 2 VPs per Wide Street Tile in your longest uninterrupted vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line (max 4) [Modernisme]

Tram & Passengers - As mentioned in the previous paragraph, this strategy is best when you can also build a bunch of connected Wide and narrow Street tiles and drop off each passenger on your own street tiles. Some planning is required between each Tram movement turns to obtain the necessary resources for passenger drop-offs, and it gets more and more expensive. This investment is worth 23 VPs plus bonus street tile VPs if you can manage to place all 5 passengers before the game ends.

There are two Modernisme tiles and one Cerdà scoring tile relating to Passengers placed:

Gain 2 VPs per Passenger placed [Modernisme & Cerdà]
Gain 3 VPs per Passenger placed that is adjacent to at least 2 buildings [Modernisme]

Cobblestone - Placing a Cobblestone tile on the Sidewalk board offers a small bonus and opens up a warehouse space. Compared to the previous three strategies, the return of the Cobblestones seems less significant. Since one can get by with the pre-existing 4 empty slots in the warehouse, we would not prioritize this action at the beginning. As the game goes on and more Cobblestone tiles are placed, the available bonus rewards become better as they get closer to the outer rim of the Sidewalk board. If you have the chance to cover any corner of the Sidewalk board with a Cobblestone tile on your turn, do it! This would allow you to move your Sagrada Família track, which pays off handsomely as you progress.

There are one Modernisme tiles and one Cerdà scoring tile relating to Cobblestone:

Gain 2 VPs per Cobblestone placed on the sidewalk board [Modernisme & Cerdà]

Public Service Building - Public Service buildings cost 3/2/1 Coins to build and the score 10/6/3 VPs with specific bonuses. If you have the funds, this can supplement any of the previously mentioned strategies as the bonus action essentially allows player to take another turn. It is worth noting that one of the Public Service buildings allows the player to move 2 steps toward on their Sagrada Família track, which guarantees a Sagrada Família tile reward.

There is one Modernisme tiles and one Cerdà scoring tile relating to Public Service buildings:

Gain 2 VPs per Public Service building [Modernisme & Cerdà]

Coins and Cloth - Unless you have placed all your Cobblestones on the sidewalk and have the space to hold excess resources, it is better to spend Coins/Cloth to pay for Intersections, placing Modernisme Tiles/moving Modernisme markers, or moving the Tram/dropping of Passengers rather than keeping them for end game points.

There are two Modernisme tiles and two Cerdà scoring tile relating to resources:

Gain 2 VPs per Coin in warehouse (up to 5) [Modernisme & Cerdà]
Gain 2 VPs per Cloth in warehouse (up to 5) [Modernisme & Cerdà]

Modernisme Projects - You know it is a point salad when you can even score your scoring tiles. It’s not a bad idea to just grab one of the four available Modernisme tiles and just run with it. Even if you decide to switch course later on, there is no penalty for not finishing these projects anyway. When you have a better idea on where your points would be, spend the resources to place the related Modernisme tiles on the rightmost space of your personal board and be sure to move the marker up in later turns to quadruple the VPs of that tile at the end of the game.

**The Modernisme Project/Marker scoring tiles**

There two Modernisme tiles and two Cerdà scoring tiles relating to Modernisme Projects:

Gain 2 VPs per Modernisme Projects on your player board [Modernisme & Cerdà]
Gain 2 VPs for each of your Modernisme markers you have moved to its top position [Modernisme & Cerdà]

Last but not least, we will discuss the Cerdà track and Sagrada Família track. It is hard to determine how many points a player can get by going up the Cerdà tracks, as many other variables are involved. Obviously you’d want to be higher up on this track when you have been working hard to maximize the VP you’d get from a Cerdà scoring tile, but if it doesn’t apply to you, it might be better to just focus on other tasks. Advancing on the Sagrada família track allows players to “redeem” Sagrada Família tiles; there are four levels and the rewards get better and better. These offer a flexible way to get resources, Cerdà track movement or just points on the spot. Movement on this track is hard to come by so be sure not to miss any opportunity when you are able to do so.

There are plenty of ways to get Victory points in Barcelona and generally the best tactic is to set your goals based on the 3 Cerdà scoring tiles present for that game. If you can grab any Modernisme tiles that synergize well with Cerdà tiles (such as street present vs street linked, etc), that would lay a very solid foundation for victory.

-Jackie

(About the author - Jacqueline Chao is the executive producer and main content contributor at Show Me How to Win. Follow her board game journey on instagram @boardgamesetc )

Barcelona was designed by Dani Garcia. It is published in 2023 by Board & Dice in the US and our copy was provided by the publisher.