Age of Steam Expansion: Orient Express / Amusement Park
Age of Steam Expansion: Orient Express / Amusement Park Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Amusement Park
Players: 1.
Unless the changes described here say otherwise, the base Age of Steam rules apply.
Setup
The game represents one day at the amusement park. Each cube is a visitor, and each city (polygon) and town (circle) is an attraction. Polygons are large attractions; circles are small attractions along the planned routes. As drawn on the map, all track connections (rails) are already planned. You establish these connections by placing player discs on the locomotive icons (see Track Laying). Small attractions can later be turned into large attractions by urbanization.
Choose a difficulty: Easy, Normal or Hard.
- On Easy, play with 16 visitors on the map. On Normal, play with 18. On Hard, play with 20.
- On all difficulties, place 2 visitors on each blue attraction and 2 visitors on each red attraction.
- On the purple and yellow attractions, place the following numbers of visitors according to difficulty:
- Easy: 3
- Normal: 4
- Hard: 5
Clear Conditions
The game is cleared when both of the following conditions are met:
- All visitors on the map have been transported.
- Each large attraction (polygon) has accepted at least 1 visitor. Small attractions (circles) are not relevant.
Playing the Game
Track Laying
To lay a planned track, do not place a track tile. Instead, place 1 player disc on a locomotive icon along the connection drawn on the map. Only 1 disc is needed per locomotive icon. In one round, you can lay at most 2 player discs.
Track laying cost
- Each locomotive icon costs $4 to lay.
Actions
Urbanization: This action lets you upgrade 1 small attraction to a large attraction. Place a new city tile on the circle. Yes, this makes it a hexagon (see Goods Transport). Note: each urbanization increases the number of large attractions that must receive visitors before the game ends!
Engineer: You may lay a 3rd player disc for free.
Goods Transport
As usual, your locomotive level determines the maximum number of links you can pass through (here, the links along which you can carry visitors). However, each final destination also has a minimum number of links. When transporting a visitor to a large attraction (polygon), the number of sides of that polygon shows the minimum number of links that must be passed to deliver a visitor there, that is, the minimum locomotive level required. The other normal rules still apply: income rises based on the links passed during transport, a visitor cannot pass through a large attraction of its own color during transport, and visitors can only be moved along laid track.
Example: To carry a red visitor to a red square attraction 1 link away, you must find a longer route on which the number of links to the first red attraction reached is 4 or more. Therefore your locomotive level must also be 4 or more. For example, if you find a 4-link route with no red attraction along the way, your income rises by 4.
Example: To carry a red visitor via 5 links to the red square, as in the base game, you need a locomotive level of 5 or more, and income rises by 5. In other words, the square's final destination changes nothing except that its minimum link count is 4.
To check the clear conditions, place an unused player disc on each attraction a visitor has been transported to, as a marker.
As usual, a small attraction (town) cannot be a final destination.
Action: Priority Transport (Souvenir)
The Japanese sheet names this action お土産 ("souvenir"). For one of your two transports, you may transport 1 visitor according to the normal base game rules. That is, you do not need to count the sides of the final destination polygon; count links only!
Goods Replenishment
No new visitors enter the map. Once the park has opened, the entrance gates are closed!
Orient Express
Players: 4-6 (5-6 recommended).
Unless the changes described here say otherwise, the base Age of Steam rules apply.
Setup
- Remove new city E from the game (new city E is already drawn on the map).
- Place 2 goods on each purple, red and blue city, and 1 good on each yellow city.
Playing the Game
The yellow cities are considered connected by the Orient Express, even though no lines joining them are drawn on the map. The Orient Express is treated as a single line connecting London, Paris, Strasbourg, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and Constantinople, linked by unbranched links.
Track Laying
The Orient Express originally connects the yellow cities to each other, but a player may still lay track between yellow cities as part of their own rail network.
Track laying costs
- Plain: $2
- Town: $1 + $1 for each track connected to the town
Actions
Urbanization: You cannot urbanize a yellow new city.
Goods Transport
Because the Orient Express already connects the yellow cities, it can be used to transport goods, provided the goods are not yellow.
- Yellow goods transported to a yellow city: that city is the final destination, as usual.
- Goods that are not yellow: first, as usual, transport the good along links laid by any player to a yellow city. From there, you may use the Orient Express to move it to another yellow city, and then continue transporting it as usual along links laid by any player.
To use the Orient Express this way, you must pay $1 for each yellow city entered after the goods arrive at the Orient Express (yellow city). Your income rises by the same amount you pay.
Example: To transport goods from Strasbourg to Bucharest, you pay $3, because you enter 3 cities (Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest). Your income also rises by 3.
You may use the Orient Express only once per transport of one good.
The Orient Express's virtual links do not count toward the locomotive level required for transport! As usual, only links laid by players count, and each one requires 1 locomotive level.
When the Orient Express is used, the player-laid links at either end of the Orient Express used in that transport yield income as normal.
Example: You own a link from Berlin to Strasbourg and a link from Constantinople to Athens, and your locomotive level is 2. On link 1 you move a red good from Berlin to Strasbourg (income +1). From there you pay $4 to travel on the Orient Express to Constantinople (income +4), and on link 2 you move it to Athens to complete the transport (income +1). Your income rises by 6 in total!
Advancing the Round Marker
The Orient Express costs money to build and maintain. In addition to the normal income reduction, each player must pay an additional tax in this phase. That is, each player's income is reduced by 2! (This applies whether or not you used the Orient Express. After all, you are all railway kings!)