20th Century Limited Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Card Reference
  • Company Card
  • Regional Card
• Setup
• Sequence of Play
• Placing and Removing Track Segments
• Completing a Company Card
• Completing a Regional Card
• Player Aid
• Bonus Cards
• Entry Waivers
• Waiver Reset
• Ending the Game
  • Regional Scoring Table

Components

1. Company Cards
2. Regional Cards
3. Bonus Cards
4. Game Board
5. Player Aid Cards
6. Train Segments
7. Completion Trackers
8. Entry Waivers

Card Reference

Company Card

• Name of the Rail Company.
• Company Logo. No game effect. Your mileage may vary.
• Distance is for reference only. This number allows you to quickly see what is the smallest number of Train Segments required to finish the Company.
• End of game Victory Points for completing this Company Card.
• Location of the cities on the map.

Regional Card

• Cities that must be connected to complete this card. The colors indicate the regions in which the cities are located.
• Background color indicates the cities' region.
• Indicates the Era, and the order in which you must complete them: 1 to 8.

Setup

1. Each player chooses a color, and takes a Player Aid sheet and Track Segments, as well as the Completion Trackers of that color.
2. Each player takes 2 Entry Waiver tokens for each player in the game.
   • 2 Players = 4 Tokens
   • 3 Players = 6 Tokens
   • 4 Players = 8 Tokens
   • 5 Players = 10 Tokens
3. Divide the Bonus Cards into 3 decks by type (blue, green and red). Shuffle each deck and place the top card face-up on the table. Place the rest of the cards back in the box (they will not be used in this game).
4. Shuffle the Company Cards and deal 4 to each player.
5. Draw the top 4 cards of the Company Card deck and place them face-up beside the game board. Set the remaining cards beside the board as a face-down draw deck.
6. Divide the Regional Cards into 8 decks by Era (1 to 8). Then shuffle each Era deck.
7. Each player:
   • Draw two cards from Era 1 (red) and Era 2 (blue), keep one of each Era and discard the other to create a face-up Regional Cards discard pile.
   • Place the Rail Companies Founded Tracker on the "0" space of the Company Card Track on the game board.
   • Place the Regional Rails Completed Tracker on the "0" space of the Regional Card Track on the game board. Make sure the "Cannot End the Game" side is face down.
8. Determine the First Player using any method desired. Give that player the First Player marker.

Sequence of Play

Each player will have an equal number of turns per game but the number of turns played will vary from game to game.

On your turn you must do one of the following:

• Place 1 to 3 of your Track Segments on the board.
• Pick up 1 to 3 of your Track Segments from the board.

Afterward, you may do one of the following:

• Score one Regional Card from your hand. (All Track Segments remain on the board).
• Score one Company Card from your hand. (The Player must remove that route from the board.)
• Discard one Company Card from your hand and draw a new Company Card. Either from the top of the deck, or from among the face-up cards. If you take a face-up card, immediately replace it with the top card of the deck.
• Skip an Era:
  • Discard the lowest Era card that you possess.
  • Discard a Regional Card from your hand.
  • Draw two from the next Era's deck that you do not already have in hand; keep one and discard the other. Example: If you discard an Era 2 card, draw two from the Era 4 deck, keep one, and discard the other. You should already have an Era 3 card in your hand.
  • Flip your Regional Rails Completed Tracker to the "Cannot End the Game" side to remind everyone that you can no longer trigger the end of the game by completing all 8 Eras' Regional Cards.

If you are eligible to do so, you may also do the following anytime on your turn:

• Claim one Bonus Card and place it in your score stack.
• Once per turn, pay 1 Entry Waiver at any time to the bank (removing it from the game) and discard all of the face-up Rail Company cards, replacing them with new ones from the draw pile.

After your turn, play proceeds to the left.

Placing and Removing Track Segments

The players are taking on the role of American railroad luminaries. Placing Track Segments represents the creation of small independent rail lines, operated by the player.

You always lay your Track Segments on the connection lines. Each connection line can only hold a single Track Segment, and thus only one player's track can occupy it.

Note: You can only place or remove your own Track Segments — never an opponent's!

You may place your Track Segments on any legal connection line on the board; you are not required to connect with previously placed Track Segments.

Train Segments may not be placed where there is no line (such as over bodies of water).

Completing a Company Card

Completing Company Cards during the game represents the founding of some of the most famous rail lines in American history. Removing the pieces shows that you have sold the links to the company and the points are your profit and influence accumulated by starting the company.

• You complete a Company Card when all of the cities listed on the card are connected to each other via one contiguous group of your Track Segments. These do not need to be placed in the most direct or efficient fashion, and there can be any number of branches.
• When you complete a Company Card...
  • Place the card face-up in front of you on your score stack.
  • Move your Rail Companies Founded Tracker one space down on the Company Card Track.
  • Immediately draw a new Company card.
  • Now, remove the track from the board: Remove the minimum number of Track Segments required to connect all of the cities listed on the card. You cannot choose to take more.

Example: Black is attempting to complete the Richmond & Danville Company card. In the left image the Track Segments are touching the required cities, but it is not contiguous. By placing the Track Segment circled in red shown in the right image, the card is complete and all Track Segments shown will be removed from the board.

Completing a Regional Card

Completing Regional Cards during the game represents players building rail to accommodate local needs. These are owned by the player, but at a later date they may be merged into a Rail Company when it is completed, and thus become part of the sale.

You complete a Regional Card when all of the cities listed on the card are connected to each other via one contiguous group of your Track Segments. These do not need to be placed in the most direct or efficient fashion, and there can be any number of branches.

You must complete Regional Cards in order, from Era 1 to Era 8. The only exception to this order is that, in a 4-player or 5-player game, you may complete your starting cards (Era 1 and Era 2) in any order.

When you complete a Regional Card...

• Place the card face-up on your score stack.
• Do not remove any track!
• Move your Regional Rails Completed Tracker one space down on the Regional Card Track.
• Draw two cards from the next Era deck that you do not already have in your hand; keep one and discard the other.

Track Segments that were previously used to complete a Regional Card may be used again during the connection of a different Regional Card, or removed in a future turn during completion of a Company Card (consider it a merger). Regional and Company Cards only need to have the proper links in play at the time of completion. Once the cards are in your score stack, they will not be removed from the stack if the links used to connect the card are removed.

Player Aid

The Player Aid card presents the sequence of play, and scoring notes for each player to see quickly. It also has a holding box to place your score stack.

As the game progresses, you will score and accumulate Regional Cards, Company Cards and Bonus Cards. When you score or claim these cards, place them face-up on your score stack (the card-shaped box on your Player Aid). Because cards always go face-up on your score stack, everyone can see the most recent card (and only the most recent card) you completed.

When you claim a Bonus, show the other players that you have fulfilled the requirements by revealing all of the cards from your score stack that were necessary to claim the bonus.

You may freely look through your stack, and reorder it as desired while keeping the most recent card on top.

Bonus Cards

Bonus Cards are either scored during the run of play or at the end of the game. If they score during play, they are awarded to the first player to achieve the goal shown on the card. If they score at the end of the game all players that achieve the goal receive full points.

When a player can claim a Bonus Card it is taken at no cost in action to that player. That player must disclose to all players the cards that are used to claim the bonus.

Entry Waivers

At some points in the game, you may be unable or unwilling to use your own track to complete a Company Card or Regional Card. This is when you can take advantage of your Entry Waiver tokens! They allow you to use other players' Track Segments to complete your route. You pay the tokens to the players whose track you use. This means that they can later spend those Entry Waivers in the same fashion, because Entry Waivers are completely fungible! Entry Waivers are passed around from player to player, and almost never leave the game, so the more you "use" other player's track, the more you enable them to use your track later! ...and each Entry Waiver in your possession is worth 1 point at the end of the game....

You must pay each player 1 Entry Waiver token for each of her Track Segments you use.

You cannot use more than 5 Track Segments belonging to the same player in one turn.

If you create a Rail Company, only your Track Segments come off the board; other players' segments that you used remain on the board.

You cannot use other players' track if the route does not include any of your track whatsoever.

Examples of using Entry Waivers:

• The Red player can not use the Blue player's Track Segments to connect Birmingham and Tallahassee because the Red player has no Track Segments in that connection.
• If the Red player wants to connect Baltimore to Jacksonville she would need seven Entry Waivers. Three for the Blue player's and four for the Green player.
• The Red player can connect Baltimore to Birmingham by giving the Green player three Entry Waivers.
• The Yellow player can connect New York to Birmingham by giving the Green player three and the Red player four Entry Waiver tokens.

Waiver Reset

Once per turn a player may elect to spend 1 Entry Waiver to the bank, removing it from the game, in order to reset the Rail Company Cards. The four face-up Rail Company Cards are discarded and four new ones are drawn from the deck to replace them.

Ending the Game

The game end situation is reached when one player has completed all 8 of their Regional Cards or all 8 of their Rail Company Cards. The remaining players finish the turn.

At the end of the game after all players have completed their final turn, check to see if any player or players should be awarded Bonus Cards that are awarded at the end of the game.

Evaluate your score stack:

• Your Regional Cards reward you according to how many you scored, using the table below.
• Each Company Card indicates its value.
• Each Bonus Card indicates its value.
• Each Entry Waiver token you have is worth 1 point.

Regional Scoring Table

Number of Cards	Victory Points
1	3
2	9
3	18
4	30
5	45
6	62
7	81
8	100

The highest score wins. In a tie, the player who has scored a higher total number of Company Cards and Regional Cards wins! If it is still a tie, History will remember these luminaries as evenly matched!