Central Pacific
Central Pacific Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Playing board, 81 tiles (square), and 36 tokens (circle) in four player colors.
Tiles: Straight (24), Elbow (16), Tee (9), 4-Way (5), Tunnel (2), Forest (3), Mountain (3), City (14), Start City (4), Golden Spike (1).
Tokens: Train (28), 7 per player. Stock Market (4), 1 per player. Land Grab (4), 1 per player.
Setup
Assemble the playing board. Each player chooses a color and takes all the tokens of that color and one start city tile. For 2 players, players place their start cities (with all three rail connections facing into the board) in locations E1 and F10 on the board. For 3 players, place start cities in locations E1, J7 and A8. For 4 players, place start cities in locations E1, J5, F10 and A6.
The setup diagrams show the start city positions for the 2, 3 and 4 player games.
For 4 players, you also have the option of playing as two teams. Use the 2 player setup, but each team takes one set of train tokens. Team members should sit at opposite ends of the board.
Randomly turn all the tiles face down to form the "tile pool", except the Golden Spike which is placed aside. Unused starting city tiles ARE placed in the tile pool. Each player randomly selects five tiles and places them in front of him keeping them hidden from the other players.
If a player has no city in his initial hand, he has the option of showing his tiles to his opponent(s), randomly placing them back into the tile pool, and drawing five new tiles. Repeat until all players have at least one city tile.
Rules of Play
Use any method agreeable to all to determine who goes first, or allow the youngest player to move first. Play proceeds clockwise. A turn has 3 phases:
- Place tiles "in the network" OR Discard tiles
- Claim line(s) or the Golden Spike
- Replenish tiles from stock
Place Tiles
A player may place 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 tiles anywhere on the playing area subject to the following rules:
- Tile must be adjacent to at least one tile already in play.
- Tile must connect to an existing rail line.
- Tiles must be placed "in your network". Your network consists of your starting city and any tiles connected directly to it. Once the Golden Spike has been claimed, and the "Transcontinental" has been built, your network consists of every tile on the board.
- The number on a city tile is the MINIMUM number of rail tiles that must separate it from every other city.
If there are two cities with different numbers on them connected, the higher number prevails. (If a "2" and a "3" are connected there must be at least 3 rail tiles between them). Rail tiles connecting cities do not have to be in a straight line.
Diagrams: a placement with only 2 tiles where 4 are required is not allowed; a placement with only 2 tiles where only 2 are required is allowed.
Forest, Mountain and Tunnel
- Forest, mountains and tunnels have some special rules.
- Forest - may be placed adjacent to any side of any rail, tunnel or city tile that has a connecting rail. The forest tile "blocks" all the tiles that have connections linked to it. To remove a forest tile, you must place two rail tiles of the same type over the forest tile, then remove the forest and one of the rail tiles from play. You cannot remove a forest tile if the resulting new rail tile would make an illegal connection.
- Mountain - follows the same rules as forest tiles, except it takes "3" rail tiles of the same type to remove it (remove 2 rail tiles and the mountain tile from play). A single tunnel tile may also be used to remove mountain tiles.
- Tunnel - may be used to replace mountain tiles that have already been placed. Replace the mountain tile with the tunnel. You cannot place a tunnel if this would result in an illegal connection after the mountain is removed. Tunnels can also be placed like regular "straight" rails.
Diagrams: Forest before, two "Tee" tiles placed over it, forest removed after. Mountain before, tunnel after; a tunnel placement that is not allowed is also shown.
- Tiles placed on the same turn by the same player do not have to be adjacent to each other.
- You can place your tiles in any legal position on the board in your "network"; tiles do not need to connect to each other on the turn you play them.
Discard Tiles
If a player does not want to place any tiles, he can discard any number of tiles back to stock (1-5), and then replenish back to five tiles. The player's turn is then over, with the following exception. ONCE per game, a player may "sacrifice" (discard) one of his train tokens (out of play) in order to discard as above AND play tiles on the same turn. If there are no tiles left in the tile pool at the start of your turn, you cannot discard tiles.
Special Tokens
- Stock Market - at the start of your turn, you may discard this token (out of play) and immediately take two extra tiles from the tile pool. At the end of your turn, there must be 5 tiles or less in your hand.
- Land Grant - at the start of your turn, you may discard this token (out of play) and immediately take one random tile from any opposing player. At the end of your turn, there must be 5 tiles or less in your hand. The other player can only use four tiles during his next turn, then draws back up to 5 tiles at the end of his next turn.
Note: the printed rule text reads "t end of your turn" in the Land Grant entry; this is a text-layer error in the PDF and is transcribed here as "At the end of your turn".
You cannot use both special tokens in the same turn.
Claiming Train Lines or the Golden Spike
At the end of your turn, you may claim:
- A) the Golden Spike
- B) Lines you completed
- C) Lines you extended
- D) Lines you "stole" from an opponent (after Golden Spike is claimed)
Claiming the Golden Spike
The first player to place a tile creating a contiguous path of rail between their home city and another player's home city (through any number of cities and regardless of who claims each individual line) has built the Transcontinental Railroad. They take the "Golden Spike" and will gain a 10 point bonus at the end of the game.
Claiming Lines You Completed
A line is a path of contiguous rail that links two or more cities without passing through any other city. Rail that connects a city only to itself is not a line. If the tiles you played this turn result in the creation of a new line, you must claim that line. Place one of your train markers on top of that section of rail to mark your claim as shown.
Diagram: a train marker placed on a completed line between two cities.
If you did not place the second "2" city it would not be a completed line and you would be unable to claim it. You can claim more than one line per turn.
Claiming Lines You Extended
Often you will control lines that have "Tee" or "4-Way" rails that allow new branches on that line. If you place new rail tiles on that branch and place a new city at the end of it, you have extended your existing line. It becomes part of the line you already claimed. Do not put a new train marker on this extended line. Train markers are placed for new lines, not extended lines.
Claiming Lines You Stole
You can steal a line AFTER a player has claimed the Golden Spike by building the Transcontinental, not before. You may not claim the Golden Spike AND steal a line in the same turn.
If you extend a line an opponent controls (by building on an open branch of their line to a new or existing city tile) you steal control of the entire line. Your opponent removes their train marker from the line and puts it back in their hand. Put one of your train markers in its place. Note that your opponent may, on their turn, steal the line back in the same way. Lines may change hands several times during the course of the game. A line is only "safe" from being stolen when it has no open rail left to extend.
Replenish Tiles
After placing (or discarding) tiles, the player draws a number of tiles from stock equal to the number played. There will always be 5 tiles in front of you at the end of your turn, except when you are the victim of a Land Grant and possibly during the last turn or two of the game. If there are not enough tiles left to replenish your hand back to five, play continues until an end-of-game condition is reached.
Ending the Game
The game ends immediately when one of the following conditions occurs:
- A player places his final train to claim a rail line.
OR
- One player cannot legally play any of the tiles left in his hand.
Winning the Game
Remove all forests, mountains and any rail or tunnel sections that are not part of a completed line. These tiles do not score points.
Each player may then examine lines their opponents control and remove any rail or tunnel tiles from those lines that are not necessary to maintain legal connections to all cities. For example, if a line branches back onto itself without connecting a city, remove the tiles that are part of the extra branch. You may also remove any rail that serves only to connect a city to itself. These tiles do not score points.
If there is more than one line connecting the same two cities, all these tiles remain in play and all lines will score.
Points are scored as follows:
a) Each player gets one point for every rail and tunnel tile in lines they control. Do not include city tiles or the train markers in this count. Recall that a line that connects three or more cities is still just one line, and each rail tile in that line is counted only once.
b) For every city where you are the only player to control lines connected to it, score points equal to the number listed on the city tile. City tiles only score once, not once per connecting line.
c) If a player has claimed the Golden Spike by completing the Transcontinental Railroad, they get 10 points.
The player with the highest score is the winner. Ties go to the player who claimed the Golden Spike.