Each player gets a board on which s/he tries to complete several rooms, therefore s/he needs different building material. The basis for the house is the ”foundation plate”, each player gets his/ her own ”foundation plate”. There are two decks of cards, here you have to choose whether you want to build a big room (then you need 8 pieces of building material) or a small room (here you need only 4 pieces of building material). When you have made up your mind you need to place the available building material onto the board (as shown on the room map).
But the plumber has only faucets and radiators?! So s/he asks the joiner whether s/he could exchange doors for radiators.
The thing is that the four craftsmen depend on each other and so a hustle and a bustle starts .

The house can consist of the following rooms:
                                      living room, kitchen, bath room, closets, corridor and entrance hall

A limited amount of building material can be stored on an own storage place in front of each  house. There is the possibility to steal the building material under certain conditions. If you use too many of your own building material then there are no products left for exchange.
The sensible use of the building material and the smart solution of the neighbourhood controversy shows who will be the winner in the end.

Only in an exchange community there is the possibility to build the houses because the craftsmen are mutually dependent. But still everybody wants to be the first and of course the winner.

In the game ”Bau auf!” the pillars of the house play an important role. If you throw the dice and get a six then you get a pillar. If you own 4 pillars you get a second board (that is the next floor) which you put onto the house. So you can really see your house rise. But be aware that the additional second board stops the completion of the first board. So it is advisable to think twice when to use the additional board.

The fastest player gets a roof on his/ her upper floor and finishes the game

But the fastest player with the roof doesn’t necessarily have to be the winner. S/he does gets the ”roof-points” of course. But in the end the total amount of the points counts, which are added up from the whole building. Complete rooms bring ”room-points”, for complete floors you get additional ”floor-points” . If all 6 types of rooms exist you get ”bonus points” and if you have several rooms of the same type you get ”show-off – points” (e.g. plumber has three bath rooms). Naturally, you can’t really say right away who has won the game because of all the hidden points. The game stays very exciting and thrilling till the very end.

Don’t forget the announced bottle-opener (hand in hand look). You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours and with  the bottle – opener the craftsmen work as twice as fast on the building site. The bottle – opener is constantly changing the owner throughout the game.
The one who owns the bottle – opener can possibly get the double amount of building material.

… ”One brick, one lime and a beer” …                           Cheers!

The game is easily understandable. Even 8-year old children enjoy playing with the plastic building material, pillars and the two-floor building. There are additional game levels for adults, which make smooth rounds of the game almost impossible. After only a few minutes of playing a lot of shady wheeling and dealing goes on.   ”If you reserve some tiles for me I have two shelves for you…!”

Offer cement – mixer,
Looking  for copper wire (value is balanced out)

An exchange community of four wily craftsmen tries to build houses.
Shady deals, cheating and arguing: you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. 
A real satirical house building made in gdr, at a time when construction market
was a foreign word and the East Germans only had a surplus of green meadows