Link to Combined Rules (2022)

Interface Info

Preferences

• Top right of the page lets you set preferences that will be remembered from game to game
  • Preference option for Track brightness and contrast. 6 styles to choose from with a variety of contrast and brightness values
  • Preference option for Cubes brightness and contrast. 6 styles to choose from with a variety of contrast and brightness values
  • Track building now has an optional visual aid to help you understand which tracks you are currently building.
  • Optional display for colour blind folk.
    • Cubes are replaced with letters representing the original cube colour.
      • • R - Red
      • • B - Blue
      • • G - Black
      • • Y - Yellow
      • • P - Purple
    • Cities have a tooltip stating the colour of the city.
    • Link tokens showing ownership of a link now have the name of the colour instead of the engine image.

In Game controls

• Ctrl Mouse Wheel zooms the map when you are over the map, otherwise it will zoom the web page.

Game Options

Maps

• • Eastern US
• • Mexico
• • Great Britain
• • Western US
• • Portugal

Bidding Style

• Traditional
  • • Winner pays full value of their bid and is First Player, all other players pay nothing.
  • • Then turn order proceeds clockwise around the table.
  • • If all the players choose to pass, then the player to the left of the previous First Player becomes the new First Player

• First to pass
  • • Winner pays full value of their bid and is First Player.
  • • Each player who passes, pays half their bid rounded up.
  • • First player to pass becomes the last player.
  • • Second to pass becomes second to last etc.
  • • If all the players choose to pass, then the player who passes last becomes the new First Player.

• Worst is First
  • • There is an initial bid for game starting position then
  • • at the start of a new turn, the player order is determined by the current score.
  • • Worst score becomes the new First Player.
  • • Second worst is the new Second Player etc.
  • • In case of scoring ties, the player with higher (worst) turn order wins the tie.
  • • All "Railroad Executive" operation cards are discarded.

City Rotors

• Cities with Rotors always act as their base color (the color on the upper section of the city) and will often provide a second color showing on the bottom of the city.
• Cubes matching either color that arrive at a City Rotor must be delivered there.
• After every delivery to the city, the City Rotor will rotate to a new color.
• The City Rotor Color Wheel describes each color transition.

Mines

• The Place Mine action is available to each player two times in the game during the player action round.
• The active player may pay $10,000 to place a Mine.
• They immediately choose a gray city and begin drawing cubes from the goods bag until they draw a cube that matches the color of a previously drawn cube (maximum of 5 draws).
• Place the cubes drawn on the gray city, after discarding the matching cube.
• A city may only be mined once in a game.

Empty City Markers reduction for faster games

• The Empty City Marker count can be reduced to speed up the end of the game.

Playing the game

• Turns and Player Action Rounds. RotW is played in a series of Turns. Each Turn consists of the following 3 phases:
  • • 1 - First Player Auction to determine First Player
  • • 2 - Player Actions (1 per player in Turn Order in each of 3 Rounds)
  • • 3 - Income and Dividends
• These three phases are repeated until the End of Game is triggered (see below), at which time the current Turn is completed (all 3 phases) and then one additional Turn is played.

Phase 1 - First Player Auction

• Players bid to determine First Player for all Rounds of Phase 2 this Turn
  • The First Player from the previous Turn bids first
  • Minimum bid is $1k
  • Bidding proceeds clockwise (down the list in player status table)
  • If a player chooses not to bid higher than the current bid they Pass and are out of the Auction
  • The player with the winning bid takes the First Player marker (golden engine in the player status table)
  • Turn order is clockwise from First Player
  • If all players pass with no bids, First Player marker moves 1 spot clockwise

Phase 2 - Player Actions

• Each Turn the Phase 2 consists of 3 Rounds of player actions, in Turn Order
• On each Round each player may take 1 of 5 available actions (same action may be taken on subsequent Rounds within the same Turn)

A - Build Track

• Place from 1 to 4 track tiles, starting at any city or open track tile that you own
• Cost to build track:
  • • Build on plains (no symbol): $2k
  • • Build on water (water drop): $3k
  • • Build on mountains (grey dot): $4k
  • • Cross a mountain ridge (dark red/brown line): + $4k

• A series of tiles that connect one city to exactly one other city is called a Link
• At the end of Phase 2 any open tracks (i.e. a series that is not a Link) will be removed from the board

B - Urbanize

• Player pays $10k to place an available New City tile on a gray city hex and add two random Goods Cubes to the new city

C - Upgrade Engine

• Upgrade your player Engine one (and only one step) by paying the cost of the next upgrade

D - Deliver One Goods Cube

• Deliver one (and only one) Goods Cube from one City to a City matching the Goods Cube's color
• May travel over as many links as the strength of the acting player's Engine
• May not move a Cube without delivering it (final Link must move to a City of the Cube's color)
• May not skip over a City of the Cube's color without delivering it (even if a City further down the line is the same color)
• First Link over which the Good travels must be owned by Player taking the action
• Each player who owns a Link over which the Good travels scores 1 point per traveled Link that they own

E - Select a Railroad Operations Card

• Take one of the available Railroad Operations cards and either execute it immediately or place it in front of you (depending on the type of card)

Phase 3 - Income and Dividends

• All players collect the income shown on the space of the point track / income track occupied by their marker
• THEN all players must pay $1k per held Bond (including taking new Bonds to cover this cost, if necessary)

End of Game

• When the last Goods Cube in a City is moved out, an Empty City marker is placed in the City
• The game end is triggered when the last Empty City marker is placed on the board
• The turn is completed normally and then there is one more complete turn before the game ends
• It is possible to remove an Empty City marker from the board via Railroad Operations Cards or the Urbanize action
• If End of Game has been triggered and an Empty City marker is removed from the board it does not "un-trigger" End of Game
• When the game finishes, in addition to the standard Income Phase, each player loses 1 point for every bond issued
• Rail Baron cards held by each player are now tested and if their goal has been achieved, points will be awarded