Free Ride
Free Ride Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The New Concepts of Free Ride
Before explaining the game in detail, we like to give you a quick overview of the two central concepts of Free Ride. Afterward, as you will see, all the rules will fall into place.
Railway lines: you are building railway lines between cities. A railway line is built, when you have placed rail tokens on all of the track images between two cities. There are three kinds of railway lines in Free Ride: your lines, lines owned by fellow players, and state-owned lines. When you travel along railway lines, you pay nothing to travel on yours and state-owned. However, to travel on a fellow player's line, you must pay them 1 coin to convert their line to state-owned. From then on, traveling on that line is free for all players. Keep this in mind: as coins are limited, you should carefully balance the building of your lines with the conversion of fellow players' lines to state-owned lines.
Travel routes: during the game, you can choose from 6 travel routes in the public display. Each travel route consists of 3 city cards, and each offers two different options. You take 2 of the 3 city cards, but you cannot change their order: Either take the top (starting) and center (destination) city cards OR take the center (starting) and bottom (destination) city cards while returning the remaining city card of the travel route to the game box. Thus, you cannot reverse the travel route or choose the first and third cards for your travel route. Keep this in mind: try to move your train into regions of Europe where you can easily pick up the next travel route without losing too much time.
Example: For this travel route you can either choose Bruxelles as the starting city and Köln as the destination city, or Köln as the starting city and Praha as the destination city.
In Free Ride it is always all about these decisions: do you build new railway lines, or move your train? Do you wait for better travel routes on display, or snatch the best travel routes from under your fellow players' noses?
Game Components
Your copy of Free Ride contains:
- 1 game board
- 135 city cards (3 stacks with 45 cards, marked "I" to "III")
- 140 rail tokens
- 5 train tokens (1 each in 5 player colors)
- 16 player mats (1 train and 2 coaches in 5 player colors, plus 1 train for the solo challenge)
- 125 ownership tokens (25 each in 5 player colors)
- 5 "rails under construction" tokens (1 each in 5 player colors)
- 54 coins
- 1 first player signal tile
- 2 rule booklets (English and German)
Game Preparations
- Place the game board on the table.
- Place 2 coins each on the symbol next to the 9 cities around the edges of Europe.
- Place all rail tokens and the remaining coins in separate supplies next to the game board.
- Everybody chooses a color.
- Take all your ownership tokens, your train token and the train and coach mats marked "I" and place them in front of you.
- Take 6 coins from the supply.
- Depending on the number of players, take the following number of rail tokens from the supply and place them in your stock.
| # of players | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of rail tokens | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 |
- Place the coach mats marked "II" and the "rails under construction" tokens of all players next to the supply of rail tokens. Return unused player components and the green solo train marked "I-III" back to the game box.
- Take the city cards and sort them in 3 stacks sorted by their numbers "I" to "III". There are 45 cities in Free Ride, and each city is once in each stack.
- For 2 players: return the city cards marked on both sides of the city picture to the game box (one card for each city). Afterward, each of the 3 stacks contains 30 cards, and each city is only in two of the three stacks.
- Shuffle each stack separately and place them as face down draw stacks next to the game board.
- Start drawing cards from the draw stack "I" and place them one after the other in columns next to the game board, creating 3 travel routes, each consisting of 3 cards. For each travel route, always place the city cards from top to bottom next to the game board.
- Choose a first player using any method you prefer. The first player places the first player signal tile next to their train mat and keeps this tile for the whole game.
You are ready to start Free Ride!
How to Play
Free Ride is played in three parts - Prologue, Main Game, and Finish.
During the Prologue, choose your first travel route and place your train in the matching starting city.
In the Main Game, build rails to connect cities with railway lines, move your train from city to city to fulfill travel routes, or take rail tokens. On your turn, choose 1 of the following 3 actions.
a) Build rails: spend up to 2 construction points to connect the cities with railway lines. Optional: pay 1 coin to take 5 rail tokens from the general supply and place them in your stock.
b) Ride the train: move your train up to 2 cities along finished railways to fulfill your travel routes.
c) Take rail tokens: take 5 rail tokens from the general supply and place them in your stock without spending a coin.
After triggering the Finish, you can also withdraw your service. Quit the game by removing your train from the game board.
After everybody quits the game, count up your victory points and determine the winner of Free Ride.
For 1 player: please read all of the following rules, as they are the same for the Free Ride solo challenge, too. You will find necessary additional adjustments for the solo game under The Free Ride Solo Challenge.
Prologue
Choose your first travel routes and place your trains in the matching starting cities.
As the first player, start the Prologue and pick up 1 of the 3 travel routes available in the public display.
Each travel route consists of 3 city cards, and each offers two different options. Take 2 of the 3 city cards of the travel route of your choice, but do not change the order of the cards: Either take the top card as your starting city and the center card as your destination city OR take the center card as your starting city and the bottom card as your destination city, while returning the remaining city card of the travel route to the game box.
Place your train on the starting city on the game board. If there are 2 coins next to the city, take them and place them with your other coins. Place both cards of your travel route on your coach, with the destination city on top. Your coach can only take a single travel route, and you cannot simply discard it underway. You first need to fulfill this travel route during the action Ride the train before you can pick up a new travel route. Thus, you may want to choose shorter travel routes.
Then, the remaining players take turns selecting their travel routes in the same way. Everybody places their train on different starting cities of their travel routes, as there is only one of each in the first stack. Add 2 travel routes from the draw stack "I" to the public display for each remaining player, so the second player has a choice of 4 travel routes and so on, until the fifth player has a choice of 7 travel routes.
For 2 players: after the first player chooses their travel route, add another 3 travel routes, so the second player has a choice of 5 travel routes.
At the end of the Prologue, make sure to fill up the display to a total of 6 travel routes, independent of the number of players.
Example: Hedwig picks up the travel route from Madrid to Paris, while returning Praha to the game box. She places her train on Madrid and both city cards on her coach; Paris on top. Then, she adds 2 travel routes to the public display, so Angelika has a choice of 4 travel routes. After Nicole and Debbie picked up their first travel routes, too, they fill up the public display to 6 travel routes. Then, Hedwig starts the Main Game.
Main Game
Connect cities by building rails and move your train along finished railway lines to fulfill travel routes.
a) Build Rails
Build rails to connect the cities in Europe with railway lines.
As shown on your train mat, spend up to 2 construction points to place 1 or 2 rails from your stock on the map to build railway lines between the cities. To mark your ownership, place an ownership token on top of the first rail token of each of your railway lines.
- Basic railway space: spend 1 construction point to place 1 rail token on a basic rail space.
- Tunnel and ferry spaces: spend 2 construction points to place 1 rail token on a tunnel space or a ferry space. If you only have 1 construction point left, you can still place 1 rail token on such a space, but turn the rail token 90° as a reminder that you need to spend another construction point in a later turn to finish the rail on this space.
You can build a railway line if your train can move to that new line via built railway lines, either your own lines, state-owned railway lines, or the railway lines of fellow players. You can start to build a railway line, but you are not forced to finish it in consecutive turns. As a reminder for an unfinished railway line, take your "rails under construction" token and place it in front of you until you finish that railway line in a later turn. You may take the actions Ride the train and Take rail tokens in between. However, you must finish your railway line between two cities before starting your next railway line. After you finish an "under construction" railway line, return your "rails under construction" token to the side of the board. Independent of this, you can also continue to build an unfinished railway line of a fellow player if your train could move to a city of that line. Pay the necessary construction points and build rail tokens from your stock. The fellow player keeps the ownership of that railway line.
When the railway lines of all players are connected, you may build any railway line connected to that combined network.
If necessary: If you only have 1 or 0 rail tokens left in your stock you can buy more rail tokens as part of the action Build rails. Pay 1 coin to the general supply and immediately place 5 rail tokens from the general supply into your stock. Then, continue with the action Build rails. (Note: If you cannot or do not want to pay 1 coin, you must choose the action Take rail tokens to gain new rail tokens.)
Example: Debbie places 2 track tokens and connects Warszawa with Berlin. She marks the railway link with a white ownership token. Next, Angelika places 1 rail token to connect Köln with Berlin. As Debbie's and her railway lines now connect, Angelika places the second rail token to connect Warszawa with Gdańsk. She marks both her railway lines with purple ownership tokens. Nicole only has 1 rail token left in stock and pays 1 coin to take another 5 rail tokens. She places 2 rail tokens on the railway line between Milano and Wien and marks one of them with a yellow ownership token. As a reminder that she needs to spend another construction point to finish the tunnel later, she turns the rail token on the tunnel space 90° and places her yellow "rails under construction" token in front of her.
b) Ride the Train
Your main goal in Free Ride is to fulfill as many travel routes and to collect as many different city cards as possible.
As shown on your train mat, move your train up to 2 cities along finished railway lines. You always move from city to city, the length of a railway line between the cities does not matter. Although everybody starts in different starting cities, you may have your train on or move through cities with fellow players' trains.
- If you use your own railway lines and state-owned railway lines, the movement is free of charge.
- If you want to use the railway line of a fellow player, you must pay them 1 coin. If you do, convert their line into a state-owned railway line. The fellow player removes their ownership token and places it back in their stock.
Collecting 2 coins: if your train is the first to reach or pass through one of the nine cities offering 2 coins, take the coins and place them with your other coins. You do not need a travel route matching such a city as your starting or destination city to gain these coins.
Fulfilling travel routes: you start the Main Game with a travel route on your coach. You cannot discard a travel route underway. Only if your train reaches or passes through the destination city, you fulfill the travel route and place both city cards face down on your score pile. You may look at these cards at any time but should avoid showing them to your fellow players.
Pick up new travel routes: you can pick up a new travel route when your coach is empty. As explained for the Prologue, your train must stand in, reach, or pass through a city that is a starting city of one of the 6 travel routes in the public display. Depending on the travel routes in the public display, you may need to take the action Ride the train several times to reach a starting city. You cannot pick up a travel route when taking the actions Build rails and Take rail tokens. At the end of the action Ride the train, refill the public display again with 6 travel routes.
The second coach: after depleting the draw stack "I", continue to draw cards from the draw stack "II". At the end of your turn in which you drew the first cards of the second draw stack, everybody takes the second coach mat marked "II" from the general supply and adds it to the train in front of them. From now on, you can carry two travel routes on your coaches at the same time. The same rules apply for fulfilling and picking up each travel route.
The faster train: after depleting the draw stack "II", continue to draw cards from the draw stack "III". At the end of your turn in which you drew the first cards of the third draw stack, everybody turns their train mat over to show the faster train. From now on, move your train up to 3 cities along finished railway lines. You still only gain 2 construction points for the action Build rails.
Example: Angelika moves her train 2 cities. First, Angelika pays 1 coin to Nicole and converts her railway line to state-owned. Nicole removes her ownership token from that line. Then, Angelika moves from Gdańsk to Stockholm. She fulfills her current travel route and places both city cards face down on her score pile. Then, Angelika moves from Stockholm to Oslo. As she is the first to reach that city, Angelika collects the 2 coins. Neither Stockholm nor Oslo are starting cities in the public display. Thus, Angelika must ride her train before she can pick up another travel route.
c) Take Rail Tokens
If you only have 1 or 0 rail tokens left in your stock and you cannot or do not want to pay 1 coin during the action Build rails, you need to use your whole turn to gain new rail tokens.
Place 5 rail tokens from the general supply into your stock without paying for them.
Finish
After connecting the cities with railway lines and fulfilling travel routes all over Europe, it is time to withdraw your service.
When you deplete the draw stack "III", continue to take the three actions of the Main Game.
During the action Ride the train, continue to move your train to fulfill more travel routes and pick up coins from the cities still offering them on the map.
After moving your train, you can now also quit the game by withdrawing your service.
- If you fulfill your last travel route in the course of this, gain 1 coin from the general supply and remove your train from the map.
- You can also quit the game, if you still have one or two travel routes on your coaches. Remove your train from the map and return your city cards from your coaches to the game box. You do not get a coin.
- Of course, you can quit the game, too, without moving your train. Remove your train from the map and return the city cards from your coaches to the game box. You do not get a coin.
Note: If you pick up a travel route during the action Ride the train, you cannot quit the game and must continue your service.
When you quit the game, your fellow players continue to play by taking their turns. Each time it would be your turn, you gain 1 coin from the general supply.
When the last player quits the game, the current round is finished, so everybody played the same number of turns. The remaining players, up to the player to the right of the first player, each gain 1 coin from the general supply.
Determining the Winner
After everybody has withdrawn their service, count up your victory points and determine the winner of Free Ride. Score the following victory points:
- 5 victory points for the first fulfilled card of each city.
- 2 victory points for each additional fulfilled card of each city.
- 3 victory points for each coin.
The easiest way to add up your victory points: place a coin on each of the second and third cards, so each of these sets counts 5 victory points.
Example: besides a lot of other city cards, Hedwig fulfilled Paris twice. She scores 5 victory points for the first card and 2 victory points for the second card.
If you have the most victory points, you are the greatest train conductor and win Free Ride! In case of a tie, the tied player with more different fulfilled cities wins the game. If there is still a tie, all tied players share the win.
The Free Ride Solo Challenge
In this solo challenge, you need to build the network of railway lines on your own so that you can fulfill all 30 travel routes!
Game Preparation
Follow the game preparation as explained under Game Preparations with the following changes:
- Start the game with 35 coins (return 1 coin to the game box) and all rail tokens. You do not need the ownership tokens.
- Take the green solo train mat and both green coach mats.
- Return the city cards marked on both sides of the city picture to the game box (one card for each city). Afterward, each of the 3 stacks contains 30 cards, and each city is only in two of the three stacks.
Prologue
Fill the public display with 6 travel routes before choosing your first travel route and placing your train on the matching starting city.
Main Game
At the start of each turn, pay 1 coin to the general supply. Then, choose one of the two available actions.
a) Build rails: As shown on your train mat, spend up to 5 construction points to build rails, following the same rules as explained under Build Rails.
b) Ride the train: As shown on your train mat, move your train up to 5 cities along finished railway lines, following the same rules as explained under Ride the Train.
When you start drawing city cards from the draw stacks "II" and "III", you do not gain any additional bonus.
Finish
You lose the solo challenge if you spent all coins and did not fulfill all 30 travel routes.
You win the Free Ride solo challenge if you fulfill all 30 travel routes, so both the public display and both your coaches are empty. Count your victory points as follows and check your score in the table.
- 5 victory points each for the first fulfilled card of each city. Do not score victory points for the second fulfilled card of each city.
- 3 victory points for each coin.
| Victory points | Title |
|---|---|
| < 226 | Apprentice |
| 226-230 | Assistant |
| 231-235 | Boilerman |
| 236-240 | Train Conductor |
| 241-245 | Engineer |
| 246-250 | Manager |
| >250 | General Manager |
Credits
Author: Friedemann Friese Graphics & Layout: Harald Lieske Editing: Linus Wolf, Ronald Hrkać, Christian Frank Production: Henning Kröpke
Copyright 2021, 2F-Spiele, Bremen/Germany 2F-Spiele, Fedelhören 64, D-28203 Bremen, www.2f-spiele.de
The Structures of Free Ride
| City | Structure |
|---|---|
| Amsterdam | National Museum (1876-1885) |
| Athína | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (1841) |
| Barcelona | Casa Milà (1906-1912) |
| Beograd | First Serbian Observatory (1890) |
| Berlin | Brandenburg Gate (1789-1793) |
| Bordeaux | Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux (1773-1780) |
| Bremen | Water Tower (1871-1873) |
| Bruxelles | Musical Instruments Museum (1899) |
| Bucuresti | Romanian Athenaeum (1885/1888) |
| Budapest | Liberty Bridge (1896) |
| Dublin | Half Penny Bridge (1819) |
| Gdansk | City Theater (1801) |
| Glasgow | Glasgow School of Art (1897-1909) |
| Helsinki | Helsinki Cathedral (1830-1852) |
| Istanbul | Beyazit Tower (1828) |
| Kharkiv | Annunciation Cathedral (1898-1901) |
| Köln | Hohenzollern Bridge (1907-1911) |
| København | Little Mermaid (1913) |
| Kyjiv | House of the Weeping Widow (1907) |
| Lisboa | Santa Justa Lift (1898-1901) |
| London | Clock Tower (1859) |
| Lwiw | National Opera (1896) |
| Madrid | Puerta del Sol (1857-1862) |
| Marseille | Funicular Railway at Notre Dame de la Garde (1892) |
| Milano | La Scala (1778) |
| Minsk | Red Church (1910) |
| Moskwa | Department Store GUM (1893) |
| München | New Town Hall (1867-1909) |
| Napoli | Department Store Galleria Umberto I (1887/1890) |
| Odessa | Potemkin Stairs (1837-1841) |
| Oslo | Oslo West Station (1872) |
| Paris | Eiffel Tower (1887-1889) |
| Praha | Industrial Palace (1891) |
| Riga | House Tiesenhausen (1883) |
| Roma | Victor Emmanuel II National Monument (1885-1927) |
| Rostow | Lifting Bridge (1874) |
| Sarajevo | Academy of Fine Arts (1899) |
| Sevilla | Harbor Crane Grúa Fairbairn (1874) |
| Sofia | Central Mineral Baths (1908-1913) |
| Stockholm | City Hall (1911-1923) |
| St. Petersburg | Singer House (1904) |
| Tiranë | Clock Tower (1822-1830) |
| Warszawa | Mermaid of Warsaw (1855) |
| Wien | Secession Building (1897-1898) |
| Zagreb | Art Pavillon (1898) |