Höchste Eisenbahn
Höchste Eisenbahn Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game idea and aim of the game
Railway madness! Connect matching railway cars as fast as you can, but pay attention to the car type, colour and number of wheels. That shouldn't be too hard, right? But, when everyone is searching for the matching cars at the same time, it's pure chaos! Whoever manages to form the longest train will drive off with the victory in hand.
Game set up and order of play
- Shuffle all 60 cars and spread them out over the table face down, preferably with a little space between each card.
- Shuffle the 6 locomotives. Each player receives 1 locomotive, placing it face down in front of him on the table. Any remaining locomotives are put back into the game box.
- All players collect cars for their locomotive simultaneously, forming a stack of cards, which they will use to make the longest train possible.
- Cards go together if at least one of the following characteristics is the same on both cards:
- Type of car
- Colour
- Number of wheels
- At the sound of a whistle, each player turns over his locomotive and holds it in one hand, which will be his "train hand".
- Immediately, everyone searches for matching cards from the centre of the table with the other hand, their "search hand".
- Using the "search hand" the cards in the middle of the table are turned over, one by one.
- Matching cards are immediately collected in the "train hand", and then the search continues for the next card, which has to match with the previously collected car.
- If a card is turned over that the player cannot use for the moment, because it doesn't match, he lays it down on the table, face up.
- Players can pick up any matching cards from the table that are lying face up, storing them in their "train hand".
Important:
- There may never be more than one card in a player's "search hand" at a time.
- The order of the collected cards may not be changed.
Note: The matching railway car is indicated on each locomotive, so that all three characteristics are possible for finding a matching card.
End of game
- The game is over as soon as none of the players can collect any more matching cards.
- Beginning with the youngest player, all the collected cards are checked. The player, whose cards are being checked, lays his cards down on the table, face down. Then, one by one, he turns over his cards to form a train by attaching the cars to his locomotive. Beginning at the locomotive, each car in the train is checked to make sure that at least one of the three characteristics match on the adjoining cards. If any of the cards do not match, the player forfeits all the following cars beginning with the non-matching card.
- The player with the longest train wins. In the event of a tie, the player with the most cars of the same kind wins.
STREETCARS FOR JUNIORS aged 3 years and up
The rules of the game are the same as for the basic game, except that the cards are spread out over the table face up to start the game. If possible, leave space between the cards. The game begins right away as soon as the players turn over their locomotive. Just as in the basic game, at least one characteristic must match.
Note: If there are players at different levels, it is recommended that the more experienced players play according to the rules for RAILWAY EXPRESS. Everyone else plays according to the rules for STREETCARS FOR JUNIORS.
RAILWAY EXPRESS for advanced players
The rules of the game are the same as for the basic game, except that the cards are spread out over the table face up to start the game. If possible, leave space between the cards. The game begins right away as soon as the players turn over their locomotive. In contrast to the basic game, players now collect cards that have only one single matching characteristic.
Example: Two cards are a match if the cars are the same, but the colour and the number of wheels are different. A non-match would be the same car with the same colour and a different number of wheels.
THE LONGEST TRAIN for 2 players
- The players sit across from one another.
- Shuffle all 60 cars, face down. Each player receives half of the cards, face down, in his hand.
- 5 locomotives are needed for this game. Any one of the 6 locomotives is removed from the game and put back into the game box. The locomotives are placed in the middle of the table, one below the other, so that cars can be added to it on either side.
- At the sound of a whistle, the players turn over their stack of cards and, one by one, try to match them with one of the locomotives as fast as they can. Both players play at the same time, always adding their cards to the right of any of the five locomotives. Each player forms 5 trains, so that the locomotives pull the cars laid by the one player and also push the cars laid by the other player.
- Just as in the basic game, at least one characteristic must match on both cards to be able to lay down the next card.
- If the top card of the player's stack cannot be laid on any of the 5 trains, it is moved to the bottom of the stack and play continues with the next card from the top of the stack.
- The game is over as soon as one of the players runs out of cards.
- Each train, beginning from the locomotive, moving left and right, is checked. If any of the cards do not match, the player forfeits all the following cards beginning with the non-matching card. The player who was able to successfully attach the most cars to the locomotive wins the respective locomotive and lays it down in front of him. If both players have the same number of cars in the train, the player with the most cars of the same kind wins. If it is still a tie, this locomotive is not counted for either player.
- The player with the most locomotives wins. If it's a tie, both players win.