Russian Railroads: German Railroads Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Germany – Components and Setup
• Germany – Recovery and Transformation
  • 1. The switch on the München railroad
  • 2. The railroad extensions
  • Special spaces on the Germany board and railroad extensions
  • 3. The natural colored tracks
• Coal – Components and Setup
  • Changes for the 2 player game
  • Changes for the 3 player game
• Coal – How do I get coal?
• Coal – How can I use my coal?
  • The action spaces in detail
  • Closing a foundry
• Solo Variant – Emil joins in
  • Setup
  • Game sequence
  • Emil begins the game
  • Your turn
  • Game end
• New Game Components
  • New Engineers
  • New mystery tokens
  • New mystery cards
  • The Coal Factory

Germany – Components and Setup

The game sequence is identical to that of the base game except for the following changes.

To use this module, you need:

• 18 railroad extensions (6 of each size)
• 8 oval Income markers
• 1 Industry marker
• 4 Germany boards

1. Place all 18 railroad extensions next to the board, sorted by the number of spaces they have.
2. Next to the extensions, place the 8 oval Income markers and the Industry marker.
3. Instead of using the player boards included in the base game, each player takes the Germany board in their color.
4. If you wish to use the new components, set them up now. A reference for these components can be found on page 12.

Basic gameplay remains the same.

As you may have noticed, some areas of the Germany board seem to be "missing." You may use the included railroad extensions to fill these spaces, thereby extending your railways as you see fit.

The main railroad (München) has a switch, beyond which lie two separate destinations. You will have to decide in which direction (Hamburg or Berlin) you would like to build.

The other two railroads (Dresden and Nürnberg-Fürth) have several areas with dashed outlines, in which you may place railroad extensions to design these railroads as you see fit.

These new game elements are explained on the following two pages.

Germany – Recovery and Transformation

Just like the player board of the base game, the Germany board has 3 railroads. We refer to these railroads by their cities of origin: the Dresden railroad, the München railroad (main line), and the Nürnberg-Fürth railroad.

Unlike the railroads in the base game, these railroads are not yet fully "planned." There are 3 ways you can influence the development of your railroads.

1. The switch on the München railroad

To proceed past space 8 of the München railroad, you must decide whether you will build towards Hamburg or Berlin.

On one hand, the longer route towards Hamburg will earn you more points and eventually grant you access to white tracks. On the other hand, taking the shorter route to Berlin will allow you to reach specific upgrades earlier.

When advancing the black track to the space 9 of the München railroad, you must decide to which space 9 you will advance, as it determines where further advancements must be made. You may not change the destination of this railroad for the rest of the game. You may not "reverse course" and the tracks of other colors must also be advanced towards the same destination.

Example: Blue's black track is currently on space 6. He advances it 3 spaces forward. The third step takes him to space 9 of the München track. He decides to build towards Hamburg.

Blue has chosen to take the longer route. He will therefore gain the natural tracks and the mystery token later than if he had built toward Berlin. However, he now has the possibility of eventually building the white track.

2. The railroad extensions

Some areas of the Dresden and Nürnberg-Fürth railroads have dashed outlines. There is an intermediate station located on the first space of each of these areas. These intermediate stations are Hannover (on the Dresden railroad), Würzburg and Frankfurt (on the Nürnberg-Fürth railroad).

Whenever you advance the black track on these railroads to one of these intermediate stations, you must place a railroad extension at the corresponding outlined area.

When doing so, you must observe the following rules:

• You must choose and place one of the available railroad extensions that fits the corresponding outlined area (2-space, 3-space, or 4-space) and immediately place a black track on the first space of this new extension.
• If you satisfy the conditions for a particular special space, you receive the depicted advantage.

Note: The sooner you advance to a particular intermediate station, the greater your selection will be when choosing the corresponding railroad extension.

If you have further black track advancements to make on this railroad, you may do so now.

Example: Blue advances the black track to space 4 on the Nürnberg-Fürth railroad, the Würzburg intermediate station. Blue chooses and places one of the available 4-space railroad extensions in the outlined area. He then advances the black track onto the new extension.

Special spaces on the Germany board and railroad extensions

Most of the special spaces printed on the railroad extensions are similar to those of the base game.

The Kiev Medal: The Kiev medal, if acquired, is placed on space 5 of the Dresden railroad. Apart from this tiny geographical variation, the rules regarding the Kiev medal remain the same.

3 new advantages:

Immediate effects: As soon as you satisfy the conditions for one of these spaces, you immediately and only once receive the depicted advantage. These advantages include: 2 industry advancements, 2 coins, or 1 locomotive/factory.

Important: These advantages are not triggered again during scoring.

(Space showing the advantage: as soon as you satisfy the conditions for this space, you advance 2 spaces on the industry track.)

An additional industry marker: Once you advance a black track to this space, you may take an additional industry marker and place it on space 0 of your industry track. However, if there is currently an industry marker on space 0 of the industry track, you may not take this additional industry marker. You may still get your second industry marker with the mystery token, making it possible to have 3 industry markers on your industry track.

(Space showing the advantage: this space grants you an additional industry marker.)

Income: As soon as you satisfy the conditions for one of these spaces, immediately take one of the income markers and place it faceup next to your board. If you satisfy the conditions for another one of these spaces, you simply take another income marker.

(Space showing the advantage: as soon as you satisfy the conditions for this space, you immediately receive an income marker. The back side of an income marker shows an arrow.)

You may use each of your income markers once per round (including the round you acquire it) in order to receive the depicted advantage. When using an income marker, you must observe the following rules:

• You may only use an income marker during your own turn, at which time you immediately receive the depicted advantage.
• You may use multiple income markers in the same turn.
• You may use an income marker before or after you have placed workers (or coins).
• You may even choose to use an income marker when you are unable to fully use its advantage.
• You may not use income markers once you have passed, when you are relocating a worker on the turn order track, or during scoring.
• Once you have used an income marker, flip it facedown.
• After the scoring phase, flip all income markers faceup.

The functions of the income markers:

• Coin: Take 1 coin from the supply.
• Track icon: 1 track advancement of your choice.
• Industry icon: 1 industry advancement.
• Black and gray track icons: 1 black track advancement and 1 gray track advancement.
• Gray and brown track icons: 1 gray track advancement and 1 brown track advancement.

3. The natural colored tracks

The natural tracks may be used on all three railroads of the Germany board. However, as in the base game, you only have 2 of these tracks to use. Therefore, you must decide on which railroads you wish to advance these natural tracks. If you do not choose the München to Hamburg railroad, you will not be able to advance the white rail.

All 3 railroads depict the natural colored track. However, you may still only advance it on 2 railroads.

Coal – Components and Setup

Aside from the following changes, game setup is identical to that of the base game.

What follows is a description of the setup for a 4-player game. To play with 2 or 3 players, please see the required changes below.

To use this module, you need:

• 1 Coal board
• 12 foundries
• 1 blockade
• 25 coal wagons
• 1 new Starting Bonus card

1. Place the Coal board on the game board, with the side featuring 3 action spaces faceup.
2. Shuffle the 12 foundries and place them as a facedown supply near the board. The back of these tiles depict a boilerman. Then draw two foundries and place them faceup next to the facedown supply.
3. Place 1 blockade on the 6 engineer space.

You will play 1 fewer round when using the Coal module. So 4 players will play 6 rounds.

Because of this, you will place 1 fewer engineer than in the base game. So, with 4 players you will use 3 A and 3 B engineers. No engineer is placed on the blocked space.

4. Place the 25 coal wagons (herein referred to simply as "coal") as a general supply near the board.

5. Each player starts with the same components as they do in the base game, as well as 1 coal and 1 additional coin.

6. If you wish to use the new components, set them up now. We recommend using:

   • the Mining engineer
   • the mystery tokens with 4 coal and
   • the mystery card with the corresponding factory.

   A reference for these components can be found on page 12.

7. Shuffle the new Starting Bonus card with the others. You now have another Starting Bonus card to choose from. A player choosing this new card receives 1 additional coal.

Changes for the 2 player game

• Place the Coal board on the game board, with the side featuring 2 action spaces faceup (a combined action space and a normal action space).
• Place the blockade on the 5 engineer space.
• Place only 2 A and 3 B engineers.
• The game will last only 5 rounds.

The 2-player rules from the base game are otherwise the same.

Changes for the 3 player game

• Place blockades on the 5 and 6 engineer spaces.
• Place only 2 A and 3 B engineers.
• The game will last only 5 rounds.

The 3-player rules from the base game are otherwise the same.

Coal – How do I get coal?

You begin the game with 1 coal. By performing actions with the coal wagon symbol, you can gain additional coal.

Coal gained in this way is taken from the general supply and placed in your personal supply, where it is stored until you use it.

Note: There is no limit to how much coal you can collect in this way. If the general supply of coal should become empty, use a suitable replacement. As we all know, coal is an inexhaustible resource!

Coal: By using this action space, you take 1 coal from the general supply and place it in your personal supply.

Foundry and coal: You must place 1 coin on this action space to use it. Once you have done so, you may take 1 of the available foundries and place it above your player board (the utility of these foundries is explained in the next section). You also receive 1 coal. Draw a new foundry from the facedown supply to replace the one you just took.

Example:

1. Yellow places 1 coin on this action space.
2. Yellow takes 1 of the 2 available foundries and places it above his player board.
3. Yellow also takes 1 coal from the general supply.

The combined action space: In the 2-player game, the 2 depicted actions are combined into a single action space. This means that only one of these actions may be performed in a given round. A player may place 1 worker here (to take 1 coal) or place 1 coin (to take 1 foundry and 1 coal). Once a player has performed one of these two actions, the action space is then unavailable for the rest of the round.

The mining engineer: Using this action space allows you to take 2 coal.

Coal – How can I use my coal?

There are action spaces that require coal to be used instead of workers. Please observe the following when using these action spaces:

• You may use these action spaces in addition to a regular action.
• You may use these action spaces before or after you place a worker.
• You may choose to use several of these action spaces on the same turn.
• You may use coal on the same turn you acquire it.
• As usual, you may only use unoccupied action spaces.
• You may not use these action spaces once you have passed, when you are relocating a worker on the turn order track, or during scoring.
• After the scoring phase, return all coal on these action spaces to the general supply.

The action spaces in detail

The boilerman: To use the lower action on the coal board, you must use 2 coal from your personal supply. Take the top tile of the facedown foundry supply and place it as a boilerman (+1 side up) next to one of your locomotives or factories.

What happens when I add a boilerman to my locomotive? The boilerman increases the power of the locomotive by 1, meaning that you can reach 1 space further on the corresponding railroad. If doing so satisfies the condition of a special space on your board, you gain the advantage immediately. For all intents and purposes, this locomotive's actual number is now 1 higher than its printed value. Each locomotive may only have 1 boilerman.

Example: This #3 locomotive is considered a #4.

Adding a boilerman to a locomotive is permanent. You may not move a boilerman to a different locomotive or factory. If you move such a locomotive to a different railroad, the boilerman moves along with it. If you return a locomotive with a boilerman to the supply, the boilerman is removed from the game.

What happens when I add a boilerman to a factory? When you move an industry marker to a factory manned by a boilerman, you perform an improved version of that action. Depending on the ability of the factory, this can have different effects:

• Factories with 1 ability: Immediately use the factory a second time. This applies to these 5 factories.
• Factories with 2 or more abilities: Use one of the abilities a second time (1 more doubler, 1 more advancement of your choice, or 1 more black track advancement).
• Point scoring factories: Score (only) 1 additional point. This applies to these factories.

You are not required to use the effect of a factory manned by a boilerman in full.

Each factory may only have 1 boilerman.

As with the locomotive, the boilerman becomes a permanent part of the factory. You may not move a boilerman to a different locomotive or factory. If you return a factory with a boilerman to the supply, the boilerman is removed from the game.

The foundries: You may use each of the foundries you have collected once per round. To use a foundry, you must place 2 coal from your personal supply. You may use a foundry even when you cannot perform its effect in full.

Important: You may not use the faceup foundries in the general supply.

The foundries in detail:

• Get 2 black track advancements and 1 industry marker advancement.
• Get 2 black track advancements and build a factory. Choose an available factory or the lowest numbered locomotive, which must be built as a factory.
• Choose an action space on which you have placed 1 or 2 workers in this round and perform its action. It does not matter if one of the workers has been replaced by a coin. However, you may not use an action space that requires a coin to use.
• Get 1 black track advancement and build 1 locomotive or 1 factory.
• Get 1 black track advancement, 1 track advancement of your choice, and take 1 coin.
• Get 1 track advancement of your choice and score points equal to the number of your highest numbered locomotive.
• Get 1 industry marker advancement and score points equal to number of your highest numbered locomotive.
• Get 2 industry marker advancements and place 1 doubler.
• Get 1 black track advancement, 1 industry marker advancement, and place 1 doubler.
• Get 2 track advancements of your choice.
• Get 1 track advancement of your choice and place 1 doubler.
• Take 2 coins from the supply.

Closing a foundry

You may choose to close a foundry immediately after using it. Doing so allows you to flip the foundry and place it as a boilerman next to a locomotive or factory, as described above. Return the coal on the used foundry to the general supply. You may never choose to reopen this foundry. Its action is now lost.

Important: You can only choose to close a foundry immediately after using it.

Example:

1. In addition to performing his regular action, yellow uses his foundry by placing 2 coal on it.
2. He advances a track of his choice by 1 space and places a doubler.
3. Yellow decides to close this foundry. He flips it over and places the boilerman next to his #3 locomotive.

The coal factory: The third way to use coal is at the coal factory, which can be acquired by taking the new mystery card. This factory depicts an action that may be used whenever you activate it. The rules explaining this factory can be found on page 12.

Solo Variant – Emil joins in

You want to play, but all of your friends are at work? The Yucata server is down? Are you just looking for a challenge? Let us introduce you to your new friend, Emil (who is also bored).

Setup

Set the game up as you would for 2 players, noting the following changes.

1. Cover the "Take 2 coins" action with a blockade. This space is not available in the solo game.
2. Take 5 coins instead of just one.
3. Emil, your opponent, is represented by a deck of cards. Emil begins with a supply of 6 workers. Place his 2 remaining workers next to the 50 space of the score track. Emil does not require any other components.

You will not need the Last Round marker, the Turn Order cards, or the Starting Bonus cards. They can be put back in the box.

You also will not need the pawn for the turn order track, as the turn order track serves no purpose in the solo game.

To use this module, you need: 1 blockade and 17 solo cards.

Game sequence

Just as you would in the 2 player game, you will play 6 rounds (5 rounds if you're using the Coal module). However, you will actually be playing this game on your own. Emil doesn't care about scoring points. He's only here to get in your way.

Emil begins the game

At the beginning of each of his turns, draw a card from Emil's deck. Each of his cards depicts one of the action spaces on the game board, which Emil will occupy and prevent you from using. Place the appropriate number of Emil's workers on the depicted action space. Emil doesn't actually perform the action. He thinks performing actions is boring. (Exception: taking locomotives and engineers; see below.)

You may now discard the drawn card and take your turn (see the next page).

There are some special cases when executing Emil's cards:

Emil's card depicts an action requiring coins. This doesn't bother Emil at all. Emil is anti-capitalist. When you draw either the "Get 2 track advancements of your choice" or the "Hire an engineer" card, Emil takes the necessary coins from the supply to place on the corresponding space. The worker required for the "Advance 2 tracks of your choice" space is taken from Emil's worker supply, as normal.

Emil does not need money.

Emil doesn't have enough workers. When you draw a card that Emil does not have enough workers to use, you simply discard it and draw another. Emil will not be able to block this space. You must continue drawing cards until Emil is able to block the space depicted on a drawn card, or until Emil's deck is exhausted.

Emil only has 2 workers left, so he cannot use this action space.

The action space on Emil's card is occupied. If there is already a worker on the action space depicted on Emil's card, simply discard the card and draw another (and so on, as required).

Emil only blocks spaces that you can use. When you draw a card that depicts an action space that you cannot use (usually for the actions that you have not yet unlocked the track color), simply discard the card and draw another (and so on, as required). Emil will only bother himself with blocking spaces that you can use. Emil occupies this space only if you are able to advance this color of track.

Emil collects locomotives and engineers. When Emil uses an action space that gives him a locomotive or an engineer, place the corresponding component in front of him. If there are no locomotives remaining in the supply, Emil takes the factory with the lowest number. Locomotives and factories taken by Emil are simply gone; they have no further effect in the game. The engineers collected by Emil are only used when determining engineer majority at game end.

The light side up engineer. When you draw this card, Emil must place a worker on the light side up engineer's action space.

The coal action space. This card should only be used when using the Coal module. Otherwise, remove it from Emil's deck. Emil always places a worker on this action space; never a coin. Emil does not collect coal.

Emil must eventually pass. If there are no cards left in Emil's deck at the beginning of his turn, or if he has no remaining workers left in his supply, he must pass. You may now take as many consecutive turns as you would like and are able to perform.

Emil gets a new toy. As soon as you reach a score of 50+ points, take 1 of the workers next to the 50 space of the score track and add it to Emil's worker supply. Emil now has 7 workers. As soon as you reach a score of 150+ points, add the other worker to Emil's supply. This will usually happen during the scoring phase. If this happens during a round, and Emil has not yet passed, he may use the new worker in the current round.

When you reach space 50, Emil gains 1 additional worker.

Your turn

Once Emil has blocked an action space, it is your turn. Unlike Emil, you're playing to win! As usual, you choose an action space, place the required workers (or coins), and perform the action.

Important: Use your coins sparingly. The "take 2 coins" action space is not available in the solo game.

Once you have completed your turn, draw a card from Emil's deck. You and Emil will alternate turns in this way until you choose to pass. Once you have passed, the round ends and the scoring phase is performed as usual. (Emil will take this opportunity to take a walk. He doesn't score any points; not that he cares.)

After the scoring phase is complete, return all the placed workers to your and Emil's personal supplies. Shuffle all of Emil's cards to prepare his deck for the following round.

Game end

After the 6th round, the game ends (after the 5th round if using the Coal module). Proceed with the last scoring phase and finally game end scoring. You will only need to count your own points (again, Emil doesn't care).

However, when determining engineer majority, you must consider Emil's collection. If Emil collected more engineers than you, you only score points for 2nd place.

Your goal is to score as many points as you can – and then to score even more next time.

New Game Components

New Engineers

• Engineer (3 gray track advancements): Get 3 gray track advancements.
• Engineer (coin): To use this engineer, you must place 1 coin. Get 1 black, 1 gray, and 1 brown track advancement.
• Mining engineer: Take 2 coal from the supply. Only use this engineer when playing with the Coal module.
• Engineer (factory): To use this engineer, you must place 2 workers. Immediately use the ability of one of your factories, as though you had just moved an industry marker there (it does not matter where your industry marker actually is). Note the 10 on this engineer. You must count this engineer when using factory #1, which means that you will get 10 fewer points than normal (but never negative points).
• Engineer (starting bonus): Draw 2 Starting Bonus cards at random and gain the depicted bonuses.

New mystery tokens

• Take 4 coal from the supply. Only use this token when playing with the Coal module.
• Take 4 coins from the supply. Use this token no matter which modules you choose to use.

New mystery cards

• Revaluation card: Place the new revaluation token on this card during setup. If you choose this card, place the revaluation token on your player board. You may not combine this revaluation marker with a revaluation marker from the base game. Use this card no matter which modules you choose to use.
• Coal factory card: Place the coal factory and 2 coal on this card during setup. If you choose this card, take the coal into your personal supply and add the industry to your industry track like any other factory. Only use this card when playing with the Coal module.

The Coal Factory

When you advance an industry marker to the coal factory, you get 2 black track advancements.

Whenever you use the coal factory, you may spend up to 3 coal from your personal supply. You get 2 black track advancements for each coal you spend. Therefore, you may advance up to 8 spaces with black tracks each time you use this factory.

You may also choose to spend no coal when using this factory, in which case you only get 2 black track advancements.

You can use the coal factory again by advancing another industry marker onto it, or by using the engineer at the top right of this page (the engineer that gives you the factory ability, see "Engineer (factory)" above).