Shinkansen: Zero-Kei Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Summary and Objective
• Brief Description of the Cards
• Playing
• Phase 1. Prepare the Round
• Phase 2. Purchase New Carriages
• Phase 3. Add the New Carriage and Actions
• Actions
• End of Round
• End of Game and Final Score
  • Cities
  • Olympic Venues
  • Connected Cities
  • Leftover Items
• Carriage Card Abilities
• Actions and Effects of Event Cards
  • Grey Cards
  • Blue Cards
  • Green Cards
• Solitaire Mode
  • Setup
  • Playing
  • Solitaire Phase 1. Prepare the Round
  • Solitaire Phase 2. Purchase New Carriages
  • Solitaire Phase 3. Add the New Carriage and Actions
  • Solitaire End of Round
  • Solitaire End of Game and Final Score

Components

• 1 Board
• 1 Turn Order Tile
• 12 Olympic Venue Tokens (numbered 1-12)
• 4 Used Card Tokens
• 38 Train Cards: Engine x4, Carriage x30, Tail-Carriage x4
• 18 Event Cards (x6, x6, x6, one set per colour)
• 1 Track Cost Counter
• 12 Stations (x4, x4, x4)
• 3 Station Value Counters
• 5 Action Tokens
• 12 Track / Construction Tokens (double-sided: Construction side and Track side)
• 36 Yens (x22, x6, x8)
• 1 Solitaire Mode Action Board
• 4 Turn Order Tokens
• 4 Score Counters
• 28 Flame Cauldrons (x7, x7, x7, x7)
• 3 Solitaire Mode Closed Venue Tokens
• 1 Rulebook

Authors: Sheila Santos & Israel Cendrero. Illustrations: Loka Made Studio. Graphic design and Layout: David Prieto. Development and Rules: Juan Luque & Rafael Sáiz. Translation: Jayne Broomhead. Proofreading: Susan Broomhead.

The authors wish to thank Flipper for being the last to choose and Pergar for being the third player, without you this train would not go so fast; Rafa and Juan for the countless hours on TTS; David for all his time making icons; and to you for playing, always.

Ludonova would like to thank Antonio Varela, Alberto Martínez and Paco Cantarero for their collaboration in testing the game.

© Ludonova S.L., 2021. All rights reserved. San Pablo 22 - Córdoba - Spain - www.ludonova.com

Setup

Setup example for 3 players.

A. Place the Board in the center of the table and just below it, place the Turn Order Tile on the side that corresponds to the number of players participating in the game.

B. Place the 12 Stations according to their colour in the area of the Board reserved for unbuilt Stations.

C. Randomly place the 3 Station Value Counters in the starting space on the Station Value Marker.

D. Shuffle the Olympic Venue Tokens, take 3 at random and place them face up on the 3 Olympic Venue spaces on the board. Place the rest on the side of the table, you may need them later.

E. Take the 12 Construction Tokens and place one on each of the Station spaces in the Cities on the Board.

F. Each player chooses a colour and places the 7 Flame Cauldrons of that colour in their play area.

G. Take the Turn Order Tokens of the colours to be used in the game and place them randomly on the spaces of the Turn Order Tile. Next, stack the Score Counters on the zero space of the Score Marker in the order indicated by the Turn Order Tile: the first player's token on the top and the last player's token on the bottom.

H. Place the Engine Cards that correspond to the number of players participating in the game on their corresponding side. Then, starting with the last player according to the Turn Order Tile and ending with the first, each player chooses an Engine Card and places it in their play area (with 3 players there will be one leftover). Finally, each player takes a Tail-Carriage Card and places it to the right of their Engine Card, making up their Starting Train (with no Carriages yet).

I. Sort the Event Cards by their colour on the reverse and shuffle the 3 decks separately. Then randomly place a Card in each of the 5 spaces at the top of the Board. Each of the spaces indicates the type of Card that you must place according to the number of players (the years shown on the spaces are 1959-60, 1960-61, 1961-62, 1962-63, and 1963-64, with a different combination of Event Card colours to place per space for 2, 3, or 4 players).

J. Add the Yen shown by the 5 Event Cards at the bottom and distribute that same number of Yen to each player (in this example 8 Yen). Make a reserve with the rest of the Yen.

K. Place the Track Cost Counter in the space (letter) that indicates the first Event Card (1959-60).

L. Place the 5 Action Tokens and the 4 Used Card Tokens next to the Board.

M. Shuffle the Carriage Cards into a face-down draw deck and place it to the left of the Turn Order Tile. Leave a space next to it for the discard pile.

Return the remaining Engine, Tail-Carriage, and Event Cards, as well as the Counters and Tokens of any unused colours back to the box.

Summary and Objective

In each round of a game of Shinkansen Zero-Kei, you will build your own bullet train. Each Carriage Card you add to your train will grant you an action or an ability. These actions will allow you mainly to do the preparation work so that you can lay tracks and build stations, collaborate in the preparation of the Olympic Venues and obtain new Carriage Cards. The Carriage Cards are associated with cities through which the trainline passes, if you manage to connect these cities in the correct order, you will be rewarded in victory points. After 5 rounds, corresponding to the 5 years that the construction of the line took, the player who has obtained the most victory points will be proclaimed the winner.

Brief Description of the Cards

In Shinkansen Zero-Kei there are two types of Cards: Event Cards and Train Cards.

Event Cards: In each round there will be an active Event Card which we will call the current Event Card. This Card determines: the cost of laying the Track (A); the number of actions available to each player (B); an end-of-round effect or available action (C); and the number of Yen given at the start of the game (D).

Train Cards are divided into 4 different types:

Engine: Allows you to perform one (and only one) of the actions shown on it (A) by paying 2 Yen (B), in addition to the cost of the action itself. You can use the Engines of other players (in this case the owner receives the 2 Yen).

Action Carriage: Provides an action (A) from the moment you add it to your Train. Also, it shows one or two cities on the railway line (B); the cost of the Card and a reminder of the possible cost increase (C); and the Station Value Counter or Counters you must advance (D).

Ability Carriage: Provides a permanent advantage (A) during the game from the moment you add it to your Train. Also, it shows the same type of information already described on the Action Carriage.

Tail-Carriage: Provides the action of getting 5 Yen and advancing a Station Value Counter of your choice one step (A).

Playing

Each of the 5 rounds that make up one game of Shinkansen Zero-Kei is divided into 3 phases:

• Phase 1. Prepare the round.
• Phase 2. Purchase new Carriages.
• Phase 3. Add the new Carriage and actions.

Phase 1. Prepare the Round

A. Event: Flip the Event Card from the previous round (except in the first round). The first face up Event Card from the left becomes the current Event Card.

B. Track Laying cost: Place the Track Cost Counter in the space (letter) indicated by the current Event Card.

C. Income: Each player gets 1 Yen for each of their own Flame Cauldrons that they have in any of the 3 Olympic Venues.

Example: The yellow player receives 2 Yen, the red player 4 Yen, and the green player 1 Yen.

D. New Carriages: Draw from the Carriage Card Deck as many Cards as the number of players plus two, and lay them out one at a time to the right of the Turn Order Tile, forming a row.

In a 3-player game, the row of Cards in each round will be 5 Cards.

Phase 2. Purchase New Carriages

In turn order, beginning with the player whose token is on space 1 on the Turn Order Tile, players perform the following steps in the order listed:

A. Choose a Carriage Card from those available in the row and place your Turn Order Token on it, but do not take it to your train yet. This action is mandatory.

B. Pay the cost indicated on the Card. If the chosen Card corresponds to a City where a Station has already been built, the price is increased by 2 Yen; If the Card shows 2 Cities and both have Stations, the cost would increase by 4 Yen. All the Carriage Cards have the symbols "+?" in the top right corner in order to remind players of this possible increment.

If you do not have enough money to pay for the Card you have chosen, you must pay the difference in Victory Points (VP), in this case, each VP would be equal to one Yen. You cannot choose a Card that you cannot pay, adding up your Yen and your VPs.

C. Advance the Station Value Counter which is indicated on the Card one step. If the Card shows 2 Counters, first advance the Counter of the colour indicated by the first icon one step, and then advance the Counter of one of the 2 colours indicated by the second icon one step.

If a Counter lands on a space where there are others, place it on top to form a pile. The top Counter is always considered to be more advanced for scoring purposes (see below). If a Counter reaches the last space of the Marker, it no longer advances.

D. Once all players have had a chance to purchase a new Carriage Card, place the remaining Cards face up in the discard pile next to the draw deck.

Example: The green player plays first. He places his Turn Order Token on Toyohashi's Card (6) and pays 4 Yen: 2 for its cost and 2 more because that city already has a station built (A). Next, the gold Station Value Counter advances one step as shown on the Card (B). The next player (yellow) will then carry out these same steps, and so on until all players have purchased a new Carriage Card.

Phase 3. Add the New Carriage and Actions

This phase is also carried out in turn order, but now this order is determined by the proximity to the Turn Order Tile, starting the round with the player who has their Turn Order Token closest to the Tile and ending with the player that is furthest from the Tile.

A. Take the Carriage Card you have acquired along with your Turn Order Token, move your Tail-Carriage Card to the right and place the new Carriage Card in the gap you created between the Tail-Carriage Card and the rest of the train.

Example: The yellow player, now first in the turn order, places the Maibara (3)-Hashima (4) Card to the left of their Tail-Carriage.

B. Place your Turn Order Token on a free space on the Turn Order Tile and immediately get the reward indicated by it:

• Advance a Station Value Counter of your choice one step.
• You get 1 Yen.
• Gain 1 VP.
• You get 2 Yen.

Example: After placing the new Carriage Card on their train, the yellow player places their Turn Order Token on space 2 of the Turn Order Tile and gets 1 Yen.

C. Perform the number of actions indicated on the current Event Card. You can choose between the actions offered by your own Engine (paying 2 Yen to use it), other players' Engines (paying 2 Yen to its owner), the one that the current Event Card offers or any action that your Carriage Cards provides, including your Tail-Carriage, keeping in mind that you can only use each Card once.

To keep track of the actions you have left and the Cards you have already used, before you start, take as many Action Tokens as there are actions available for the current round, and each time you perform an action, place one of those Tokens on the corresponding Card. Once you finish taking your actions, collect the Action Tokens from the Cards and pass them to the next player in turn order.

Actions

The number of actions you can perform in each round is variable and always depends on what the current Event Card indicates. If you decide to take fewer actions than are available, you receive 1 Yen for each action you do not take.

You can do the actions in whichever order you like, and unless otherwise stated, each Card can only be used once. You can perform the same action numerous times by using multiple Cards that offer it to you.

The cost of using an Engine Card is always 2 Yen. If you use another player's Engine, pay the 2 Yen to that player. You must add to the cost of using the Engine, the cost of the action you perform with it, if any.

The actions available on the Train Cards are as follows:

• Income: Get 5 Yen and advance a Station Value Counter of your choice one step.
• Prepare Ground: Choose a City that has a Construction Token in its Station space, pay the cost indicated under it, remove the Token and place it on its Track side on your Engine Card. You receive the VPs listed under the Station space.
• Prepare Ground (-1 yen): Action to Prepare Ground, but paying 1 Yen less than indicated under the Station Space. You still get the VPs listed under it.
• Lay Track: Choose an empty Track section of the Railway Line (each section corresponds to a City), pay the cost indicated by the Track Cost Counter and place a Track from your Engine on the chosen section. You receive the VPs indicated by the Track Cost Counter. If you don't have any Tracks on your Engine, you can use another player's, paying the cost indicated by the Track Cost Counter to that player (a player cannot refuse to let another player use one of their Tracks).
• Lay Track (-1 yen): Action to Lay Track paying 1 Yen less than the Track Cost Counter indicates, but receiving the VPs indicated by the Counter.
• Build Station: Pay 3 Yen, choose a station colour, and take the first Station of that colour, starting at the top, from the Unbuilt Station Area on the board. Then place it in an empty Station space in a City of your choice, that is, in which the ground has previously been prepared and in which there is no Station yet. You get the VPs corresponding to the row where the Station you built was located (6, 4, 2, or 1 VP).
• Build Station (-1 yen): Action to Build a Station paying 1 Yen less.
• Buy Card (one-time use): Choose a Card from the discard pile, pay its cost (plus the increment if the City/Cities has/have Stations), place the new Card to the left of the Tail-Carriage in the usual way and advance the Station Value Counter or Counters indicated on the Card one step. Finally, place a Used Card Token on top of the used Card, covering its icon, to indicate that you cannot use it again for the remainder of the game. Note: You can only buy a Card if you have enough Yen to pay for it.
• Participate in the Olympic Venue: Place one of your Flame Cauldrons in one of the 3 Olympic Venues. After that, you can apply the effect of the chosen Venue:
  • Pay 1 Yen to immediately add 2 VPs.
  • Get 2 Yen.
  • Replace a Carriage Card of your Train in the position you choose; pick it up, shift the rest of the Carriages to make room for it and place it back. This action is only available at the Olympic Venue.
• Repeat Action: By paying 1 Yen you can reuse a Card that you have already used this turn, including the Event Card, to perform its action again. In the event that you use your Engine Card or that of another player again, you will have to pay the normal cost to use it again (2 Yen).

Example: In this round, the Current Event Card indicates that each player can perform 3 actions (A). They will be able to choose between their own Train Cards, other players' Engines, and the action provided by the Event Card.

On their turn, the green player intends to build a Station in Hamamatsu (7), but must first prepare the ground there. Neither the action of preparing the ground nor that of building a Station is found in their own Train. They decide to use the yellow player's Engine to prepare the ground in Hamamatsu (7) and pay the yellow player 2 Yen for it (B). The cost of preparing Hamamatsu's ground (7) is 3 Yen (C), but they have an Ability Card that allows them to perform this action at a fixed cost of 1 Yen (D). In total, the action has cost them 3 Yen, 2 for using the yellow player's Engine and 1 for performing the action, and they have earned 3 VPs and a Track that they have placed on their Engine while preparing the ground in Hamamatsu (7).

With the ground already prepared in Hamamatsu (7), they perform the Build Station action provided by the current Event Card (E): this cost them 3 Yen and earns them 4 VPs (value indicated in the row where the white Station that they have just built) (F).

As the third and final action, they use their own Engine, paying 2 Yen, to participate in the Odawara Olympic Venue (10), which allows them to pay 1 Yen to get 2 VPs (G).

End of Round

After all players have finished taking their actions, check if the current Event Card includes an end-of-round effect, in which case that effect is applied. Then, if the fifth and final round has not yet been played, the next round is prepared (see Phase 1. Prepare the Round).

End of Game and Final Score

The game ends at the end of the fifth round, once the last player completes their turn, after which players proceed directly to the final scoring.

Before starting the final scoring, place the Station Value Counters on the Station Score Spaces based on the order of the Counters on the Marker: the most advanced is placed on the 6 VPs space, the second on the 3 VPs space and the last on the 1 VP space. If multiple Counters have finished on the same space, the one which is higher is considered more advanced.

Then carry out the final scoring in the following order:

Cities

• Cities with a Laid Track which have a Station of the colour of the Value Counter that is most advanced on the Station Score Space get 6 VPs; those in second place get 3 VPs; and those in third place get 1 VP.
• Cities with a Laid Track, but no Station, do not get VPs.
• Cities without a Laid Track, regardless of whether they have a Station or not, get -3 VPs.

Players calculate the corresponding VPs for each City on their Carriage Cards. If the same player has more than one Card with the same City, they score that City as many times as the number of Cards they have of it.

Olympic Venues

Each Olympic Venue is scored separately. The player with the most Flame Cauldrons in an Olympic Venue scores the corresponding City in the same way as described above (see Cities above), therefore, this score may be negative if the City in question does not have a Laid Track. In the event of a tie, all tied players score the City.

Connected Cities

Starting from their Engine, each player determines how many Cities they have with consecutive numbers and in ascending order on their Carriage Cards. Cities without Laid Track interrupt the sequence and are not scored. Each City in the longest sequence is awarded 3 VPs (only the longest sequence is scored, with a minimum of 2 connected Cities). Several Cities with the same number do not break the sequence, but in this case, each City is only scored once.

Leftover Items

Each player calculates:

• -3 VPs for each remaining Flame Cauldron in their play area.
• 1 VP for every 3 Yen left over.
• 1 VP for each Track that remains on their Engine Card.

The player who has obtained the most points will be declared the winner. In the event of a tie, the player who has the most Flame Cauldrons in his play area wins. If the tie persists, the victory is shared.

Example: The yellow player's score at the end of the fifth round is 31 VPs. To get this final score, you have to calculate:

A. Cities: Osaka (1): 0 VPs; Kyoto (2): -3 VPs; Maibara (3) x2: 12 VPs; Hashima (4): 3 VPs; Nagoya (5): 1 VP. Total: 13 VPs.

B. Olympic Venues score as follows: the Venues of Yokohama (11), where the yellow player ties with the red player, and Maibara (3). Yokohama gives them -3 VPs (there is no Laid Track here) and Maibara gives them 6 VPs.

C. Connected Cities: 9 VPs for the connection of Maibara (3) - Hashima (4) - Nagoya (5) on their Train, even though they have Osaka (1) and Kyoto (2), they have no Laid Track in Kyoto and so the sequence is interrupted.

D. Leftover Items: D1. -6 VPs for the two Flame Cauldrons in their play area. D2. 1 VP for 3 Yen (2 left). D3. 1 VP for the Track left on their Engine Card.

Yellow Player Total Score: 52 VPs (31 + 21)

Carriage Card Abilities

Abilities are modifications to the general rules that affect only the owner of the Train they are on; their effect is permanent and, therefore, an action is not needed to activate them.

• The cost of the Build Station action is now 2 Yen, and it awards an additional 1 VP to the normal award.
• When you perform the Lay Track action, you can choose any space on the Track Cost Marker, ignoring where the Track Cost Counter is located. Consequently, you will pay the cost and receive the VPs indicated by the space you have chosen.
• When you perform the Participate in the Olympic Venue action, you get twice the reward of the Venue where you have placed your Flame Cauldron. If you choose the Venue that grants 2 VPs, you will need to pay 2 Yen to get 4 VPs.
• The cost of the Prepare Ground action is now 1 Yen, regardless of what is indicated under the Station Space. You still get the VPs listed under it.
• The cost of using your own or another player's Engine Card is now 1 Yen instead of 2.
• Your Tail-Carriage gives you 8 Yen instead of 5 (and you advance a Station Value Counter of your choice one step as usual).
• When you place your Turn Order Token on a space on the Turn Order Tile, you get the corresponding reward twice. If you choose space 1, you cannot advance the same Station Value Counter twice.

Actions and Effects of Event Cards

There are 3 types of Event Cards: grey, blue or green. Each of them provides an action or an end-of-round effect.

Grey Cards

• Action: Perform the action Participate in the Olympic Venue and advance one of the Station Value Counters of your choice one step. You must perform both actions and you can perform them in any order.
• End-of-round effect: At the end of the round, each player can choose to lose 2 VPs to get 5 Yen.
• End-of-round effect: At the end of the round, each player gets 4 Yen.
• End-of-round effect: At the end of the round, each player will once again receive the reward from the space on the Turn Order Tile where they are. It can be duplicated with the corresponding Card ability. In the case of space 1, the same Station Value Counter cannot be advanced twice.
• Action: You can perform one of these 3 actions: Prepare Ground, Lay Track or Build Station by paying the corresponding cost.
• End-of-round effect: At the end of the round, players will earn the indicated quantity of Yen (1, 2, 3, or 4) based on their position on the Score Marker. In the case of a tie, the turn order prevails.

Blue Cards

• End-of-round effect: At the end of the round, all players can buy a Card from the discard pile in turn order and add it to their Train. As usual, the Card is added to the left of the Tail-Carriage and the Station Value Counters it indicates are advanced.
• Action: You can repeat an action from a Train Card that you have already used. In the case of using your Engine or another player's Engine again, you will have to pay the cost for using it again (2 Yen).
• Action: You can pay 2 Yen to perform the actions Prepare Ground and Lay Track. In addition to the 2 Yen, you must pay the cost of the 2 actions. You must perform both actions and you can do them in any order.
• Action: You can pay 3 Yen to buy an Olympic Venue Token that has not been used (choose it from all the available ones) and immediately place it on one of your Carriage Cards. From now on, this Card will include the City chosen for the purposes of scoring Cities and connected Cities.
• Action: Perform the action Lay Track by paying 2 Yen less than required. You continue to get the VPs indicated by the Track Cost Counter.
• Action: You can pay 1 Yen to perform the actions Prepare Ground and Build Station. In addition to the Yen, you must pay the cost of the 2 actions. You must perform both actions and you can do them in any order.

Green Cards

• Action: Perform the action Participate in the Olympic Venue.
• End-of-round effect: At the end of the round, all players can score a City of their Train of their choice. They need to take into account the Carriage Cards they have of that City and the value of the Stations according to how the Station Value Counters are positioned at that moment (see Cities, in End of Game and Final Score).
• Action: Perform the Build Station action by paying the corresponding cost.
• Action: Perform the Prepare Ground action by paying the corresponding cost.
• Action: Perform the Lay Track action by paying the corresponding cost.
• Action: Get 7 Yen.

Solitaire Mode

Try to defeat the automa who is called Hideo, in honor of the creator of the first line of the Shinkansen.

Setup

Set up a 2-player game, but with the following exceptions:

• Choose a player colour for Hideo and place all his components on one side of the table.
• Place your Turn Order Token on space 1 of the Turn Order Tile and Hideo's on space 2; then stack your Score Counter on top of Hideo's on the zero space of the Score Marker.
• Choose one of the two Engine Cards, the other is kept by Hideo. Hideo doesn't need a Tail-Carriage.
• Create the discard pile with the 6 Carriage Cards showing 2 Cities, then shuffle the other Carriage Cards to create the draw deck.
• Hideo does not receive any Yen during game setup.
• Shuffle the remaining 9 Olympic Venue Tokens and 3 Closed Venue Tokens face down. Prepare Hideo's Action Board as follows:
  1. Randomly place 2 Olympic Venue Tokens face up in positions A.
  2. Randomly place 4 Olympic Venue Tokens face down in positions B.
  3. Randomly place 2 Closed Venue Tokens face down in positions C.
  4. Put the remaining Tokens to one side of the table.

Playing

Hideo will be for all intents and purposes another player and you will be able to use his Engine or his Tracks by paying him for it. On his turn, Hideo will be able to obtain the rewards of the Turn Order, participate in the Olympic Venues and earn his income, buy new Carriages for his Train, perform actions and receive VPs for them, etc., but with certain important differences:

• Hideo never pays money for anything. Therefore, he buys Cards and performs actions at no cost.
• Whenever Hideo gets money for any reason, he will automatically convert each Yen earned into 1 VP. He never has money during the game.
• Hideo's actions are governed exclusively by his Action Board, therefore he is not affected by the Event Cards in play or the Carriage Cards that he adds to his Train.

Solitaire Phase 1. Prepare the Round

Play and prepare the 5 rounds as usual, except that in each round you will only display 3 new Carriage Cards instead of 4.

Solitaire Phase 2. Purchase New Carriages

On his turn, Hideo will always try to place himself on the middle Card of the row of available Carriages. If that Card is not available (because you have chosen it before), he will choose the Card closest to the Turn Order Tile. Hideo advances the Station Value Counter of the Card he chooses by one step, as usual.

Solitaire Phase 3. Add the New Carriage and Actions

Hideo will place the Carriage Cards that he acquires next to his Engine, always leaving on show the Cities which are on these Cards. It may be useful to sort the Carriage Cards in ascending order by the number of their Cities, if you want to control the Cities that Hideo connects during the game.

When choosing Turn Order, Hideo will place his token on the first free space on the Turn Order Tile, starting with space 1. If he is placed on space 1, the Counter which is in the last place on the Station Value Marker advances one step.

When the time comes to perform the actions of his turn, Hideo will be governed by his Action Board. This board is resolved from top to bottom, Hideo carries out one action in each of the Cities that are activated in the column corresponding to the current round. Some tokens start the game face down on the Action Board, in this case:

• If it is an Olympic Venue Token, reveal it when you are resolving the column where it is activated, so that Hideo can perform an action in that City.
• If it is a Closed Venue Token, reveal it when you are resolving the column where it is activated and place it, along with 2 Hideo's Flame Cauldrons, on the Olympic Venue shown on the token: you will no longer be able to place more Flame Cauldrons in that Venue for the remainder of the game, but Hideo will continue to be able to do so.

Example: Current round: 60-61. On his actions turn, Hideo resolves the column of his Board corresponding to the current round from top to bottom. First he carries out an action in Shizuoka (A); then he reveals the next Olympic Venue Token, which corresponds to Odawara, where he performs an action (B). He continues his turn by revealing the Closed Venue Token, which he places in the corresponding Olympic Venue along with 2 of his Flame Cauldrons, earning him 4 VPs (C); lastly, he performs an action in Toyohashi (D).

What actions does Hideo perform in the Cities?

Hideo will always try to perform one of 3 possible actions in each active City, respecting the order described below:

1. Prepare Ground: Place the Construction Token on its Track side on his Engine.
2. Build Station: Always build the Station that grants the most VPs; in case of a tie, build the Station which has the most advanced Value Counter on the Marker. Place the Station in the active City.
3. Lay Track: Place a Track that he has on his Engine, on the Track section of the active City. If he does not have a Track on his Engine, he cannot perform the action.

Hideo gains the VPs for those actions as usual.

If Hideo cannot perform an action in an active City, he will attempt the next action in that City in the order described above, and so on. If he finally cannot perform any action in that City, then he must perform the action indicated on the left margin of his Board, corresponding to the row where the active City is located:

• Hideo places a Flame Cauldron in this Olympic Venue and scores 2 VPs.
• Hideo places a Flame Cauldron in this Olympic Venue and scores 2 VPs.
• Hideo places a Flame Cauldron in this Olympic Venue, with no effect.
• Hideo scores 2 VPs.

Example: Current round: 61-62. On his turn of actions, Hideo first tries to take an action in Shizuoka (A), but it is not possible because in that City the Ground has already been prepared, a Station has been built and a Track laid, so he has to perform the action indicated on the left margin of his board for that row: Hideo places a Flame Cauldron at the corresponding Olympic Venue, scoring 2 VPs (B).

Solitaire End of Round

Hideo does not participate in any end-of-round effects provided by the Event Cards.

Solitaire End of Game and Final Score

Carry out the final scoring as usual, making the following changes for Hideo:

• Cities: Hideo does not score negatively for the Cities of his Carriage Cards without Laid Track.
• Olympic Venues: Hideo does not score negatively for Olympic Venues without a Laid Track where he has a majority. The two Cities in the column of his Action Board are considered Olympic Venues where Hideo automatically gets the majority.
• Connected Cities: Hideo rearranges his Carriage Cards by number in ascending order (if you haven't already done so during the game) and simply checks how many consecutive cities he has, whether they have a Laid Track or not: each City that is in the longest sequence gives 3 VPs as usual.
• Leftover Items: Hideo does not score negatively for Flame Cauldrons he still has. He also does not score positively for leftover Yen since he never has any money available during the game, automatically converting all the money he gets into VPs.

Did you find it too easy? Play again, but instead of getting the Yen indicated on the Event Cards during setup, get 7 Yen and give 7 VPs to Hideo to start the game. Good luck!