Minecart Town Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Building Tile Overview
• Building Tile Effects
• Game Setup
• Game Overview
• Round Overview
• Production Phase
  • Scoring victory points
• Construction Phase
  • Construct a building
    • Paying resources
  • Constructing / Upgrading railroad track tiles
    • Constructing railroad track tiles
    • Upgrading railroad track tiles
  • Pass
• Transportation Phase
  • Transportation Rules
  • Moving Resources during the Construction Phase
• Processing Phase
• Preparing for the next round
• Round 3 Setup
• Final Round
• End of the game
• Additional Information
  • Resource cube and railroad track supply
• Expert Variant
• Solo rules
  • Setup variants
• List of Buildings
  • A-Type building tiles (31 total, 27 types)
    • Buildings with production phase effects
    • Buildings with immediate and production phase effects
    • Buildings with immediate effects only
    • Buildings with processing phase effects
    • Buildings with other effects
  • C-Type building tiles (24 total, 18 types)
    • Buildings with processing phase effects
    • Buildings with end-of-the-game effects
  • B-Type building tiles (35 total, 31 types)
    • Buildings with immediate effects only
    • Buildings with immediate and production phase effects
    • Buildings with processing phase effects
    • Buildings with miscellaneous effects
    • Buildings with end-of-the-game effects
• Reference
  • Building tile effect activation timing
  • Building tile icons
  • Resource Icons

Components

• 1 Central board, with a victory point track and a round track
• 4 Starting tiles
• 90 Building tiles (31 A-Type building tiles, 35 B-Type building tiles, 24 C-Type building tiles)
• 1 Starting player marker
• 4 50+ Victory point markers
• 135 Resource cubes (30 wood, 25 stone, 30 wheat, 20 coal, 30 sheep)
• 44 Railroad track tiles (16 straight track tiles, 28 curved track tiles). All railroad track tiles are double-sided, and feature a three-way T-junction on the flip side.
• 1 Round tracker marker
• 4 Victory point markers
• 3 Cloth bags
• 1 Railroad track insert
• 2 Rulebooks

Building Tile Overview

Each building tile shows:

• Construction cost (top left) — resources that must be spent to construct this tile.
• Tile name (top).
• Resource slots — indicates how many resources can be placed on this tile. Each resource slot can hold one resource cube.
• Tile type indicator (A, B, C) (bottom left).
• Tile effect (bottom right).

Building Tile Effects

The icons on each tile represent different effects, and when they are performed:

• Immediately
• During the Production phase
• During the Construction phase
• At the start of the Transportation phase
• During the Processing phase
• At the end of the game

Gaining — Produce the depicted resources or victory points. [EXAMPLE] Produce 1 wheat resource. [EXAMPLE] Produce 2 victory points.

Converting — Spend the resources depicted on the left of the arrow, to gain the resources or victory points depicted to the right of the arrow. [EXAMPLE] Gain 6 victory points per each spent pair of wheat and coal resources.

For the full list of all building tile effects, see the list of buildings at the end of the rulebook.

Game Setup

Minecart Town features a single-player mode. The setup and rules for this mode are slightly different from the main game and are explained in their own section. You should still read the multiplayer rules first, to understand how to play the game.

1. Place the central board on the table, ensuring it's easily accessible for all players.

2. Each player receives a starting tile. The color depicted on the signboard is this player's player color. Each player should place their starting tile in their play area - this indicates the initial two buildings of their town. Players will build out their towns by placing tiles adjacent to their starting tile. Ensure each player has enough space to expand their town.

3. Separate the building tiles by their type (A-Type, B-Type, and C-Type*). Place all building tiles in their corresponding cloth bags. Keep these within easy reach of all players.

   *Your First Game: Some C-Type building tiles feature an exclamation mark icon. These are advanced tiles, and we recommend playing without them for your first game.

4. Separate the railroad track tiles by their type (straight track tiles and curved track tiles). Place the railroad track tiles in their dedicated spots within the insert. Keep the insert within easy reach of all players.

5. Place all resource cubes within easy reach of all players. This is the resource stock.

6. Each player places the victory point marker of their color on the 0 space of the victory point track.

7. Each player keeps their 50+ victory point marker off to the side. These are not used at the start of the game.

8. Place the round tracking marker on the first space of the round track.

9. The first player is the last player who has built anything. Alternatively, use any other means you see fit to decide the first player. This player receives the starting player marker.

10. Depending on the number of players, fill the corresponding number of central board spaces by placing building tiles from their cloth bags.

A-Type building tiles

• 2 Players... 6 spaces
• 3 Players... 7 spaces
• 4 Players... 8 spaces

B-Type building tiles — These are not placed during the setup of the game.

C-Type building tiles — All player counts... 4 spaces

If you draw any identical tiles, stack them on the same space of the central board, and continue drawing tiles to fill the required number of central board spaces.

Game Overview

The game takes place over 4 rounds. The player with the most victory points at the end of the fourth round is the winner. If you are playing the solo mode, refer to the Solo Rules section, after reading through the rest of the rules.

Round Overview

Each round consists of four sequential phases: Production → Construction → Transportation → Processing. A brief overview of each phase is found below, with a full description on the following pages.

• Production Phase — All players perform this phase simultaneously. During this phase, perform all the production effects of the building tiles in your town once, in any order you like.

• Construction Phase — Players perform this phase in clockwise order, starting with the player who has the first player marker. On your turn, you can perform one of the following actions:

  • Construct one building
  • Construct or upgrade as many track tiles as you wish
  • Pass

  The Construction phase repeats until all players have passed.

• Transportation Phase — All players perform this phase simultaneously. During this phase, you can move as many resources through your town as you wish, following the transportation rules.

• Processing Phase — All players perform this phase simultaneously. Perform the processing effects of all your building tiles to their full extent.

Production Phase

The Production phase is performed by all players simultaneously. Each player performs the production effects of all their building tiles, one tile at a time. Building tiles with a Production phase effect will typically depict a resource type and its amount. These resources are taken from the resource stock and placed on the building tile's available resource slots.

You can never place a resource on a building tile with no free resource slots.

• Industrial Farm — As there are two free resource slots, you can only place two wheat resources on this building tile.
• Wheat Field — As there are no free resource slots, no additional resources can be placed on this building tile.
• Bog — As there is only one free resource slot, you can place either one stone or one wood resource on this building tile.
• Cotton Mill — For each sheep resource existing on this building tile during the Production phase, the player gains 2 victory points. Since there is no arrow, the sheep resources are not spent as part of this production.

Scoring victory points

Anytime you gain victory points, advance your victory point marker on the victory point track by the amount of victory points you gained.

Construction Phase

Players perform this phase in clockwise order, starting with the player who has the first player marker. On your turn, you can perform one of the following actions:

• Construct a building
• Construct or upgrade track tiles
• Pass

Construct a building

Select a building tile from the central board, pay its cost in resources, and place the building tile in your town.

Paying resources

Remove the necessary amount of resource cubes from any building tiles in your town, and place them back in the resource stock. You can use resources from your starting tile.

• Sheep Range — Place 1 wood and 1 stone resource from your town back into the stock. Place the constructed building tile so that it orthogonally touches another tile in your town. You cannot place a building tile so that only the corners are touching another tile.
• If the constructed building tile has an immediate effect, gain the depicted resources or victory points after placing the tile.
• Sheep Range — As soon as you construct the Sheep Range in your town, place 2 sheep resource cubes on the resource slots of the Sheep Range.

Draw a new building tile from the cloth bag whose type matches the constructed building, placing it on the newly empty central board slot. The number of available building tiles should always be the same. If you construct a building from a stack, you do not draw any new tiles from a bag.

Any drawn building that is identical to a tile on the central board, is stacked on top of the pre-existing tile. Draw another tile to fill the empty spot, repeating the process if necessary.

Constructing / Upgrading railroad track tiles

You can construct and/or upgrade as many railroad track tiles as you wish, provided you can afford them.

Constructing railroad track tiles

You can construct a straight or curved railroad track tile by paying the construction cost of either 1 stone or 1 wood. Railroad track tiles follow the same placement rules as building tiles - they must be placed orthogonally to existing tiles in your city. Additionally, you are not allowed to place a railroad track in such a way that it cuts off a pre-existing track connection.

You can also construct a T-junction by spending 2 stone, 2 wood, or a combination of 1 stone and 1 wood.

Upgrading railroad track tiles

By spending 1 wood or 1 stone, you can flip an existing railroad track tile onto its T-junction side. You can rotate this railroad track tile in any orientation you wish, so long as it doesn't break an existing connection.

Pass

A player can choose to pass if they are unable to or don't want to perform another Construction phase action. Once you pass, you cannot take any more actions for the remainder of this round's Construction phase.

Once all players have passed, the Construction phase ends.

Transportation Phase

The Transportation phase is performed by all players simultaneously.

During the Transportation phase, you may freely move resource cubes throughout your town by using the railroad tracks you built, following these transportation rules:

Transportation Rules

Resource cubes can only move along railroad tracks. Adjacent building tiles must still be connected via railroad tracks to transport resource cubes between each other.

• Since the Forest is connected to the Charcoal Kiln via railroad tracks, a player may move the wood resource cubes from one building tile to the other.
• Building tiles that are adjacent to each other but are not connected via railroad tracks cannot transport resources between each other. *The Mine and Forest buildings on your starting tile count as two adjacent buildings, and must still be connected via railroad tracks to transport resources between each other.

Resource cubes can pass through building tiles that do not have that resource type depicted, but their destination building tile must depict this resource type on one of its effects.

Resource Destination Examples

• Wheat Field — Wheat resource cubes only.
• Charcoal Kiln — Wood and coal resource cubes only.
• Trading Post — All resource cubes can be placed.

A building tile with no available resource slots cannot receive additional resource cubes, but resource cubes can travel through this building tile on their way to their destination.

• Stockpile has a unique transportation phase effect: You can select up to four resource cubes from anywhere in your town and move them to this building tile. You ignore all transportation rules for this effect.

Moving Resources during the Construction Phase

You may transport resources during the Construction phase. This can help you plan your future turns and decisions quicker, but you must follow these rules:

• All transportation rules.
• Building tiles with Transportation phase effects are not activated during the Construction phase.

Processing Phase

The Processing phase is performed by all players simultaneously. Each player must fully execute all possible Processing phase effects on their building tiles.

When a building tile processes a resource, the specified resource cubes are removed from the building tile and placed back in the resource stock. In exchange, the player receives either victory points or other resources. Any processed resource cubes are placed on the resource slots of this building tile.

Preparing for the next round

Once all players have finished their Processing phase, the current round is over. Pass the first player marker to the player on your left and advance the round tracker marker.

Round 3 Setup

At the end of the second round, return all A-Type building tiles from the central board to their cloth bag. Replace these building tiles with B-Type building tiles. The number of central board spaces occupied by B-Type building tiles depends on the number of players:

2 Players: 6 spaces / 3 Players: 7 spaces / 4 Players: 8 spaces

If any drawn tiles are identical, they are stacked on top of each other, with new building tiles drawn to replace them. No two identical tiles should exist on separate spaces of the central board.

Final Round

During the fourth and final round of the game, the Transportation and Processing phases can be performed repeatedly and interchangeably by all players.

Unlike in previous rounds, you can transport resources after performing any processing effects and vice versa. All players simultaneously repeat these actions as often as they'd like.

End of the game

Once every player has finished their fourth round, the end of the game is triggered.

Perform any Game End effects you have in your town. The player who collects the most victory points wins the game. In the case of a tie, the victory goes to the player with the fewest remaining resource cubes in their town. If there is still a tie, the player with the most tiles (building and railroad) in their town wins the game.

If there is still a tie, all tied players share the victory!

• Ranch — At the end of the game, you gain 3 victory points per each sheep resource cube on this building tile. If you have 8 sheep resource cubes on this building tile at the end of the game, you would score an additional 6 points, for a total of 30 victory points.

Additional Information

Victory Point Track — When you complete a lap on the Victory Track, do the following:

When you exceed 49 victory points: Place your 50+ victory point marker on the 0 space of the victory point track, with the 50 side face up. Continue counting points using your victory point marker as before.

When you exceed 99 victory points: Flip your 50+ victory point marker to the 100 point side. Continue counting points as before.

*When you exceed 149 victory points: Indicate this by placing a resource cube on top of your victory point marker, or by any other indicator.

Resource cube and railroad track supply

The resource cubes and railroad track tiles are meant to be unlimited. If you run out of resource cubes or railroad tracks to place, substitute them in any way you like before continuing the game.

Expert Variant

Individual players can choose to follow the expert variant, even if other players are playing the standard ruleset. The only difference in the expert variant is as follows:

Resource cubes cannot pass through building tiles that do not have that resource depicted.

• As per the expert rules, the wheat resource cube could not be transported to the Bakery via the Forest.

Solo rules

When playing the solo variant of Minecart Town, you begin with a predetermined combination of available building tiles and try to achieve a high score. The basic rules of the game are identical, aside from the following changes:

Setup — When setting up the building tiles on the central board, select one of the solo setup variants described below, and arrange the building tiles to match the illustration. You will use 6 A/B-Type building tiles and 4 C-Type building tiles.

Construction phase — Any time a building tile is constructed, the building tile in the leftmost space of each row is removed from the game. These are not placed back into the building tile bags. Slide all remaining building tiles to the left, and draw 3 new tiles to place on the central board.

The same applies to C-Type building tiles.

Always remove 2 tiles, and place 3 tiles in total.

Setup variants

When setting up for the solo game, choose one of the following combinations. After you finish your game, record the achieved scores in the table below. You can also take notes on how your game went, and cross off the achieved point threshold.

1: #Bountiful harvest (score thresholds: 60 / 80 / 100 / 120)

• A tiles: Industrial Farm, Agricultural Farm, Harvesting Center, Flour Mill, Sheepfold, Bog
• C tiles: Tavern, Granary, Restaurant, Grocer

2: #Food festival (score thresholds: 60 / 80 / 100 / 120)

• A tiles: Meadow, Charcoal Kiln, Timberland, Wheat Field, Hot Spring, Ore Mine
• C tiles: Large Market, Big Ranch, Smokehouse, Butcher

3: #Taste of home (score thresholds: 60 / 80 / 100 / 120)

• A tiles: Swidden, Highland Fields, Marshlands, Quarry, Harvesting Center, Fuel Depot
• C tiles: Distillery, Cafe, Factory, Bakery

4: #Resourceful artisans (score thresholds: 60 / 80 / 100 / 120)

• A tiles: Cotton Mill, Barn, Volcano, Coal Mine, Sheep Range, Paddock
• C tiles: Ranch, Ironworks, Butcher, Furniture Store

5: #Vibrant history (score thresholds: 60 / 80 / 100 / 120)

• A tiles: Breeding Grounds, Fertile Plot, Museum, Swidden, Sheep Range, Stockpile
• C tiles: Trading Company, Ranch, Stonemason, Marketplace

6: #Random (score thresholds: 60 / 80 / 100 / 120)

• A tiles: Random 6 tiles
• C tiles: Random 4 tiles

Come up with your original setup and share it online using the hashtags #トロッコタウンソロ #minecarttownsolo

List of Buildings

A-Type building tiles (31 total, 27 types)

Buildings with production phase effects

• Wheat Field — Cost: 1 wood. Produce 1 wheat.
• Timberland — Cost: 2 stone. Produce 2 wood.
• Quarry — Cost: 2 wood. Produce 2 stone.
• Industrial Farm — Cost: 4 wood. Produce 3 wheat.
• Coal Mine — Cost: 2 wood, 1 stone. Produce 2 coal.
• Bog — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Produce 1 wood, 1 stone.
• Ore Mine — Cost: 2 wood. Produce 1 stone, 1 coal.
• Highland Fields — Cost: 2 wood. Produce 1 stone, 1 wheat.
• Flour Mill — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Produce 1 wheat, 1 coal.
• Agricultural Farm — Cost: 3 wood. Produce 1 wheat, 1 sheep.

Buildings with immediate and production phase effects

• Fertile Plot — Cost: 2 wood. Immediately gain 1 coal, 1 wheat. During the production phase, gain 1 sheep.
• Harvesting Center — Cost: 3 wood. Immediately gain 1 wheat. During the production phase, gain 2 wheat.
• Marshlands — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 2 coal. During the production phase, gain 1 coal.
• Breeding Grounds — Cost: 2 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 2 sheep. During the production phase, gain 1 sheep.
• Swidden — Cost: 2 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 2 coal. During the production phase, gain 2 wheat.
• Meadow — Cost: 2 wood. Immediately gain 2 sheep. During the production phase, gain 1 wheat.
• Hot Spring — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 2 sheep. During the production phase, gain 1 coal.
• Volcano — Cost: 2 wood. Immediately gain 2 coal. During the production phase, gain 1 stone.
• Paddock — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 3 sheep resources. Remove 1 sheep resource during the processing phase.

Buildings with immediate effects only

• Sheep Range — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 2 sheep.

Buildings with processing phase effects

• Charcoal Kiln — Cost: 1 stone. Process 1 wood → gain 1 coal.
• Sheepfold — Cost: 1 wood. Process 1 wheat → gain 1 sheep.

Buildings with other effects

• Barn — During the production phase, gain 2 sheep resources for each pair of sheep resources on this building tile.
• Cotton Mill / Fuel Depot / Museum — During the production phase, gain 2 victory points per the corresponding resources depicted on this building tile. (Cotton Mill: sheep. Fuel Depot: wood. Museum: pairs of different resources.)
• Stockpile — Once per round, at the start of the transportation phase, you can select up to 4 resources from within your town and place them on the available resource slots of this building tile. You ignore all transportation rules for this.

C-Type building tiles (24 total, 18 types)

Buildings with processing phase effects

• Bakery — Cost: 2 stone. Process 1 wheat, 1 stone → gain 6 victory points.
• Grocer — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Process 1 wheat, 1 sheep → gain 7 victory points.
• Butcher — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Process 1 stone, 1 sheep → gain 7 victory points.
• Cafe — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Process 1 stone, 1 wheat → gain 6 victory points.
• Furniture Store — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Process 1 wood, 1 sheep → gain 6 victory points.
• Granary — Cost: 2 stone. Process 5 wheat → gain 16 victory points.
• Ironworks — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Process 1 stone, 1 coal → gain 6 victory points.
• Factory — Cost: 2 stone. Process 1 wood, 1 stone, 1 coal → gain 10 victory points.
• Distillery — Cost: 2 stone. Process 1 stone, 2 wheat → gain 10 victory points.
• Big Ranch — Cost: 2 stone. Process 1 wood, 1 wheat, 1 sheep → gain 11 victory points.
• Tavern — Cost: 2 stone. Process 2 wheat, 1 sheep → gain 11 victory points.
• Stonemason — Cost: 2 stone. Process 1 stone, 1 wheat, 1 coal → gain 11 victory points.
• Smokehouse — Cost: 2 stone. Process 2 coal, 1 sheep → gain 11 victory points.
• Restaurant — Cost: 2 stone. Process 1 wheat, 1 coal, 1 sheep → gain 12 victory points.
• Marketplace — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. During the processing phase, gain victory points depending on the processed resources. Process 3 different resources → gain 9 victory points.
• Large Market — Cost: 2 stone. During the processing phase, gain victory points depending on the processed resources. Process 4 different resources → gain 14 victory points.
• Trading Company — Cost: 2 stone. During the processing phase, gain victory points depending on the processed resources. Process 5 different resources → gain 20 victory points.

Buildings with end-of-the-game effects

• Ranch — Cost: 2 wood. At the end of the game, gain 3 victory points for each sheep resource on this building tile. If there are 8 sheep resources, you gain an additional 6 victory points.

Some C-Type building tiles feature an exclamation mark icon. These are advanced tiles (see Your First Game, in Game Setup).

B-Type building tiles (35 total, 31 types)

Buildings with immediate effects only

• Sheep Range — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 2 sheep.
• Silo — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 1 wheat, 1 coal, 1 sheep.
• Bountiful Fields — Cost: 2 wood. Immediately gain 3 wheat.
• Hearth — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 1 wheat, 2 coal.
• Feeding Grounds — Cost: 2 wood. Immediately gain 1 wheat, 2 sheep.
• Camping Grounds — Cost: 2 stone. Immediately gain 2 coal, 1 sheep.
• Discount Store — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 1 stone, 1 wheat, 1 coal.
• General Goods Store — Cost: 2 stone. Immediately gain 1 wood, 1 wheat, 1 sheep.
• Heroic Statue — Cost: 2 stone. Immediately gain 5 victory points.
• Pond — Cost: 2 wood. Immediately gain 2 of any resource types. (Can be 2 of the same resource type.)
• Wholesale Market — Cost: 2 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 5 resources of any 1 resource type.
• Trading Post — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 1 resource of each resource type depicted on the surrounding 8 building tiles (max 5 types).

Buildings with immediate and production phase effects

• Grainfield — Cost: 2 wood. Immediately gain 2 wheat resources. During the production phase, gain 2 wheat resources.
• Sheep Pasture — Cost: 2 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 4 sheep resources. During the production phase, remove 1 sheep resource from this building tile.
• Water Well — Cost: 1 stone. Immediately gain 2 victory points. Gains 1 additional victory point with each production phase.
• Boulder Well — Cost: 2 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 6 victory points. Gains 3 additional victory points with each production phase.
• Charred Grounds — Cost: 1 wood, 1 stone. Immediately gain 4 coal resources. During the production phase, lose 1 victory point per coal resource on this building tile.

Buildings with processing phase effects

• Charcoal Kiln — Cost: 1 stone. Process 1 wood → gain 1 coal.
• Incinerator — Cost: 1 wood. Process 1 of any resource → gain 1 coal.
• Brewery — Cost: 2 stone. Process 2 wheat → gain 5 victory points.
• Public Baths — Cost: 2 stone. Process 2 stone → gain 5 victory points.
• Pawnshop — Cost: 1 wood. Process any 2 resources → gain 4 victory points. (The same resource type can be used.)

Buildings with miscellaneous effects

• Workshop — All surrounding building tiles that produce victory points during the processing phase produce 1 additional victory point during the processing phase.
• Railroad Junction — Forms 2 railroad track connections between 4 buildings. This is not treated as a building tile.

Buildings with end-of-the-game effects

• Monastery — At the end of the game, gain 1 victory point for each surrounding tile (max 8 tiles).
• Small Ranch — At the end of the game, gain 3 victory points for each sheep resource on this building tile.
• Guild Hall — At the end of the game, gain 3 victory points for each surrounding building tile with a processing phase effect (max 8 tiles).
• Town Square — At the end of the game, gain 2 victory points for each resource type depicted on the surrounding building tiles (max 5 types).
• Town Hall — At the end of the game, gain 2 victory points for each surrounding building tile that allows you to gain victory points (max 8 tiles).
• Railyard — At the end of the game, gain 3 victory points for each building directly connected to the Railyard via railroad tracks. (Buildings separated by other buildings do not count.)
• Inn — At the end of the game, gain 2 victory points for each surrounding building tile (max 8 tiles).

Reference

Building tile effect activation timing

• Immediate
• Production phase
• Transportation phase
• Processing phase
• End of the game

Building tile icons

• Surrounding tiles (All 8 sides - including diagonal)
• Surrounding building tiles.
• Surrounding building tiles with processing effects.
• Different resources depicted in the effect of surrounding building tiles. Ignoring (any resource) or (any combination of resources).
• Buildings connected directly via railroad tracks.
• Buildings with victory points depicted in the effect of surrounding building tiles.
• Move resource cubes placed on any other building tile(s) to this tile. They do not need to be connected via railroad tracks.
• Gain +1 victory point each time you gain victory points from the processing effects of surrounding building tiles.

Resource Icons

• Wood
• Stone
• Wheat
• Coal
• Sheep
• Any resource
• Different resources
• Victory points