Railways of the World

Begin at 0 income with no cash and a level-1 engine. Choose one of two secretly dealt Rail Baron cards. Prepare goods, operations cards, and empty-city markers for your map and player count. On Eastern U.S., start each city with one fewer cube at 2-3 players, with a minimum of one.

On your turn, issue only the bonds needed for a current purchase or bid, receiving $5,000 per bond without spending an action. Bonds cannot be repaid; each costs $1,000 in dividends per income phase and 1 point at game end. Certificates of five or ten merely consolidate denominations.

Auction first player each full turn. The youngest player opens the first auction; thereafter the previous first player opens. Bid clockwise or pass, with a $1,000 minimum opening bid and no re-entry after passing. Only the winner pays; if everyone passes, first player moves to the previous first player's left.

After the auction, play three action rounds. In each, every player may build track, urbanize, upgrade, deliver one cube, claim an operations card, or pass. Only after all three rounds do players resolve income and dividends, then reveal one operations card for the next full turn.

Build at most four tiles in one action. Begin at a city or your own incomplete link and extend the same continuous link, stopping at another city. Pay the map's terrain costs. Remove track that still fails to connect two cities at the end of the full turn.

Urbanizing costs $10,000: put an available New City tile on a gray city and add two random goods cubes, removing an empty-city marker if present. Upgrading takes a separate action and the new level's printed cost; rise only one level per action, up to level 8.

Deliver one cube along complete links to a matching city, using no more links than your engine level. Own the first link; later links may belong to others. Never repeat a city or link. Stop at the first matching city and return the delivered cube to the bag.

Each complete link used awards its owner 1 track point, with no immediate cash payment. After three rounds, first collect the income printed at your track position in thousands of dollars, then pay $1,000 per issued bond. Issue more bonds if necessary; new debt-service bonds begin paying dividends next income phase.

Claiming an available operations card costs an action; using it does not cost another. Green circles reward the first eligible achievement and cannot be selected. Purple diamonds work during only one of your actions per full turn; red crosses resolve immediately, hand icons can be saved, and permanent cards continue providing their benefit.

Placing the final required empty-city marker triggers the end: finish this full turn, then play one more full turn with three actions each. Eastern U.S. uses 10, 12, 14, 16, or 18 markers at 2-6 players. Add fulfilled Rail Baron bonuses to track points and subtract 1 per bond. Highest score wins; ties favor most links, then most cash.