Russian Railroads

Setup and player counts: With four players, each starts with 5 workers, 1 rouble, a number-1 locomotive, black track on all three railways and an industry marker; distribute starting bonuses by turn order. Two or three players start with 6 workers each; two players also start with 2 roubles. Remove locomotives and adjust engineers for player count. Play 7 rounds with four players or 6 with two or three.

Turns and placement: Follow the turn-order track, choosing one empty action space, placing its required workers and immediately resolving the whole action. A public action that cannot be completed is unavailable. The bottom single black-or-gray advancement space is reusable. Passing ends your actions for the round and scores the points on the back of your turn-order card.

Track: Advance in the fixed order black, gray, brown, natural, white. A trailing marker cannot catch or pass the marker ahead and must enter an empty space; allowed advancements may be split across railways. Trans-Siberian black track at spaces 2, 6, 10 and 15 unlocks gray, brown, natural and white track respectively. Each railway permits the colors shown on its board.

Locomotives and factories: Normally take from the lowest-numbered supply pile and use the tile as a locomotive or flip it into a factory; available face-up factories are also selectable. The Trans-Siberian holds up to two locomotives with combined values, and each other route holds one. Replace only with a higher number; displaced locomotives may be legally relocated, and returned locomotives become factories. Fill the five factory slots left to right.

Industry: Advance industry markers as directed, never crossing an unfilled factory gap. Entering a factory immediately resolves its ability. After gaining a second marker, split advancements between them if desired; they cannot share a space and can normally each activate a factory, but a question-mark bonus space triggers only once.

Auxiliaries and engineers: Roubles substitute for workers and may be mixed with them, but workers cannot replace specifically required roubles. Temporary workers last only this round. Place doublers left to right above the Trans-Siberian. Spend 1 rouble to hire the rightmost engineer; its action becomes private and normally usable once each round. Public engineers remain shared spaces; private engineers allow partial resolution.

Order and bonuses: Reserve next round’s first or second position, normally neither your current position nor both spaces; two players may reserve their current position. After everyone passes, adjust order, then relocate the second-position worker before the first-position worker to an empty action requiring exactly one worker, without adding workers or roubles. Special route bonuses require their indicated track and, where applicable, locomotive reach. Black track reaching a terminus immediately scores 10; question-mark tokens grant chosen one-time bonuses.

Round scoring and reset: Score track spaces only within locomotive reach. Each colored marker and the empty spaces behind it up to the next marker score at that color’s value, modified by doublers and route bonuses. Industry markers score their space or the preceding point-valued space. Recover personal workers, return spent roubles and temporary workers to supply, and shift engineers right. In the last round, replace turn-order actions with a three-step industry action.

End: Score the final round normally, then acquired End Bonus cards. Most engineers scores 40 points and second-most 20; tied counts are broken by each tied player’s highest engineer number. Players with no engineers receive no majority points. Highest total wins; tied players share victory.