Line up at the train station and get ready to build your own network of cities, railroads, and highways. I promise that Railroad Tiles by Horrible Guild Games will be an adventure that keeps pulling you back with its variety of victory point objectives and the sheer fun of solving the puzzle it presents each time you play. Next, explore the variety of expansions that can be added to create new challenges.
Railroad Tiles includes 106 route tiles, which you shake up in the large cloth bag that comes with the game. Next, put the railroad station board on the table, shuffle the 7 placement tokens, and put them in a facedown pile on the clock at the top of the railroad station’s tower. These placement tokens are cycled down one at a time and to the right side of the station until they exit the station. Their function is twofold, as they keep track of the 8 rounds of the game and select which token types can be placed in your tile network each round. These tokens are cars, trains, and travelers, and are put in a central supply along with the 64 prestige (point) tokens. There are also star tokens to add to the supply, whose function will be described below.
Each player chooses one of the 4 player pawns. Randomly choose a beginning player order and line up the pawns in that order on the station board. Everyone receives one star token to begin. Draw one tile per player from the route tile bag and in reverse turn order, players choose one to begin their network. Now follow the diagram in the rulebook to determine how many numbers and columns of railroad tiles to place beneath the station board. It’s time to play!
In turn order, choose a column of tiles and put your player pawn at the top of that column. Then, decide how to arrange these tiles in your network, along with your starting tile. There are different configurations possible with railroad tracks and highways that connect to each other. Some tiles have symbols of cars, trains, and travelers. Before you grow your network, keep in mind the following end-game point goals: You will score 5 points for each group of 3+ contiguous city tiles in your network. The largest area of tiles without holes in your territory will provide 1 point for each tile that is part of it. Keep in mind that you lose 1 point for each road or railroad “opening” exceeding 5 that does not connect with any other path.
Once everyone has placed their tiles, observe the position of the placement tokens in the train station. Any that are to the right of the main clock tower are considered “active.” (There will not be any during the first round as only one tile has moved down into the bottom of the clock tower.) Look at the active tokens in the station. (There will be one active token during the first and last rounds and two active tokens in all other rounds.) Tokens will either contain a train, car, or traveler icon, or a choice between two of them, designated by two different icons with an either/or symbol between them. Then, for each placement token that matches an icon on one of your network tiles, you may take a token and place it on that tile. The maximum tokens you may place each round are two, as there are only two spaces for active placement tokens. Immediate points are awarded as follows: For cars and trains—one point for the newly placed token plus one additional point (up to 5) for matching tokens already placed that are connected to its highways (for cars) or railroads (for trains). Travelers score 1 point, plus one additional, for any other traveler connected through highways and/or railroads (up to 5). Take prestige tokens from the supply for your total score earned this round. Now for stars! If you have a star token, you may discard it to place 1 token of your choice instead of the one shown on the placement token.
Then, the round ends and the following things happen: Place a star token next to the column of unchosen tiles. Whoever chooses that column next round will also claim the star token. Put player pawns back in the station in the order of the column of tiles (from left to right) that each player chose last round. Replenish the columns of tiles per the manual, move placement tiles once to the right (one may drop off the station), and move the next placement tile down from the clock tower to ground level. Following new starting player order, continue the game until all 8 rounds are completed. Total the end-game points as described above, taking prestige tokens for these points. Players total all their prestige tokens and the player with the most points wins!
Once you have mastered the base game, add objective tiles to create additional point opportunities, following instructions in the manual for how these function in the game. I know that you will eventually want to choose some of the 8 expansions that are currently published for this game. I have already added two to my collection. I have become a bit obsessed with Railroad Tiles, as it is easy fun but also an interesting puzzle each time you play! ~ Marsha