Santa Fe
Santa Fe Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- A board depicting the American West
- 66 City cards
- 9 Double Turn cards
- 10 Branch Line cards
- 5 Engineer cards
- 128 track tiles
- 60 plastic chips (copper = $1, silver = $5, gold = $10)
- 1 train piece to mark the first player
- Rulebook
Setup
Choose one player to keep score. That player should have paper and a pen ready, and also manages the money chips. Each player receives $2.
Sort the track tiles by color. There are 32 blue tiles (Santa Fe Railroad), 30 white tiles (Southern Pacific Railroad), 25 green tiles (Great Northern Railroad), 24 red tiles (Union Pacific Railroad), and 17 yellow tiles (Kansas Pacific Railroad).
Return the 5 Engineer cards to the box (they are not used in the basic game).
The scorekeeper shuffles the City cards well and deals 4 to each player. Place the remaining cards as a draw pile near the board. Prepare the Double Turn cards: use 3 for a 2-player game, 5 for 3 players, 7 for 4 players, and 9 for 5 players. The scorekeeper deals each player 1 Double Turn card, and places the rest near the board. Sort the Branch Line cards by railroad company and place them face up near the board.
The youngest player becomes the first player for the first round and takes the train piece.
Game Procedure
The game is played over a series of rounds. Each round follows these steps in order:
- Each player chooses one card from their hand and places it face down on the table. Then, all face-down cards are turned face up simultaneously. In the first round only, players must play a City card.
- Take the first track-laying turn. Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player places one track tile in turn.
- Take the second track-laying turn. Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player places a second track tile in turn.
- Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player draws cards until their hand contains 5 cards.
- The first player passes the train piece to the player on their left, who becomes the next first player.
City Cards
There are 66 City cards in total. There is 1 card each for the 3 cities of value 2 and the 7 cities of value 3. There are 2 cards each for the 5 cities of value 4, the 7 cities of value 5, the 9 cities of value 6, and the 7 cities of value 7.
Once a City card has been played, it remains face up in front of that player for the rest of the game. At the end of the game, each card scores points equal to the city's value multiplied by the number of railroad companies connected to that city. For example, if 2 railroad companies are connected to Los Angeles, the Los Angeles City card scores 14 points.
Double Turn Cards
When a player plays a Double Turn card, that player receives the following benefits:
- During both the first and second track-laying turns of that round, the player may place two track tiles instead of one. They may extend a single line twice, or extend two different lines once each.
- All bonus payments received this round are doubled.
- At the start of the second track-laying turn, the player may exchange cards in hand: they may discard any number of City cards from their hand and draw the same number of cards from the draw pile. Discarded cards are removed from the game.
Branch Line Cards
There are 10 Branch Line cards in total, 2 for each railroad company.
When drawing a Branch Line card, a player must pay $1.
A player may hold only one Branch Line card in hand at a time. A player must play a Branch Line card in the round immediately following the round in which it was drawn.
A Branch Line card must always be played together with another card: either as a City card + Branch Line card pair, or a Double Turn card + Branch Line card pair.
When a Branch Line card is played, that player may start a new route for that railroad company, branching from any city the railroad is currently connected to.
After branching, that railroad's track may subsequently be extended along either the original route or the branched route.
Playing, Discarding, and Drawing Cards
When playing a card, a player has the following options:
- Play a City card.
- Play a Double Turn card.
- Play a City card and a Branch Line card.
- Play a Double Turn card and a Branch Line card.
After playing a card, the following happens:
- City cards are placed face up in front of the player for the rest of the game.
- After the second track-laying turn ends, Double Turn cards are placed face up on the Double Turn discard pile. Players may draw this card again later.
- After being used during either the first or second track-laying turn, a Branch Line card is discarded and removed from the game. Even if a player does not use the Branch Line card, it must still be discarded after the second track-laying turn ends. However, playing a Branch Line card does not obligate the player to actually branch a route.
When drawing cards, a player has the following options:
- Draw 1 card from the City card draw pile. Players may not look at a card before drawing it. Once the draw pile is exhausted, no more City cards may be drawn.
- Draw a Double Turn card, if any remain.
- Pay $1 to draw a Branch Line card, if any remain.
- Draw any type of card regardless of which type they played that round. For example, a player who played a City card may still draw a Double Turn card.
- A player who played a Branch Line card — that is, who played two cards — draws two cards to bring their hand back to 5. The two drawn cards may be any of these combinations: two City cards, two Double Turn cards, one City card and one Double Turn card, one City card and one Branch Line card (paying $1), or one Double Turn card and one Branch Line card (paying $1).
- Near the end of the game, it is possible for the City card draw pile to be empty and no Double Turn or Branch Line cards to remain, in which case a player simply cannot draw any card.
Track Laying
On each turn, a player places one track tile belonging to one of the five railroad companies. If a legal track tile can be placed, the player must place one.
Each railroad company's first track tile must be placed connecting to that railroad's home city. The home cities are: Milwaukee for the Great Northern Railroad; Chicago for both the Santa Fe Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad; Kansas City for the Kansas Pacific Railroad; and New Orleans for the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Every track tile must extend a route that has already been placed. The only exception is when a player plays a Branch Line card, in which case a new route may branch off from any city the railroad company is connected to, including its home city.
After branching, tiles may be placed to extend either the original route or the branched route. Each railroad company may split into a maximum of 3 routes (the original route plus 2 branch lines).
Once one railroad company begins laying track between two cities, no other railroad company may lay track along that same route from the opposite side. Of course, where the board shows two lines drawn between a pair of cities, a second railroad company may lay track on whichever of the two routes remains open.
Where two lines are drawn between a pair of cities, a single railroad company may not place track on both of those routes.
A single railroad company may connect to the same city any number of times, but when scoring City cards at the end of the game, it counts only once (as a single railroad company).
It is possible to lay track in a way that dead-ends a route. In that case, the only way to extend that railroad company further is to start a new branch. If the original route and all of its branch lines are dead-ended, any remaining unused track tiles for that company can no longer be played.
Bonuses
City Bonus — The player who is first to connect a railroad to a city marked on the board earns $2. Players who connect to that city afterward earn nothing.
Railroad Special Bonus — For each of the five railroad companies, certain cities are marked with a colored square. The player who connects that railroad company to its matching city earns $4. This bonus is earned separately from, and can occur at the same time as, the City Bonus.
Example: If a player connects the Santa Fe Railroad to Houston, and no other railroad company is yet connected there, that player earns $6.
If a player has played a Double Turn card that round, these bonuses are doubled.
Scoring and Determining the Winner
The game ends when either of the following occurs:
- All track tiles for all five railroad companies have been placed.
- A player is unable to place a track tile. This applies even if another player is holding a Branch Line card that could still create a new branch.
Points are tallied as follows:
- Each $1 is worth 1 point.
- Each City card scores points equal to the value printed on the card multiplied by the number of railroad companies connected to that city.
The player with the highest score wins. If two or more players are tied for the highest score, the tied player who has played the most value-7 City cards wins.
Advanced Game
At the start of the game, each player receives $5 instead of $2.
Drawing a Branch Line card costs $2 instead of $1.
Terrain affects track-laying. Dark brown lines represent mountain routes.
- Placing track across a river costs $1.
- Placing track on a mountain route (a brown line) costs $1.
- Placing track on a mountain route that also crosses a river costs $2.
Engineer cards are used. At the start of the game, place the Engineer cards face up near the other cards. Each player may use only one Engineer card.
Before the game begins, a player may buy an Engineer card for $4. A player who does not buy an Engineer card at the start may instead draw one during the game in place of drawing another card; in that case it is acquired for free, but that player's hand size is reduced to 4 cards for the rest of the game. A player holding an Engineer card keeps it face up in front of them.
A player holding an Engineer card may place track across rivers (including mountain routes that cross a river) for free.
A player may pass instead of placing track during a track-laying turn. If all players pass during a single track-laying turn, the game ends immediately.
Optional Rule
After drawing cards, and before passing the train piece, add the following step:
Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player may pay $1 to purchase exactly one track tile.
Purchased tiles are kept in front of that player. There is no limit to the number or type of track tiles a player may keep.
Once all unpurchased track tiles have been placed, purchased tiles may be played following the normal rules, but a player is never required to play a purchased tile.