Dual Gauge Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Counters
  • Wood
  • Maps
• Set-Up
• Flow of Play
• Initial Auction Round
• Operating Round
  • Lay Track
  • Place Station
  • Buy Trains
  • Run Route
  • Pay Out or Withhold
• Check for Game End
• Stock Round
• Winning the Game
• Company Powers
• Credits

Components

Your copy of the Dual Gauge base game comes with one countersheet, 54 wooden pieces, two maps (Portugal and Detroit), and these rules. You will need poker chips, or some other substitute for play money, which is not provided.

Counters

There are three types of counters.

• Track is double-sided, representing either Standard or Narrow Track. During the game, these will be built between hexes, laying across shared hexsides.
• Trains are also double-sided; one side represents a Standard Train (running on Standard Track) and the other a Narrow Train (running on Narrow Track). Trains also have a cost (2, 3, 4, or 5).
• Priority Deal features the divine visage of Monster, the Hollandspiele spokescat. Who's a good girl? You are, Monster!

Wood

There are eight discs each in six colors, which will usually represent shares of stock or stations on the map, but might be used for other purposes depending on the map. (For example, the Detroit map uses eight unpainted discs as Debt Tokens.) There are six cylinders; these are President Markers, used to indicate the President of a given railroad company.

Maps

Each map may be made up of three different types of hexagons (hexes):

• Clear hexes have a green border; these are your basic everyday hexes.
• Rough hexes have a brown border; it is more expensive to build into or out of a Rough hex.
• Destination hexes have a white border; you can build into such a hex, but never out of one.

A hex may contain a Stop:

• Dits generate a small amount of revenue.
• Cities generate more revenue, and contain one or more Station spaces. Cities with two or more Station spaces are Major Cities, and generate additional revenue.
• Destination hexes don't "contain" either of those, but always constitute a Stop, and generate revenue.

Each map is home to a Stock Values Track.

• Each space on the track indicates the current stock value of the Railroad whose token occupies that space.
• Spaces are divided into rows which influence the purchase of trains and stations.
• Yellow spaces on the track are Junk Stock spaces.
• Red spaces on the track represent the range of Initial Stock Prices.
• Purple spaces on the track trigger game end.
• White spaces have no special properties.

Adjusting Stock Values

Whenever a Company's Stock Value is increased, move it to the right; whenever it is decreased, move it to the left. If the Company's Stock Value disc reaches the rightmost space of a row and needs to increase further, it continues moving to the leftmost space of the next (lower) row. If it reaches the leftmost space of a row and needs to decrease further, it continues moving to the rightmost space of the previous (higher) row. A Company's Stock Value can never be increased or decreased beyond the confines of the Stock Values Track.

Each map holds the Charters for various Companies, with spaces for its discs. Each Company has some kind of special property, indicated under the Charter. Note that some Companies are only used at certain player counts; for example, the "4/5" indicator for the Linha do Algarve on the Portugal map means that this Company is only used when playing with four or five players.

Build costs, revenue generation, train mix, game end triggers, and the steps of a Company's Turn might vary depending on the map, as indicated on the map itself.

Set-Up

Once you have chosen a map to play:

• Give each player starting money according to the Starting Cash printed on the mapsheet.
• Count out the indicated number and types of Trains and place them to the side of the mapsheet, separated by type. Place any excess Trains back in the box.
• Place all Track pieces within reach of all players.
• For each Company, place one of its discs as its initial Station, as printed on the map. For example, on the Portugal map, the Linha do Norte and Linha do Sul each have a Station in Lisboa. Even if the Company is not used for the chosen player count, still place its initial Station.
• For each Company that is in play for the chosen player count, place five of its discs on its Charter, one disc near the Stock Values Track, and one disc in an opaque container.
• Randomly choose a starting player and give them the Priority Deal marker. That player randomizes the discs in the opaque container, pulling them one at a time, to determine the order of the Initial Auction Round.

If it is your first time playing, play with the Portugal map.

Flow of Play

The game begins with an Initial Auction Round, then proceeds to an alternating sequence of Operating Rounds and Stock Rounds. During Operating Rounds, each Company takes a Company Turn - building track, placing stations, buying trains, running routes, and making a dividend decision - and after the last Company has acted, the players check for game end. During a Stock Round, each player has one opportunity to invest in a Company.

Initial Auction Round

The first share of each Company is auctioned in the order from which they were drawn from the opaque container during set-up.

The player who begins the game with the Priority Deal marker opens the auction for the first share in the sequence. The player who wins each share then begins the auction for the next.

The minimum bid for any share is $12. If the player who is to begin the auction has at least $12, they must bid $12. If the player who is to begin the auction does not have at least $12, then the neighbor to their left must begin the auction, and so on, until someone with at least $12 is able to make a bid. If somehow all players have less than $12 then you've all bid way too much and should start over.

Once the initial bid has been placed, play passes clockwise. Each player must either bid higher than the highest bid, or pass. If a player passes, they are "out" for the duration of the auction for this specific share (but not for future auctions during the round). When all players but one are "out", that player

• pays their winning bid to the Company's Treasury (place it near the Company's Charter to the side of the map),
• takes the auctioned Stock into their possession, along with a President marker (they are now the Company's President),
• takes the Company's disc near the Stock Values Track and places it on the red space closest to the winning bid amount without exceeding it, and
• begins the next auction, if any.

When all initial shares have been auctioned off, determine which player has the least amount of money (but has at least $1). Give that player the Priority Deal marker. If players are tied for least, Priority Deal passes from the player who received it at the start of the game to the first tied player in clockwise fashion (yes, it still passes even if the player who held it is one of the tied players).

Operating Round

During an Operating Round, each Company takes one Company Turn, in the order printed on the map. For example, on the Portugal map, the Linha do Leste has the first turn, and the Linha do Norte has the second turn.

During a Company Turn, all decisions for that Company are made by its President. The Company Turn typically consists of the following steps performed in the following order:

• Lay Track
• Place Station
• Buy Trains
• Run Route
• Pay Out or Withhold

Lay Track

Track is laid across hexsides, connecting the hexes that share those hexsides. If a series of contiguous track segments can be traced from the acting Company's Station to a hex, that Company is connected to that hex (but see "Blocked" below). During the Lay Track segment of a Company's Turn, the Company chooses one hex to which it is connected, from which it can build multiple Track pieces, with each Track piece crossing a new hexside that did not previously contain any Track.

For example: the Linha do Leste has previously built track from its starting location in Abrantes to the Clear hex to its southeast. On its Company turn, it may choose to build track out of Abrantes, or out of that southeast hex. It chooses the latter, and can build up to five track segments.

Cost: The cost per Track depends on its Gauge (Standard or Narrow), as printed on the map. Building into or out of a Rough hex doubles the cost of the Track. Track is paid for from the Company's Treasury to the bank.

Gauge Restrictions: Standard and Narrow Track cannot exist in the same hex unless that hex contains a Dit or City. For example, the presence of Standard Track in hex A and of Narrow Track in hex B means that Track can never be built along their shared hexside. Both however could build into hex C, because it contains a Dit.

Blocked: If a City or Major City hex has no vacant Station spaces left, and all Station spaces are occupied by the discs of other Companies, the acting Company is blocked: it cannot trace a connection through that hex, nor can it build from that hex.

Building to Destinations: Companies may build into but never out of a Destination hex.

Connection Bonuses: Some Companies have Connection Bonuses associated with specific hexes. The instant that that Company becomes connected to that hex - even if another Company did the connecting - a one-time Connection Bonus is paid. Divide the amount indicated by the number of shares in player hands, rounding fractions up, and pay that amount per share to each shareholder. This is a one-time special payment.

Place Station

A Company that

• is connected to a City or Major City hex with a vacant Station space,
• does not already have a Station in that hex,
• has at least one disc on its Charter, and
• whose Stock Value disc does not occupy the top row of the Stock Values Track,

may token (place a Station in) the vacant Station space.

To token, they

• remove a disc from their Charter, placing it in the Station space, and
• move their Stock Value disc up one row on the Stock Values Track.

Note that some spaces on the Stock Values Track form a "ledge"; while the disc occupies that space, that Company cannot token.

Why Token? Besides blocking rival Companies, a second or third Station will allow you to run a second or third Route (so long as you also have Trains to run those Routes!). Early Stations are generally safer investments than late-game Stations. Some maps are less conducive to tokening than others - for example, it's rarely (but sometimes!) worth it to token on the Portugal map.

Reserved: On some maps, one or more Stations may be "reserved" for a Company. No other Company may token in that space. Once it is connected to that hex, the Company for which the Station is reserved may token that space on its Turn. If it is indicated as being a "free Station", then they token that space without paying for it. Nifty!

Buy Trains

The number of Trains a Company can buy during this step of their Company Turn depends on its position on the Stock Values Track at the beginning of this step:

• If it is in the yellow Junk Stocks zone, it cannot buy any Trains.
• If it is otherwise in the top row of the Stock Values Track, it can buy one Train.
• If it occupies the second row, it can buy two Trains.
• If it occupies the third - you guessed it - it can buy three Trains. And so on.

Train Phases: At the beginning of the game, only the "2" Trains are available for purchase. Once all the "2" Trains have been purchased, the "3" Trains become available; once all the "3" Trains have been purchased, the "4" Trains become available; once all the "4" Trains have been purchased, the "5" Trains become available.

Paying for Trains: The number of each Train corresponds to its cost. This cost is not paid in money, but in Stock Value: decrease the Company's disc on the Stock Values Track a number of spaces equal to the cost of the Train.

Train Types: When the Train is purchased, the Company decides if it will be a Standard or a Narrow Train, flipping the Train marker appropriately and placing it near the Company's Charter to indicate ownership.

Rusting: When the first "4" Train is bought, all "2" Trains are immediately removed from the game. When the first "5" Train is bought, all "3" Trains are removed.

Mandatory Purchase: If a Company has no Trains and is not in the Junk Stocks zone of the Stock Values Track, it must buy at least one Train if there is at least one Train available to purchase. If a Company is in the Junk Stocks zone, it cannot buy a Train, and might render its position unrecoverable.

Run Route

A Company

• with at least one Train, and
• which has a Station that is connected to at least one other Dit, City, Major City, or Destination hex,

will run a Route.

Companies may run a number of Routes equal to the number of Stations they have on the map, but each Route must use different Track pieces and different Trains. Each Route originates at a Station, running along connecting Track using valid Trains:

• Standard Trains run on Standard Track.
• Narrow Trains run on Narrow Track.

The distance each Train may run is measured in stops, and is not connected in any way to the Train's cost. I'm gonna say this again, and I'm gonna bold it because it's important: The cost of a Train has no bearing on how far it runs - a "2" Train runs just as far as a "5" Train.

• Standard Trains can run to up to two Stops.
• Narrow Trains can run to only a single Stop.
• Notice that this is measured in Stops, not hexes.

For example, if the Linha do Norte has a Standard Train, they can run from Lisboa to the Dit in hex A (first stop) to the Dit in hex B (second stop).

When a Train finishes running, another Train can pick up where it left off. This can be a Train of the same or a different type.

Continuing our example, if the Linha do Norte had a second Standard Train, they could run from hex B to hex C (one stop) and then to Abrantes (two stops). If they had a Narrow Train instead, they could run directly from hex B to Abrantes (one stop, and then it's done).

Trains can run to a Blocked hex but not through it. For example, the Linha do Norte can run into Abrantes as detailed above, but because of the orange and red stations present in that hex, they cannot run through it.

Note that because of the specific Track laid, you might not be able to use a Train to its full capacity. If another player placed a Narrow Track between hexes A and B, the Linha Do Norte's Standard Train could only run from Lisboa to hex A, and then would stop.

Each Stop visited (including its starting City or Major City) provides revenue for the Company. Count each Stop once and only once, even if it is visited multiple times in a Route (though note again that each Track segment may only be used once) or if it is visited via multiple Routes beginning in different Stations. The revenue provided by that Stop depends on its type as indicated on the map. Note that if a Destination hex is visited, it ends the Route.

The total revenue generated is carried over into the next and final step of the Company Turn.

Pay Out or Withhold

The Company's President must decide whether to Pay Out the Company's revenue as a Dividend, or Withhold it into the Company.

If they choose to Pay Out, divide the Company's revenue by the number of shares in player hands, rounding fractions up. From the bank, pay each player that amount per share they own. Then, increase the Company's Stock Value by a number of spaces equal to the number of empty disc spaces on its Charter.

If they choose to Withhold, take money equal to the Company's revenue from the bank and place it in the Company's Treasury. Then, decrease the Company's Stock Value by a number of spaces equal to the number of empty disc spaces on its Charter.

In certain circumstances, the Company's President does not get a choice:

• If a Game End Trigger has occurred (check quickly if there is any doubt), making this the last round of the game, the Company must Pay Out if it had at least one Train with a valid Route that generated Revenue.
• If there is Track remaining in the pool, and the Company did not (or could not) build Track this turn, the Company must Withhold.
• If the Company does not have a Train, the Company must Withhold (this supersedes the first case). Note that in this case, it is "withholding" $0, which is not a great way to run a business.

Check for Game End

At the end of the Operating Round, check to see if one of the Game End Triggers for the chosen map has occurred. Typically these will be

• Running out of Track
• Running out of Trains
• Running out of discs on all Company Charters
• Running out of Station spaces
• One or more Companies have Stock Value in the purple zone

If one or more of these have occurred, the game ends (see Winning the Game below). Otherwise, proceed to the Stock Round.

Stock Round

At the beginning of the Stock Round, determine which player has the least amount of money (but at least $1). That player gets the Priority Deal marker. If players are tied for least, Priority Deal passes from the player who currently holds it in clockwise fashion (yes, it still passes even if the player who holds it is one of the tied players).

Beginning with the Priority Deal player and passing clockwise, each player gets one (and only one!) turn, in which they may either purchase one share of stock, or pass.

To purchase a share, they pay the Company's current Stock Value to its Treasury, taking one of the available discs from its Charter. Then, they increase the Company's Stock Value by one space.

If a player's purchase results in them having more shares than the Company's President, they become the Company's President, taking the President marker into their possession.

Once each player has had their turn, play proceeds to the Operating Round.

Winning the Game

At the end of the game, each player cashes in their shares for their current Stock Value (but shares for Companies in the Junk Stock zone are worth $0). The player with the most money wins.

Company Powers

Each Company for each map has special abilities which alter the basic rules in some way, as summarized on the map. These powers mean exactly what they say. For example,

• Linha do Leste reads "$15 Connection Bonus: Badajoz". This means that it qualifies for a $15 Connection Bonus when it is connected to Badajoz.
• Linha do Sul reads "Begins with free 2T". This means that it begins the game with a "2" Train. The President chooses what type of Train it is at the beginning of that Company's Turn in the first Operating Round.
• Linha do Douro reads "Bank matches starting bid". Whatever the winning bid is in the Initial Auction Round, the bank also pays that amount into the Company's Treasury.
• Linha do Algarve reads "Winning bid gets second share free". When you win the first share, you take a second into your possession at no cost.
• Michigan Central reads "Starts one Route in Windsor". This means it can start a Route in Windsor, despite having no token there, and even if other Companies have it Blocked.
• Michigan Northern reads "Two Builds Per Turn". This means it can build from two separate hexes during a single Lay Track step of its Company Turn.

Credits

• Game Design: Tom Russell
• Maps & Trains: Ilya Kudriashov
• Rules Editing & Layout: Mary Holland-Russell
• Playtesters: Franz Albright, Guilherme Alves, Adam Brock, Bob Davis, Dan Domme, James Epperson, James Geist, Travis D. Hill, Jake Klopfenstein, Adam Kramer, Mark Lavine, Ashley Miller, Mark von Minden, Nick Nelson, Kristopher Snyder, Jason Szabo, Craig Taylor, Rick Thompson, Jonathan Wells, and others.