Vom Kap bis Kairo
Vom Kap bis Kairo Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 4 locomotives (in 4 colors)
- 4 tenders (in 4 colors)
- 50 terrain cards (5 kinds of terrain, with 0-3 rails, and 1 rail on the back of the cards)
- 1 terrain type reference card (showing the 5 terrain types)
- 1 turn sequence overview card (illustrated reference)
- 1 rulebook
Game Idea
The players aim to be the first to build a railway line across 8 African regions. These regions (terrain cards) are acquired by the players at auctions. What is worth bidding on? Players must take into account how many rail pieces are needed to bridge the terrain, how many rail pieces are already printed on the card, and how much income a successful railway construction will bring. The winner of the game is whoever is first to complete their own railway line across their 8 terrain cards.
Setup
- Every player needs paper and a pencil.
- Each player chooses a locomotive and a tender for themselves, in the same color. Any locomotives and tenders left over are removed from the game.
- Place the terrain type reference card at the edge of the table, somewhere clearly visible to everyone.
- Place the locomotives at their starting positions (see picture 1 on the overview card).
- The tenders stay in front of the players — this shows which player owns which locomotive.
- Shuffle the terrain cards and place them face down in a single pile in the middle of the table.
- Each player draws 2 columns on their paper (see picture 3 on the overview card) and writes their starting capital of 100 pounds at the top of the left-hand column. During the game this amount may rise above 100, but it can never fall below 0.
Terrain Type Reference
This card shows the minimum number of rail pieces needed to bridge each of the different terrain types:
- River: 10
- Mountain: 9
- Desert: 8
- Village: 7
- Savanna: 6
Terrain Cards
- 5 different kinds of terrain appear in the game.
- Every card shows: 0-3 rail pieces in the top-left corner, and a coin with the card's value in the top-right corner.
- The rail pieces can be used to lay track across the terrain cards.
- A player receives the number of pounds shown on the coin whenever they successfully lay track across that card.
Turn Sequence
There are 2 possible phases in the game: 1) land purchase and 2) track laying. One of these is always carried out, depending on the current state of the game.
Land Purchase Phase
- Turn face up from the pile as many terrain cards as there are players.
- These cards can then be acquired through an auction.
- Every player secretly decides how much money they want to bid — this will determine the order in which players get to choose one of the face-up cards.
- Write this bid value in the right-hand column of your paper and cover it with your hand.
- Immediately write your new capital total (capital minus the amount just bid) in the left-hand column (see picture 3 on the overview card).
- Once everyone has finished writing, the players reveal their bids. The owner of the highest bid chooses first among the terrain cards, then the second-highest bid, and so on.
- Important: if two or more players bid the same amount, whoever among them has the smaller capital chooses first. If there is still a tie, each of the tied players draws one card from the pile, and whoever draws the card with the higher-value coin gets to choose first. The drawn cards are then placed among the discards.
- Each player places the terrain card they won face up in front of their own locomotive. Terrain cards bought later are always placed after the terrain card already on the table, in a row (see picture 2). This way the cards form a column in front of the locomotive, showing the order in which the train must pass through them. For example, in picture 2 the blue player must first lay track across the desert, and only afterward across the mountain. Similarly, the red player first bridges the river, and only afterward the desert.
Track Laying Phase (see the back of the tender card)
In this phase, players try to lay rails across the terrain lying in front of their locomotive.
- The terrain cards must be bridged in the order the train will travel through them — the order in which they were acquired.
- The player who won the previous land purchase auction draws the top card of the pile and places it face up on the table, then decides whether they want to build.
- The number of rail pieces needed to lay track is shown on the terrain type reference card (desert 6, savanna 7, etc.).
- To build, the following can be used and combined: a) the number of rail pieces shown on the cards turned face up from the pile b) the number of rail pieces on all the terrain cards in front of the player's own locomotive c) 1 or more bonus rails (see "The River") d) missing rail pieces can be bought individually for 10 pounds each, deducted from the player's capital.
- If a player cannot, or does not want to, build, they must pass, and the player sitting to their left takes their turn.
- This player also turns a card face up from the pile and places it next to the card drawn by the previous player. They now have the advantage of being able to use the rail pieces on both cards to build track. If they also pass, the player to their left takes a turn, drawing a card as well, and so on, until someone successfully lays track across their terrain card.
End of the Track Laying Phase
- If a player eventually decides (even if a player has the required number of rail pieces available, they are never obliged to build) to lay track, they add the value of the bridged terrain card (the number shown on the coin) to their capital and note it on their paper. They then turn the terrain card over and place their locomotive on it (see the green and yellow locomotives in picture 2).
- All cards turned face up from the pile are placed among the discards, regardless of whether they were used for track laying. Any bonus cards used (see "The River") are also discarded. Any further terrain cards remaining in front of the locomotive stay where they are, regardless of whether the player used the rail pieces shown on them during construction (see the yellow locomotive in picture 2 — the player has already "conquered" the first terrain card, but the savanna with its 2 rail pieces remains in place). These can be used again at any later track-laying opportunity.
- If, after the construction, no terrain card remains in front of a player's locomotive (see the green locomotive in picture 2), the track laying phase ends immediately and a new land purchase phase (auction) follows.
- If every player still has a terrain card in front of their locomotive, the track laying phase continues with another round. The player who has just finished building draws a card from the pile and decides whether they want to build, and so on. This continues until some player's locomotive runs out of cards in front of it, at which point a land purchase phase (auction) follows.
- It is possible for a player to lay track across several terrain cards within the same track laying phase (before a new land purchase phase occurs). However, this requires several rounds, since only 1 terrain card can be bridged at a time, even if the player would otherwise have enough rail pieces available to bridge two or more cards at once.
The River
- When a player builds, every other player whose locomotive stands directly in front of a river (see the red locomotive in picture 2) receives 1 bonus card. No bonus card is given if the river is not directly in front of the locomotive, but further down in the column of cards in front of it.
- The bonus card can be taken from the discards, or even from the draw pile. The card must be turned face down so that the rail is on top. The card rests in front of the player until it is used. Each bonus card is worth 1 rail piece, which can be used as described under track laying. Bonus cards can also be used one at a time — it is not necessary to spend all of them at once, on a single construction.
- A player may never hold more than 5 bonus cards at once.
Note
Whenever the draw pile runs out, the discards must be shuffled and formed into a new draw pile.
End of the Game
- As soon as a player lays track across their 8th terrain card, the game ends immediately and that player is the winner.
- Remaining capital does not count toward scoring.