Lay out routes between the pearls of the continent!
This is a great game for the whole family, in which you have to lay out railway routes from tracks on land and ferry crossings at sea, and do it faster and more successfully than your competitors. The game has simple, intuitive rules and a very deep, addictive gameplay and is considered a classic of modern family games.
Innovations of the release
Compared to the classic version of the game with the North American map, this release has several interesting gameplay innovations:
- Railway stations connect the railway section built by the opponent with your route;
- Ferries require the use of locomotive cards to build a crossing;
- Tunnels require that after the player plays cards to lay the section, he reveal the top three cards from the wagon deck. For each card whose color matches the color of the cards played to build the plot, the participant must play another such car card from his hand or play a locomotive card.
Game progress
The game will last several rounds until one of the participants has two or fewer car chips left at the end of the turn. Immediately after that, the final round begins, after which the final scoring continues.
During the round, players take turns.
On his turn, a player performs one of four actions of his choice:
- Take car cards. You can either take two cards from the top of the car deck, or one card from the deck and one card from the row of open cards, or one locomotive card from the row of open cards. Regular train cards always have one color, while locomotive cards are jokers that are trains of all colors at the same time, and they will also help you build crossings.
- Lay a section. To do this, the player must have enough cards of the corresponding color and enough train tokens in stock. Discard the number of train cards of the color of this section that corresponds to the number of its cells, and then place one train token of its color in each cell. Tunnels and crossings have their own rules for laying sections. Immediately after laying a section, mark the victory points you have received depending on its length on the PO track.
- Take route cards. Take the top 3 cards from the route deck and keep at least one of them for yourself. Please note that route cards that you did not complete during the game will incur penalty points during the final score calculation.
- Build a train station in any city that does not yet have a station. When placing your first station, the player must pay for this action one wagon card of any color before discarding, when placing your second - two, and when placing your third - three.
Calculating victory points
During the final calculation of victory points at the end of the game, you must take into account:
- The participant`s current score on the VP track;
- Bonuses and penalties for route cards: routes completed by the player bring VP according to the number on the card, and unfinished ones - subtract the same number of VP;
- 4 VP for each unused station in the player`s supply;
- 10 VP for the longest continuous path («European Express» card).
The participant with the most victory points becomes the winner of the game.
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