The Grand Trunk Journey Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 02. Principle of the Game
• 03. Components
  • The Game board
  • The Player Cards
  • The Player Components
  • Terminal Tokens, Goods Cubes & First Delivery Tokens
  • City Goods & Port Goods Tokens
  • Special Delivery Contract Tokens
  • Improvement Cards
  • Objective Cards
• 04. Setup
• 05. Sequence of Play
  • Option 1: Moving their Train (pick up and deliver Goods)
    • STEP 1: Move the Train to another Location (Cost: 1 Day per Rail Link + Modifiers) — Mandatory
    • STEP 2: Unload Goods from the Train (Cost: 0 Days) — Optional
      • I. Unloading one or more Goods in a City or Port with Demand
      • II. Unloading a Good to fulfill a Special Delivery Contract
      • III. Unloading one or more Goods in a City or Port without Demand
    • STEP 3: Remove empty Railcars from the Train (Cost: 0 Days) — Mandatory if the Railcars cannot be loaded with Goods in Step 5
    • STEP 4: Add Railcars to the Train (Cost: 0 Days) — Optional
    • STEP 5: Load Goods on the Train (Cost: 0 Days) — Mandatory if the Train has empty Railcars
    • STEP 6: Draw new Cards (Cost: 0 Days) — Mandatory
  • Actions
    • a) Increase the Force of the Locomotive (Cost: 1 Day)
    • b) Increase the Speed of the Locomotive (Cost: 1 Day)
    • c) Build a new Terminal (Cost: 1 Day)
    • d) Acquire an Improvement card (Cost: 2 Days)
  • Option 2: Maintenance (discard and draw cards)
• 06. End of the Game and End Game Scoring
  • End Game Scoring
• 07. Objectives
  • Setup
  • Sequence of Play
• 08. Different Starting Cities
  • Setup
  • Scenarios
• Credits

02. Principle of the Game

The Grand Trunk Journey features 12 eastern Canadian and US cities and 4 ports demanding and providing up to four types of goods: coal, iron, wood and steel. As managers of a Grand Trunk subsidiary, the players must use the cards they have in their personal decks, comprised of rail equipment (locomotives and railcars) and locations (cities and ports), to move their train between cities and ports and deliver the goods in demand. The movement of their trains is recorded on a Time track, which indicates how many days the players have spent. The more efficient the players are delivering goods over shorter distances, the more deliveries they can accomplish.

As the objective is to become the new CEO of the Grand Trunk Railway, delivering all types of goods in many different cities is a plus. In certain cases, delivering a certain type of good is a requirement to improve the players' equipment. In addition to regular deliveries, they will also be interested to fulfill special deliveries, which are more profitable than regular deliveries. To do so, the players must deliver the right good, in the right city or port, at the right moment though! Whatever the type of delivery, their goal is to optimize their routes to accomplish as many deliveries as possible in the time they have.

The composition of a player's train is represented by a series of cards placed face up in front of them: a location card indicating where is the train (a train token is at the corresponding location on the board), a locomotive indicating the number of railcars it can pull, and one to four railcars of different types, moving different goods. To move their train, the player must replace their train's current location card with a new one. They can add and remove railcars from their train according to their needs, because certain types of goods can only be moved by specific railcars.

The city cards the player has in their deck is used to move their train from a city to another one and matches the locations of all the accessible rail terminals. As the game progresses, new terminals will be built, so new city cards will be added to their deck. Each city card also features a railcar or a special action that the player can use. At the moment they build a new terminal in a city, all other subsidiaries can also deliver goods to that city, but the player gets the victory points associated with its building. Moreover, they will also be in a better position to accomplish the first delivery to that city and get extra victory points.

03. Components

Each copy of The Grand Trunk Journey contains:

• 1 Game board
• 80 Player cards, consisting of:
  • 8 double-sided Locomotive cards (2 each in four player colors)
  • 40 Starting cards (10 each in four player colors, including 4 Starting City cards)
  • 32 City cards (8 each in four player colors)
• 4 Train markers (1 each in four player colors)
• 12 Track markers (3 each in four player colors)
• 4 Fast Locomotive tokens (1 each in four player colors)
• 16 Improvement cards
• 10 Objective cards
• 12 Terminal tokens
• 8 First Delivery tokens
• 12 City Goods tokens (4x for the Starting Cities, 8x for the other Cities)
• 3 Port Goods tokens
• 125 Goods cubes (30 each of Coal, Iron, Wood, and 35 Steel)
• 22 Special Delivery Contract tokens (4x "4 days", 6x "3 days", 6x "2 days", 6x "1 day")
• 8 Overview sheets (4 each in English and German in four player colors)
• 2 Rules booklets (in English and German)

The Game board

The central part of the Game board shows the map with 12 eastern Canadian and US cities and 4 ports, which are connected by Rail Links. Each City consists of four spaces for the Terminal token, the City Goods token, the First Delivery token, and the Steel space to store up to four Steel cubes. The Ports have a space for the Port Goods tokens, with the exception of Hamilton, which has its Demand printed on the map.

On the top and continuing along the right edge of the board is the Time track, below are spaces for several Special Delivery tokens. On the left and continuing along the bottom edge of the board is the Victory Point track.

Finally, the Wood track is on the bottom left.

The Player Cards

Each player has their own set of 20 cards with a personal distribution of Railcars and Actions. The two Locomotive cards show the Force and Speed of the player's Train. The other cards form the player's Deck consisting of Railcars and City or Port cards, which can be played either as locations or as Railcars and Actions.

The Player Components

Each player gets a Train marker to show their position on the map. They also get 3 Track markers to track the Time they spend, the amount of Wood cubes delivered, and the Victory Points they score during the game. Finally, each player has a Fast Locomotive Token.

Terminal Tokens, Goods Cubes & First Delivery Tokens

The players can only move their Trains to Cities with Terminals. Each time they build a new Terminal, they mark this with one of the 12 Terminal tokens.

The game contains 125 Goods cubes, 30 each of Coal, Iron and Wood, and 35 Steel. The players load the Goods cubes on their Railcars in their Trains to deliver them to the Cities and Ports.

Except for the four Starting Cities, every other City gets one of the 8 First Delivery tokens offering 1 or 2 Victory Points, which the players can score by being the first to deliver the demanded Goods.

City Goods & Port Goods Tokens

The City Goods tokens and Port Goods tokens show the Goods in demand and in supply at all Cities and Ports. The four Starting City Goods tokens are placed on the Starting Cities.

Special Delivery Contract Tokens

The Special Delivery tokens are placed below the Time track and show the special demand of certain Cities. The players must deliver the matching Goods cubes (Coal, Iron, or Wood) at the right time (during a period of 1 to 4 Days) to score additional Victory Points.

Improvement Cards

The players can acquire one or more of the 16 Improvement cards to get personal benefits, helping them to improve their own Railways.

Objective Cards

When playing with the 10 Objective cards, the players add a new challenge, which offers extra Victory Points to be scored during the game.

04. Setup

A. A player places the Game board in the center of the table, so that it is easily accessible for as many players as possible.

B. A player places 4 Terminal tokens on the Terminal spaces of the 4 Starting Cities: Burlington, Richmond, Watertown and White River Jct. They place the remaining 8 Terminal tokens beside the Game board.

C. A player places the 4 Starting City Goods tokens randomly face up on the 4 Starting Cities' Demand spaces. They place the 8 City Goods tokens randomly face up on the other Cities. Finally, they place the 3 Port Goods tokens randomly face up on the Ports of Montréal-Griffintown, Albany and Portland. The player does not place a tile on the Port of Hamilton, which has its own Port Goods printed on the board.

D. A player places the 8 First Delivery tokens randomly face up on the First Delivery spaces of each non-starting City. The First Delivery spaces of the 4 Starting Cities remain empty.

E. A player separates the Special Delivery Contract tokens by length in days (4, 3, 2 and 1), shuffles each group, and places the necessary number of tokens randomly face down on the appropriate Special Delivery Contract spaces: one 4-days-token, three 3-days-tokens, three 2-days-tokens, and three 1-day-tokens. They flip the two first tokens on the time track face up (the 4-days-token and the first 3-days-token). The player returns the unused tokens back in the box.

F. A player shuffles the 16 Improvement cards. Beside the board, they draw and place 3 cards per player in the game, so for a 2/3/4 player game, they display 6/9/12 Improvement cards. The player returns the rest of the Improvement cards back in the box.

For the first games, the players place the 10 Objective cards back in the box. We suggest playing a few games without these cards!

G. A player separates the Goods cubes by color and places them beside the board to form the Stock.

NOTE: The number of Goods in the game are not limited by the number of cubes in the box. If the players do not have enough, they can replace them by whatever components they have on hand.

H. Each player receives of the color of their choice: 20 Player cards, 1 Train marker, 1 Fast Locomotive token, 3 Track markers, and their Company's Overview sheet.

I. The players determine the first player randomly, and then order goes clockwise from the first player.

Then, all players place a Track marker on the "0" space on the Time track. The order in which these markers are stacked is important, with the player going first in turn order at the bottom and the player going last at the top. The order of play will change during the game, as markers will move up the Time track.

Example: Marion playing red is the first player, Angelika playing purple is the second and Nicole playing green is the third.

J. All players place a Track marker on the "3" space of the Victory Point track. Each time they earn or lose a Victory Point, they move their marker 1 space up or down on this track.

K. All Players place a Track marker on the "0" space of the Wood Delivery track.

L. The first player shuffles their 4 Starting City cards (Burlington, Richmond, Watertown, and White River Jct), then draws and assigns randomly 1 card to each player, which represents the Starting City where each player's Train will start the game. Set-up as described below, then the first player takes the cards back in hand.

All players place their Train marker on the assigned Starting Cities. Then, each player places the Starting Locomotive card face up in front of them and places the corresponding Starting City card from their supply of cards in front (to the left) of the Locomotive. Additionally, each player chooses one of their three Starting Railcar cards, which can transport one of the two Goods supplied by the Starting City. They place that card behind (to the right) of the Locomotive, and load the chosen Good on the Railcar by taking the right type of Goods cube (Coal, Wood or Iron) from the Stock and placing it on the Railcar card.

Example: Marion is the first player and shuffles her 4 Starting City cards. She draws and assigns Burlington for herself, White River Jct. for Angelika, and Watertown for Nicole.

Marion places her Train marker on the Game board in Burlington and her Starting Locomotive and Burlington cards in front of herself. Then, she chooses the Hopper Car to load an Iron, and places the matching Iron cube from the Stock on that Railcar. Angelika and Nicole do the same respectively with their trains in White River Jct. and Watertown.

The player's Train is composed, from left to right, of a City or Port card indicating the Location of the Train (the corresponding Train token should be in the same City on the board), a Locomotive card (which never goes into the deck) and 1 to 4 Railcar cards (each moving a single Goods cube).

When the player moves Goods with their train, they must respect the following rules:

• The Roman numerical on the top left and the number of Railcar symbols in the top center area of the Locomotive card indicates the number of Railcars this Locomotive can move. This is the Force of the Locomotive.
• The color of the Goods shown on each Railcar card represents the types of Goods this Railcar can move.
• The player can only load one Goods cube in a Railcar.
• The Train cannot move empty Railcars and the player cannot finish their turn with an empty Railcar in their train.

M. Finally, each player shuffles their personal Starting Deck composed of 8 cards marked (the Starting City and Railcar cards placed in front and behind of the Locomotive are not shuffled). They draw the first 5 cards to form their starting hand. The rest of the cards of the Starting Deck are placed on the table (leave enough space beside for the Discard Pile). Each player places the Fast Locomotive token, the Overview sheet and the rest of their cards (second Locomotive card and 8 City cards) aside (those cards are not shuffled).

The players are ready to start the game!

05. Sequence of Play

In The Grand Trunk Journey, the players take turns according to the position of their Track markers on the Time track. The player whose marker is in the lowest numbered position on the Time Track is the active player. If there is more than one marker in a space, the player whose marker is lowest in the stack is the active player and takes their turn.

Moving the train and taking some actions have a Cost in Days. While taking their turn, the active player must then move their marker the corresponding number of Days along the Time track. If their marker ends up in a space with other markers, the active player places their marker on top.

If, at the end of their turn, their marker on the Time track has reached or passed the space 36, the active player does not play another turn and the game is finished for them (see the End Game Scoring section on page 13).

The player's Train is composed, from left to right, of a City or Port card indicating the Location of the Train (the corresponding Train token should be in the same City on the board), a Locomotive card (which never goes into the deck) and 1 to 4 Railcar cards (each moving a single Goods cube).

When the player moves Goods with their train, they must respect the following rules:

• The Roman numerical on the top left and the number of Railcar symbols in the top center area of the Locomotive card indicates the number of Railcars this Locomotive can move. This is the Force of the Locomotive.
• The color of the Goods shown on each Railcar card represents the types of Goods this Railcar can move.
• The player can only load one Goods cube in a Railcar.
• The Train cannot move empty Railcars and the player cannot finish their turn with an empty Railcar in their train.

As the active player, they must choose one of the 2 following options:

• Option 1: Moving their Train (pick up and deliver Goods);
• Option 2: Maintenance (discard and draw cards).

Moving their Train to another Location is mandatory if the active player chooses Option 1. If they cannot move their Train to another Location, they must choose Option 2.

When the active player is done with their turn, the player whose Track marker is in the lowest numbered position on the Time track becomes the active player and so on, until the End of the Game. A player may play multiple turns in a row, as long as their marker is the last one on the Time track.

Option 1: Moving their Train (pick up and deliver Goods)

The heart of the game consists of the player moving their Train from a Terminal in one City to another City's Terminal or to a Port, delivering Goods to get Victory Points.

When choosing Option 1, the active player must accomplish the six following Steps in order. They can also play as many Actions as they want or can. The Actions can be played at any moment during their turn by discarding the matching Action card or using the matching Improvement card.

Besides the three Railcar cards, each player will have up to 12 City cards in their personal deck, corresponding to the Terminals that are built in Cities during the game, as well as two Port cards. When played, they can use a City or Port card for one of its two features:

• As a Location to move the Train to that City or any of the four Ports;
• For its special attribute shown below the Location name, which can be:
  • an additional Railcar that the player can add to the Train to move Goods;
  • an Action that the player may play at any moment during their turn by discarding the card. Some Actions may cost 1 or 2 Days to play, as indicated by the symbols on the card.

Example: Marion can use the White River Jct card to move her train to White River Jct OR add it to her train as a Railcar car to load a Wood cube. If she uses the Ottawa card to accomplish the Overland Transport Action, she discards that card and cannot use it to move her train to Ottawa. If Marion uses the Port card to move her train to a Port, she cannot discard it to accomplish one of 2 proposed Development actions (Build a New Terminal or Buy an Improvement card).

STEP 1: Move the Train to another Location (Cost: 1 Day per Rail Link + Modifiers) — Mandatory

To move their train, the active player must discard the City or Port card that is in front of their Locomotive. They replace it with another City or Port card coming from their hand, representing the Location where the active player wants to move their Train. To move the Train to any Port Location (Albany, Portland, Hamilton or Montréal-Griffintown), the active player must play a Port card.

Then, they move their Train marker on the Game board between its current Location and the Location corresponding to the card just played, using the fewest number of Rail Links possible. Each Rail Link that they use costs 1 Day.

The total cost in Days will be modified in the following situations:

• If the active player uses the Grand Trunk Jct card to move their Train to any Port or to a City with a Terminal, they must add 1 Day to the total movement cost.
• If the speed of their Train is Fast, they may reduce the total movement cost by 1 Day (but they always spend a minimum of 1 Day). This reduction is optional.

Example: Marion wants to move her Train from Burlington to Watertown. She discards the Burlington card and replaces it with the Watertown card. Then, she moves her Train marker to Watertown. This movement costs 1 Day for the single Rail Link, thus Marion moves her marker on the Time track one space forward. Optionally, Marion could have used her Grand Trunk Jct card to move to Watertown, but it would have cost her 1 more Day.

STEP 2: Unload Goods from the Train (Cost: 0 Days) — Optional

This action allows the active player to unload Goods from their Train in a City or a Port. This is voluntary, so the player can keep any number of loaded Goods on their Railcars for another turn.

There are three options to unload Goods.

I. Unloading one or more Goods in a City or Port with demand (a type of Good listed on the left side of the City Goods token or Port Goods token).

II. Unloading a Good to fulfill a Special Delivery Contract (the type of Good listed on the Special Delivery Contract token next to the Time track).

III. Unloading one or more Goods in a City or Port without demand (a type of Good not listed on the left side of the City Goods token or Port Goods token).

The active player may choose any of the three options in the same turn, but one and only one option must be chosen for each of the Goods unloaded.

I. Unloading one or more Goods in a City or Port with Demand

The Cities demand certain goods for their local industry. Thus, the main job for The Grand Trunk Railway is to transport these goods through the country to fulfill these basic demands.

The type of Good demanded by the City or Port is indicated by a downward arrow on the left side of the City Goods token or Port Goods token.

To unload one or more matching Goods, the active player removes them from their Train and places them in front of them. These unloaded Goods will be worth Victory Points at the end of the game or trigger immediate effects (see below and the End Game Scoring section on page 13). If the First Delivery token is still at that City, the active player removes it from the game and scores 1 or 2 Victory Points as indicated on the token. They move their marker on the Victory Point track accordingly.

Example: Angelika's Train arrives in New London, so she can unload the Coal cube and places it in front of her. As she is the first to deliver Coal at this City, she removes the First Delivery token and scores 1 Victory Point.

Coal: Nothing special happens when the active player unloads Coal, but this type of Good is a requirement to increase the Speed of the player's Locomotive.

Wood: When the active player unloads Wood, they move their marker on the Wood track 1 space to the right. The Wood track level indicates the number of Victory Points the active player will get at the end of the game for each Improvement card they will have purchased.

Example: Marion's Train arrives in Burlington. She unloads two Wood cubes and places them in front of her. She moves her marker on the Wood track 2 spaces to the right.

Iron: When the active player unloads Iron, they take 2 Steel cubes from the stock (for each Iron cube unloaded) and place them in the Steel space of the City. This is the result of the Iron being transformed in Steel. The Steel cubes are not reserved for the player who delivered the Iron, they can be moved to the Ports (the only Locations that demand Steel) by any player. The Steel space can hold a maximum of 4 Steel cubes. The active player cannot unload Iron cubes in a City already storing 4 Steel cubes. If there are 3 Steel cubes, the active player can unload a single Iron Cube, but only adds 1 Steel Cube to the city bringing the maximum to 4.

At the end of the game, each set of one cube of Coal, Wood and Iron delivered will be worth 3 Victory Points.

Example: Angelika's Train arrives in White River Jct. She unloads an Iron cube and places it in front of her. Then, she takes two Steel cubes from the Stock and places them on the Steel space of White River Jct.

Steel: When the active player unloads Steel at one of the Ports, they immediately score 3 Victory Points. Steel is a requirement to increase the Force of the player's Locomotive.

Once the active player has unloaded a Good, they must remove the emptied Railcar from their Train and place the card on their Discard Pile during Step 3 OR must load it with another Good during Step 5 (see below).

II. Unloading a Good to fulfill a Special Delivery Contract

Some of the cities may have an urgent demand for a type of good to finish a project. If The Grand Trunk Railway manages to deliver these Goods on time, they can cash in huge profits in return.

The Special Delivery Contract tokens feature a City demanding a certain type of good by a certain time on the Time track. Fulfilling a Special Delivery Contract is more profitable than a regular delivery.

At the start of the game, only the first two Special Delivery Contract tokens are face up below the Time track. Each time, the first player reaches or passes a dark space on the Time track, they flip the next face down Special Delivery Contract token face up, as listed on the dark space.

Example: When reaching space "4" of the Time track first, Marion flips the third Special Delivery Contract token (the second 3-days-token) face up on the Time track.

Only one player can fulfill a Special Delivery Contract. To do so, the active player must be able to unload the demanded Good in the right City, at the right time (when their marker on the Time track is placed on one of the spaces across from the Special Delivery Contract token). The active player then unloads the Good from their Train and places it in the Stock (not in front of them), removes the Special Delivery Contract token from the Game board and places it back in the box, and finally adds the number of Victory Points indicated on the Game board to their score on the Victory Point track.

EXCEPTION: When playing with the Objective cards, the active player places the removed Special Delivery Contract tokens in front of them (see Objectives on page 14).

NOTE: If the Special Delivery token shows the same demand as the City Demand token, the active player must decide, which demand they fulfill. They cannot fulfill both demands with a single Goods cube! But if the player has two cubes, they can meet the demand of the City Demand token, too, to keep the delivered Goods cube in front of themself.

If the First delivery token is still at that City when the player fulfills the Special Delivery, the active player removes it from the game and gets 1 or 2 Victory Points as indicated on the token. They move their marker on the Victory Point track accordingly.

When fulfilling a Special Delivery Contract, the Goods cubes are placed back in the Stock, as the active player does not collect the Goods cubes. Thus, they do not move their marker on the Wood track for delivering a Wood cube, and do not add Steel cubes to that City's Steel space for delivering an Iron cube.

Example: Marion's marker on the Time track is on space 11, when her Train arrives in Québec. She unloads an Iron cube to fulfill the Special Delivery Contract. She then places the Iron back in the Stock and removes the Special Delivery token from the Game board to get 4 Victory Points. If her Train would arrive in Québec at space 9 (or earlier) or space 13 (or later), Marion could not fulfill that Special Delivery Contract. As Marion chose to fulfill the Special Delivery, she cannot keep the Iron, even if Québec also has demand for Iron via the City Demand token.

Again, the active player must remove the emptied Railcar from their train and place the card on their Discard Pile during Step 3 OR must load it with another Good during Step 5 (see below).

III. Unloading one or more Goods in a City or Port without Demand

In rare occasions, The Grand Trunk Railway needs their Trains to load different goods than already carried around in the railcars. Thus, it may be necessary to unload these unwanted Goods at terminals for a loss, to make space for other demanded goods.

The active player removes one or more Goods cubes from their train not matching the indicated type of Good on the left side of the City Goods token or Port Goods token, and places them back in the Stock beside the Game board (not in front of them!). They lose 1 Victory Point for each of these cubes, recorded immediately on the Victory Point track.

Again, the active player must remove the emptied Railcar from their train and place the card on their discard pile during Step 3 OR must load it with another Good during Step 5 (see below).

STEP 3: Remove empty Railcars from the Train (Cost: 0 Days) — Mandatory if the Railcars cannot be loaded with Goods in Step 5

If the active player knows that they are not able (or do not want) to load a matching Good in one or more of their empty Railcars during Step 5, they must remove them now from their Train. They place these cards on their discard pile (they cannot take these cards back in their hand).

To remove a Railcar from their Train, the active player must have unloaded the Goods cube during Step 2. They cannot remove a Railcar still loaded with a Goods cube!

NOTE: The active player cannot finish their turn with an empty Railcar in their Train. Moreover, the active player cannot move their train with empty Railcars.

STEP 4: Add Railcars to the Train (Cost: 0 Days) — Optional

The active player can play one or more Railcar cards from their hand and place them to the right of their Locomotive card. If their Locomotive has already reached the maximum number of Railcars it can move (indicated in the top middle of the Locomotive card), the active player cannot add more Railcars. They can place the different types of Railcars in any order in the Train. Once the active player has added a Railcar to their Train, they must load it with a Goods cube during Step 5.

STEP 5: Load Goods on the Train (Cost: 0 Days) — Mandatory if the Train has empty Railcars

This action allows the active player to load Goods supplied by a City or a Port on a matching and empty Railcar that is on their Train. The type of Good supplied by the City or Port is indicated by an upward arrow on the right side of the City Goods token or Port Goods token.

Additionally, the player can load Steel, if there are Steel cubes on the City's Steel space.

The active player can load as many supplied Goods as they want, as long as their Train has that many matching, empty Railcars to load them.

NOTE: Each Railcar can only hold one Goods cube.

Example: In Richmond, Marion can load Wood and Iron via the City Goods token, and up to 2 Steel from the Steel space. At the Port of Montréal-Griffintown, Nicole can only load Wood.

To load Goods, the active player must take the right type of Good (Coal, Iron or Wood) from the Stock, and place it on an empty matching Railcar card that is on their Train. To load Steel, they must take a Steel cube from the City's Steel space following placement rules for Railcars.

At this point, the active player once more must ensure, that they do not have empty Railcars in their train. If so, they must remove them from the Train and discard them on their Discard Pile.

STEP 6: Draw new Cards (Cost: 0 Days) — Mandatory

The active player draws cards from their personal Deck to replenish their hand to the hand limit of 5 cards. If the Deck is empty when they need to draw a card, they take their Discard Pile and shuffle it to form a new face down Deck from which they can complete their hand.

Actions

During their turn, the active player can play any number of Actions by playing a City, Port or Improvement card showing these Actions. Then, they accomplish the action and place the card on their discard pile. The active player cannot play a card for the Action if they cannot accomplish that Action.

NOTE: When the active player uses an Improvement card for the listed Action, the card stays in play in front of them.

The active player can play as many Actions as they want or can during their turn. If there is a Cost in Days, they move their marker of the corresponding number up on the Time track. This does not interrupt their turn if their marker passes another player's marker on the Time track.

Every player has a personal set of cards, which have a different distribution of the same actions. Thus, as long as certain Terminals are not built, a player may not have access to certain actions.

The following Actions are available:

High Capacity Railcar: When playing the High Capacity Railcar, the active player loads a second Coal, Iron or Wood cube on a Railcar of their Train during Step 5 of their turn. In the chosen Railcar, both Goods must be of the same type.

Influence Demand: When playing Influence Demand, the active player swaps any 2 City Goods tokens or 2 Port Goods tokens. The two affected Cities or Ports do not have to be adjacent. The player cannot swap a City Goods token with a Port Goods token.

Overland Transport: When playing the Overland Transport, the active player moves 1 Steel cube between 2 cities directly connected. The receiving City must have space for the moved Steel cube.

Rail Yard: When playing the Rail Yard, the active player takes a Railcar card of their choice from their Discard pile and adds it to their Train. They cannot add that card to their hand.

Right of Way: When playing the Right of Way, the active player reduces the Total Cost of Movement by 1 Day. If the Train has Fast Speed, the active player can reduce the Total Cost by 2 Days. They must spend at minimum 1 Day each time the Train moves to a new Location.

Development: When developing their railway, the active player can accomplish one of the Development actions proposed by the card. Depending on the card, the player has a choice between 2 or between 4 of the following possibilities:

a) Increase the Force of the Locomotive (Cost: 1 Day) b) Increase the Speed of the Locomotive (Cost: 1 Day) c) Build a new Terminal (Cost: 1 Day) d) Acquire an Improvement card (Cost: 2 Days)

a) Increase the Force of the Locomotive (Cost: 1 Day)

Increasing the Force of the Locomotive allows the players to pull more Railcars with their Train. For each Force, the Train can pull 1 Railcar.

To increase the Force of the Locomotive to II/III/IV, the active player must have delivered at least 1/2/3 Steel. The icon on the top right of the Locomotive card indicates the required amount of Steel.

If the player has the minimum requirement, they spend 1 Day on the Time track and increase the Force of their Locomotive by 1. For the first time, they flip the Locomotive card to the back showing Force II, and later exchange the card for the Locomotive card set to the side during Setup, showing Force III and IV. The player cannot jump 2 Forces or more even if they meet the requirement.

When the Locomotive reaches Force IV, the player immediately scores 5 Victory Points.

Example: Marion wants to upgrade her Locomotive from Force II to Force III. As she already delivered 2 Steel, she plays and discards the Development Action, spends 1 Day and replaces the Locomotive card with the card showing her Locomotive with Force III. From now on, Marion's Locomotive can pull up to 3 Railcars.

b) Increase the Speed of the Locomotive (Cost: 1 Day)

Increasing the Speed of the Locomotive allows the players to travel faster with their Train to the Locations.

To increase the Speed of the Locomotive from Slow to Fast, the active player must have delivered at least 3 Coal. The icon on the bottom right indicates the required amount of Coal.

If the player has at least 3 Coal, they spend 1 Day on the Time track and place the Fast Locomotive token on their Locomotive card. When the player increases the Force of their Locomotive, they keep the Fast Locomotive token and transfer that on the new Locomotive.

When the Locomotive gets Fast, the player immediately scores 1 Victory Point.

From now, when the player moves the Train to a Location, they still pay 1 Day per Rail Link, but they may reduce the Total Cost of that Train movement by 1 Day. They always spend a minimum of 1 Day when moving their train.

Example: Marion upgraded her Locomotive to Fast Speed. Then, she moves her Train to Québec. Normally, that would cost her 3 Days, missing the Special Delivery Contract for Coal. Thanks to the Fast Speed of her Train, Marion decides to reduce the Cost to 2 Days, arriving on time to deliver the Coal and to score the 7 Victory Points for the Special Delivery Contract.

c) Build a new Terminal (Cost: 1 Day)

When building new Terminals, the players increase the available track network, and add new City cards to their Decks.

To build a new Terminal, the active player spends 1 Day on the Time track, chooses a City without a Terminal, and places a Terminal token on the matching space of the Game board.

The player immediately scores 2 Victory Points.

Then, the active player takes their corresponding City card from the cards placed aside at Setup, and chooses to place it on their Discard pile or on the top of their Deck.

All other players take their corresponding City card from the cards placed aside during Setup, and place it on their Discard pile.

All players now have the possibility to move their Train to that City to load and unload Goods.

d) Acquire an Improvement card (Cost: 2 Days)

When acquiring Improvement cards the players get personal benefits, helping them to improve their own Railways.

To acquire one of the available Improvement cards, the active player spends 2 Days on the Time track. Then, they place the chosen Improvement card face up in front of them. Its benefit is available immediately.

During End Game Scoring the players will get a number of Victory Points for each Improvement card they own, depending on the position of the marker on the Wood track.

The following Improvement cards can be acquired during the game:

Permanent: The following seven Improvements give a permanent benefit, which can be used anytime by the owner when applicable.

• Coal Exporter: The player can deliver Coal to Ports. When they do so, they place the delivered Coal in front of them with the other delivered Goods.
• Early Delivery: The player can fulfill a Special Delivery Contract 1 Day before it is due.
• Late Delivery: The player can fulfill a Special Delivery Contract 1 Day after it is due.

Example: The Special Delivery Contract for Coal in Utica is due during Days 14 to 16 on the Time track. With the Early Delivery Improvement, the player can deliver the Good during Days 13 to 16. With the Late Delivery Improvement, the player can deliver the Good during Days 14 to 17.

• Rail Equipment Factory: The player does not spend any Day when increasing the Force or the Speed of their Locomotive.
• Speculator: The player gets 1 Victory Point when an opponent builds a new Terminal. They do not get that extra Victory Point if they build the terminal themself.
• Warehouse: At the end of each turn, the player's hand limit is increased to 6 cards instead of 5.
• Wood Exporter: The player can deliver Wood to Ports. When they do so, they place the delivered Wood in front of them with the other delivered goods. They move their marker 1 space up on the Wood track.

One-Time: The following three Improvements give a one-time benefit, which is immediately used once by the owner when the card is acquired.

• Coal Mine: The player immediately takes 2 Coal from the Stock and places them in front of them with their other delivered Goods.
• Forest Exploitation: The player immediately takes 2 Wood from the Stock and places them in front of them with their other delivered Goods. They do not move their marker on the Wood track.
• Iron Ore Mine: The player immediately takes 2 Iron from the Stock and places them in front of them with their other delivered Goods. The active player does not place Steel on the board.

Actions: The following six Improvements offer Actions, which can be used once per turn by the owner like the Actions on the City and Port cards of the Deck.

• Foreign Steel Contract: The player spends 1 Day to get 1 additional Victory Point when delivering Steel to a Port. If they deliver more than 1 Steel, they are still limited to 1 Victory Point.
• Hi-Roof Boxcar: The player spends 1 Day to load a second Steel in a matching Railcar during Step 5 of their turn. They can load the second Steel in the same City they loaded the first one or in another City.
• Parking Spur: The player can place a Railcar in reserve on this card. The Railcar can come from their hand or their train (when they remove the Railcar from the train). The player spends 1 Day to take the Railcar and places it on their Train during Step 4 (but not back in their hand). They can discard the Railcar without spending a Day.
• Railroad Crane: Before the player moves their train, they can spend 1 Day to add 1 Railcar from their hand to their Train and load 1 Good by respecting the rules for the Locomotive's Force.
• Roundhouse: The player discards a card from their hand, and draws a new card from their Deck.
• Semaphore Signaling: The player discards a card from their hand.

Option 2: Maintenance (discard and draw cards)

The only actions the active player can do when choosing Option 2 is to discard as many cards from their hand as they want and draw cards from the Deck to replenish their hand to the hand limit of 5 cards.

This option costs 1 Day. The active player cannot play any Actions when choosing Option 2.

06. End of the Game and End Game Scoring

The final turns of the game are triggered when the first marker of any player reaches or passes space 36 of the Time track at the end of that player's turn.

When this happens, each other player may play additional turns until their marker reaches or passes space 36 at the end of their turn. They can also decide to not play any additional turns and finish their game, in order to get a few Victory Points according to their position on the Time track (see End Game Scoring below).

When all players have either reached or passed space 36 on the Time track or passed their turn, the End Game Scoring takes place. A player can never go beyond 40 on the Time track.

End Game Scoring

Time track: The players get Victory Points according to their position on the Time track. The player who is farther on the Time track does not get any Victory Points. All other players score 1 Victory Point for each Day they are behind on the Time track.

Sets of Coal-Iron-Wood: Each player scores 3 Victory Points for each set of Coal-Iron-Wood they delivered during the game.

Improvement cards: Each player scores 0 to 7 Victory Points for each Improvement card they acquired according to the position of the player's marker on the Wood track. The player multiplies the number of Improvement cards by the number of Victory Points the marker has reached.

Example: Marion triggers the final turns of the game by reaching space 36 on the Time track at the end of her turn. Nicole plays a last turn and reaches space 37. Angelika decides to pass and finishes the game on space 34. Now, the End Game Scoring starts. Nicole does not get any Victory Points for the Time track, Marion scores 1 Victory Point and Angelika scores 3 Victory Points.

Marion collected 3 sets of Coal-Iron-Wood and scores 9 Victory Points.

Marion also acquired 3 Improvement cards during the game and her marker has reached the space for 4 Victory Points on the Wood track. She scores 12 Victory Points for her Improvement cards.

The player with the highest number of Victory Points is the winner. In the case of a tie, the winner of the game is determined by the following tiebreakers (in this order):

• Most Steel cubes delivered
• Most Goods cubes delivered

If the tie remains, all tied players share the win.

07. Objectives

After a few games of The Grand Trunk Journey, players can also add the Objective cards to add a new challenge, which offer extra Victory Points to be scored during the game.

Setup

During Setup, a player shuffles the 10 Objective cards. They draw and place 3 cards face up beside the board. The player places the other cards back in the box.

Sequence of Play

Acquisition of Objective cards: To acquire an Objective card during their turn, the active player must play any Development Action card, add 1 Day on the Time track and meet all the minimum requirements indicated on the Objective card.

The player immediately scores the number of Victory Points indicated, or according to the condition indicated, and then returns the Objective card to the game box. Some Objective cards give a specific number of Victory Points, while others give a number of Victory Points that will depend of what the player has accomplished during the game at that point.

The following Objective cards can be acquired during the game:

• Carrier of the Year — Requirement: The player collected 4 or more Special Delivery Contracts. Score: 5 Victory Points
• Coal Depot — Requirement: The player collected 3 or more Coal. Score: 1 Victory Point for each Coal
• Common Carrier — Requirement: The player collected 3 or more each of Coal, Iron and Wood, and the Locomotive has Force III or Force IV. Score: 5 Victory Points
• Freight Station — Requirement: The player collected 6 or more Goods of any type. Score: 2 Victory Points for each set of any 3 Goods
• Heavy Cargo Train — Requirement: The player loaded 4 or more Goods of any type on the Train. Score: 3 Victory Points
• Iron Ore Depot — Requirement: The player collected 3 or more Iron. Score: 1 Victory Point for each Iron
• National Railway Certificate — Requirement: The player collected 10 or more Goods of any type and 2 or more Special Delivery Contracts, the Locomotive has Force IV and Fast Speed. Score: 7 Victory Points
• Specialized Carrier — Requirement: The player collected 6 or more Goods of one of the four types. Score: 5 Victory Points
• Steel Warehouse — Requirement: The player collected 3 or more Steel. Score: 1 Victory Point for each Steel
• Wood Depot — Requirement: The player collected 3 or more Wood. Score: 1 Victory Point for each Wood

Example: To acquire the Coal Depot card, Marion must have collected at least 3 Coal. Then, she scores 1 Victory Point per Coal collected at the moment she acquires the Objective card. Any coal collected later in the game does not give her any additional Victory Points.

To acquire the National Railway Certificate card, Marion must have delivered at least 10 Goods, have fulfilled 2 Special Delivery Contracts and have a Locomotive of Force IV which moves at Fast Speed. Then, she scores 7 Victory Points.

08. Different Starting Cities

Experienced players can take another challenge by playing The Grand Trunk Journey with different Starting Cities.

The players can choose one of the following Scenarios, which include four Starting Cities and the Companies they should use with those Cities to ensure a fairly balanced game.

The Scenarios are restricted for a certain maximum number of players (2, 3, 4), so fewer players are always fine to play these Scenarios. For example, if a Scenario is playable for 3 Companies, of course 2 players can also play the same Scenario using 2 of the 3 Companies.

Most Scenarios can be played either at Intermediate or Expert Levels, while some are restricted to one of the two Levels.

When playing the Intermediate Level, all Companies have in their Starting Deck a card allowing them to increase the Speed or Force of their Locomotive. When playing the Expert Level, all Companies do not have such a card in their Starting deck, so they have to build a Terminal in a City giving them the card allowing this Action.

Setup

During Setup, the players need to adjust their Starting Deck by exchanging the four Starting City cards for the four Cities listed below in the chart.

Additionally, they must place the Starting City Demand tiles on the spaces of the four chosen Starting Cities, and the First Delivery tokens on the spaces of the other eight Cities.

Scenarios

Scenario	Starting Cities	Companies to use in Intermediate Level	Companies to use in Expert Level
Adirondacks	Burlington, Kingston, Utica, Watertown	Central Vermont, Grand Trunk Railway, Québec & Richmond, St. Lawrence & Atlantic	N/A
Completing the Erie Canal	Boston, New London, Niagara, Utica	Grand Trunk Railway, St. Lawrence & Atlantic	Central Vermont, Québec & Richmond
East Coast	Boston, Québec, Richmond, White River Jct	Central Vermont, Grand Trunk Railway, Québec & Richmond, St. Lawrence & Atlantic	N/A
Lake Ontario	Kingston, Niagara, Utica, Watertown	Central Vermont, Grand Trunk Railway, St. Lawrence & Atlantic	N/A
New England	Boston, Burlington, New London, White River Jct	Grand Trunk Railway, Québec & Richmond, St. Lawrence & Atlantic	N/A
Ontario	Kingston, Niagara, Ottawa, Peterborough	N/A	Grand Trunk Railway, Québec & Richmond, St. Lawrence & Atlantic
Québec-Ontario Gateway	Ottawa, Peterborough, Québec, Richmond	Central Vermont, Québec & Richmond	Grand Trunk Railway, St. Lawrence & Atlantic

Credits

The author thanks all playtesters: François Bédard, Jeremy Brakenberry, Scott DeBrestian, Jean-Christophe Gareau, Pierre-Alain Jacques, Amira Keddam, Seth Kruse, Antoine Lefebvre, Mark Lyon, Rose Morford, Jean Noël, Steve Passmore, Adam Pastuzyn, Francis Perron, Shirley Tardif, Chuck Thomas, Steven Tremblay and Al Wilson.

Thanks also to Andrew Long and Ian Zang.

Special thanks to Peter C. Hayward and Joe Pastuzyn.

Author: Claude Sirois | Development: Uli Blennemann, Henning Kröpke

Graphics: Harald Lieske | Layout: Gamerock Studio, s. r. o. • www.gamerock.eu

Copyright 2020 Spielworxx, Nielande 12, D-48727 Billerbeck, www.spielworxx.de