Cargo Express Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1.0 Introduction
• 2.0 Components
  • 2.1 The Game Board & the Cardboard Playing Pieces
  • 2.2 The Playing Cards
  • 2.3 The Bag & the Cubes
  • 2.4 A Player's Components
• 3.0 Set Up
• 4.0 Sequence of Play
  • 4.1 Planning Phase
  • 4.2 Action Phase
• 5.0 Movement
  • 5.1 Tunnels
  • 5.2 Railroad Refit Playing Piece
  • 5.3 Special Action before Movement
• 6.0 The Actions
  • 6.1 Attaching Cars
  • 6.2 Upgrading the Engine
  • 6.3 Exchanging Cars
  • 6.4 Uncoupling Cars
  • 6.5 Signing a Contract and Contract Cards in general
  • 6.6 Changing the order of Cars
  • 6.7 Moving an extra Space
  • 6.8 End of Action Phase
• 7.0 The Character Cards
  • These are the effects of the characters:
• 8.0 Game End & Scoring

1.0 Introduction

In Cargoexpress two to four players take over the roles of train entrepreneurs that accept orders and transport goods.

Cargoexpress is mechanically simple, however, planning the best moves is complex. Moreover, each player has to cope with always changing conditions.

Let your fellow players watch sparks fly from under the wheels of your dashing train!

2.0 Components

Each copy of Cargoexpress contains:

• 1 game board
• 76 playing cards (36 planning, 18 contract, 16 locomotive, 5 character, 1 start player – plus 4 promo cards that are not used in the game)
• 4 wooden locomotives (1 each in 4 player colors)
• 45 cubes in 5 colors
• 1 bag
• cardboard playing pieces
• 4 player aids (1 per player)
• 2 rules booklets (English and German)

2.1 The Game Board & the Cardboard Playing Pieces

On the left side, the game board has 5 spots for the character cards, see below.

The locomotives of the players move on the main part on the right side of the board.

One cardboard playing piece is placed on each round spot before the game begins, see 3.0.

2.2 The Playing Cards

The 76 cards consist of 36 planning cards (9 per player), 16 engine cards (4 per player), 18 contract cards, 5 character cards, and 1 stationmaster (= start player) card.

2.3 The Bag & the Cubes

During the game the cubes (45; 9 each in 5 different colors) are drawn out of the bag and are placed on industrial complex playing pieces.

The cubes represent train cars.

Note: from now on the cubes are called cars in these rules.

2.4 A Player's Components

Each player has 9 planning cards and 4 engine cards plus 1 wooden locomotive in their color. Moreover, each player receives 1 play aid.

The play aids are backprinted (one side is English, the other side is German).

3.0 Set Up

1. One player places the game board on the table.
2. Another player takes the deck of cards and separates it into five different stacks:
   • the 36 planning cards,
   • the 18 contract cards,
   • the 16 engine cards,
   • the 5 character cards,
   • the stationmaster card.
3. The 18 contract cards are shuffled; each player receives one. They look at them and put them on the table facedown. The rest of the contract cards are put into the center of the game board.
4. The 5 character cards are placed on their spots at the side of the board face up (it does not matter in which space a card is placed).
5. One player takes the cardboard playing pieces and separates all factories from them. The factories are shuffled and then, randomly, one each is placed in their starting spaces on the game board, face up.
6. Now the rest of the playing pieces is shuffled and then each one is placed, randomly, on all remaining spaces on the board.
7. One player puts all cubes/cars into the bag and then places one car on each spot of the industrial complex pieces.
8. Now each player takes their individual player material: play aid plus 1 locomotive, 4 engine cards and 9 planning cards in their color.
   • The planning cards are placed in front of them on the table; the locomotive is put on the industrial complex card of the matching color.
   • The 4 engine cards are placed face up on the table – with the A on top, then B, then C, then D.
9. Finally, the players determine a random start player who receives the stationmaster card.

4.0 Sequence of Play

Cargoexpress is played in game rounds, consisting of two phases, until one player fulfills the game end conditions, see 8.0. The player with the stationmaster card begins; the other players are following in clockwise order.

Each game round is divided into a

• Planning Phase and an
• Action Phase

4.1 Planning Phase

At the start of the planning phase each player, in turn order, selects 1 character card from the board and places it in front of them.

After that each player takes a look at the position of their locomotive on the board, their planning cards, and their topmost engine card.

The players have to decide how many spaces they want to move with their locomotive.

Each planning card has a letter corresponding to an engine card and a single number. The letter is the engine class while the number is the number of spaces the locomotive has to move.

With their planning cards the players simultaneously form a stack of three facedown cards. The card to be used during the first turn of the action phase (see 4.2) is placed on top, the card to be used during the second turn below and the one to be used in the third turn is at the bottom.

This is the planning stack.

Normally the players may only use their cards that match their current engine card or cards that show a letter that is before it in the alphabet.

Example: Bev has the B engine on top of her planning stack. She may use all A and B planning cards.

Attention: Even if the engine class of a player's locomotive is too low, a player may put a higher class planning card in their planning stack. After all, they could upgrade the engine before the cards are revealed.

The D planning card is special. It has two numbers ("1/2"). The player may decide to either move 1 or 2 spaces on the board right before it is their turn to move.

4.2 Action Phase

The action phase consists of 3 player turns of each player, conducted in clockwise order beginning with the stationmaster/start player. Each turn is played in the same way.

The player whose turn it is flips over their top card of their planning stack. Then the locomotive of that player is moved a number of spaces on the board. Afterwards the player has to conduct an action (but see 5.3).

The other player(s) follow in clockwise order.

This is done three times per action phase.

Played cards are discarded to the pile of unused planning cards.

Note: If a player has made a mistake and placed a card into the planning stack that they cannot use (letter is too "high"), they lose their turn and can neither move nor conduct an action.

At the end of the action phase the character cards are returned to their spaces on the board. In addition, the stationmaster card is given to the player to the left of the current stationmaster.

The new stationmaster has to exchange the railroad refit playing piece on the board with any other playing piece that neither has any locomotive or cars on it.

Now the next game round begins!

5.0 Movement

The number on each planning card determines how many spaces a locomotive on the game board has to move. Each space on the board costs 1 movement point to enter. It is not allowed to move less or more spaces (but see 5.3). Movement may be in clockwise or counterclockwise direction – but it must be made in one direction only.

It is allowed to pass through other players' locomotives or to end the movement in a space with one more different locomotives.

See also 5.3 below.

5.1 Tunnels

There are two tunnels in the game, each consisting of 2 playing pieces, termed "I" and "II".

The 2 "I" and the 2 "II" tunnel playing pieces/locations are "connected". If a locomotive enters a tunnel space, the next space it enters may be the other tunnel piece with the same letter. Moving from one tunnel piece to the other costs 1 movement point.

Tunnels not only may shorten your route but they allow a player to change the direction of movement after leaving it.

5.2 Railroad Refit Playing Piece

The space with this piece may not be entered or crossed by any locomotive (but see 7.0).

Note: The location of this piece will change at the end of each round.

5.3 Special Action before Movement

Before starting movement, a player may take this special action. It may be only taken if the player's locomotive is on any industrial complex piece.

It lets the player attach a car to the locomotive. See also 6.1 below.

6.0 The Actions

After their movement, a player may conduct one of the following actions:

• Attaching Cars
• Upgrading the Engine
• Exchanging Cars
• Uncoupling Cars
• Signing a Contract
• Changing the order of Cars
• Moving an extra Space

6.1 Attaching Cars

If a player's locomotive ends its movement on an industrial complex space, the player may attach one or more cars of this complex to their engine.

Attaching a car means that the player takes the first (leftmost) car on the industrial complex piece and puts it to the right side of their engine card. If there is already one or more cars at the engine card, the new car is placed at the very end in line. If a player takes more than one car, they have to keep the order of cars when attaching them to the engine. Be careful when placing cars and changing their order!

Afterwards the player draws, one at a time, as many cars from the bag as needed to fill all empty spots on the space – from left to right.

Note: Each engine card shows a number of cars, between 1 (A) to 4 (D). This is the maximum number of cars each engine may have attached at any time!

6.2 Upgrading the Engine

If a player's locomotive ends its movement on the industrial complex space in the player's color, they may remove their current engine card and return it to the game box. The next engine card in sequence (A to B, B to C, C to D) is now "active".

A player may take this action only a maximum of three times during a game.

An upgraded engine lets a player use more planning cards and haul additional cars.

6.3 Exchanging Cars

If a player's locomotive ends its movement on any industrial complex space, they may remove the last attached car (furthest to the rear) and attach the first car on the complex space. The removed car is placed at the 3rd spot of the complex piece. Before, the cars in spot #2 and #3 are moved one spot to the left.

A player may only exchange a single car.

6.4 Uncoupling Cars

The player may take this action if their locomotive ended the movement on any factory space. In addition, the color of a player's last car (furthest to the rear) has to match the color of the factory. If they match, the player may uncouple this car. It is possible to uncouple several cars at once in sequence from the rear, if they all match the color of the factory.

Uncoupled cars are placed below a player's engine card. Uncoupled cars may be also used to fulfill contracts, see 6.5.

In addition, they will score points at the end of the game, no matter if they have been used to fulfill a contract or not.

6.5 Signing a Contract and Contract Cards in general

The player may take this action if their locomotive ended the movement on any space of the board. The player then draws two cards (if possible, see below) from the top of the contract cards' deck and looks at them. One of these cards is kept, the other is returned to the bottom of the contract cards' deck. It is a new contract to be fulfilled.

Note: No player may have more than 2 unfulfilled contracts.

If the contract cards' deck is empty, this action cannot be selected anymore. If there is only a single card remaining, the player may choose to keep it or to return it.

Each contract card has two pieces of information: a victory points' value if the contract has been fulfilled, and the number and color of cars that are needed to fulfill it. The player takes cars from below their engine card (see 6.4 above) and places the right number and colors on the card. The cars used to fulfill a contract stay on the card till the end of the game – they may not be used to fulfill another contract. However, all cars score again at the end of the game.

Remember: Cars are cubes.

Each unfulfilled contract is worth minus 2 points at the end of the game.

6.6 Changing the order of Cars

The player may take this action if their locomotive ended the movement on any space of the board. The player then selects any one industrial complex space and puts the cars at that space in the order of their choosing.

6.7 Moving an extra Space

The player may take this action if their locomotive ended the movement on any space of the board. The player may then move their locomotive 1 additional space – even in the opposite direction of their movement. Movement through a tunnel is possible if the player ended on a tunnel space.

6.8 End of Action Phase

When all players have played their 3 cards and conducted their actions, this phase ends.

The character cards are now returned to their spots on the board. In addition, the stationmaster card is given to the player to the left of the current stationmaster.

The new stationmaster has to exchange the railroad refit playing piece on the board with any other playing piece that neither has any locomotive or cars on it.

7.0 The Character Cards

Cargoexpress contains 5 different character cards.

At the start of the planning phase each player, in turn order, selects 1 character card from the board and places it in front of them.

These are the effects of the characters:

• The Logistician: When selecting the attaching cars action (6.1), the player may attach any cars present at the industrial complex space and put them to their locomotive in any order.
  • Note: Only the newly taken cars may be attached in any order at the end.
• The Engineer: When selecting the uncoupling cars action (6.4), the player may uncouple any cars at their locomotive.
• The Mechanic: During movement the player may pass through (but not end on) the railroad refit piece. The railroad refit piece costs 1 movement point.
• The Driver: Once per game round only, during movement, the player may move 1 additional space. The card should be flipped over to show that it has been used afterwards.
• The Manager: When fulfilling a contract, the player may use one car of a different color than shown on the card.

All character cards are returned to the board at the end of the action phase.

8.0 Game End & Scoring

When a car has to be drawn out of the bag and the player notices the bag is empty, the game will be soon over.

From now on the players should check when the total amount of cars on industrial complexes is equal to or less than the number of players. When this has happened the players are in the last game round. This last game round is completed normally. It is not necessary to return character cards or pass the stationmaster card.

When this round is completed, the players score points.

A player receives:

• 1 point per car in their possession, however,
• 2 points per car if they have all 5 different car colors – but only per set of 5 colors.

Example: Bev has 7 cars (2 red, 2 blue, 1 green, 1 brown, 1 white). She scores 10 points for the set (2 points per car) plus 2 points for the second red and the second blue car.

• The points for fulfilled contracts.
• Minus 2 points per unfulfilled contract.

Each player adds up their points. The player with the most points is the winner! If there is a tie, among these players the one who has the most cars in front of them is the winner. If there is still a tie, there is more than one winner.