Colt Express: Couriers & Armored Train Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Principle of the Game
• Setup
• Playing with an Odd Number of Players: Il Professore
• The Rounds
  • Schemin' Phase
  • The Special Turns
  • End of a Round: Moving the Starting Train
  • End of Rounds Events
• The Actions
  • The Gold Nuggets and the Bags
  • The Secret Documents
  • Il Professore's Action Cards
• The Armored Train
  • About the Couriers
  • The Tender Car
  • The Armory Car
  • The Infirmary Car
  • The Gatlings
• The Bandits
• The Cavalry Charge Cards
  • Normal Mode
  • Betrayal Mode
• The End of the Game
  • Final Scoring
  • Il Professore

Contents

• 1 Locomotive, 1 Tender Car, 1 Armory Car, 1 Infirmary Car and 3 armored Cars with their Courier pawns (assemble the Armored Train following the assembly instructions from the base game)
• 2 Gatlings
• 21 Round cards: 7 Round cards for 2 to 4 Bandits, 7 Round cards for 5 or more Bandits, 7 Cavalry Charge cards (3 normal mode cards and 4 betrayal mode cards)
• 9 Nudge cards (1 for each Bandit from the base game, 1 for Mei the Bandit from the expansion Marshal & Prisoners, and 1 for each Bandit of this expansion)
• 10 Neutral Bullet cards
• 5 Bags (worth $300, $400, $500, $600 and $700)
• 2 Purses worth $250
• 1 Strongbox worth $1000
• 3 Secret Documents (1 blue worth $4000, 1 red worth $4000, 1 neutral worth $0)
• 3 Gold Nuggets (worth $0, $0 and $1500)
• 10 Team badges (5 blue badges and 5 red badges)
• 1 Wild Bunch token worth $1500
• For Il Professore: 16 cards (10 Binocular cards, 3 Scheme cards, 1 Nudge card, 1 Fire on the last Courier card, 1 Rapid Fire card), 1 Il Professore Loot marker and 1 Character sheet
• For each of the two new Bandits, Misty and the Twinzz: 1 Character card, 6 Bullet cards, 10 Action cards from the base game, 1 Brilliant Idea card, 1 Prisoner card, 1 Wanted card and 1 Marshal's Goal card (these four cards can only be used with the expansion Horses & Stagecoach), 1 Ride card (can only be used with the expansion Horses & Stagecoach), 1 Bandit pawn, 1 Horse pawn (can only be used with the expansion Horses & Stagecoach) and 1 Character sheet

Principle of the Game

In this expansion, you play a Bandit member of one of two teams - blue or red - fighting for Loots. Your goal is to be part of the richest team at the end of the game.

Besides the usual Loots, new Loots (Gold Nuggets, Bags and Secret Documents) and a new reward (Wild Bunch) will make you richer.

You'll start inside the train from the base game, called the Starting Train. The Armored Train from this expansion and the Starting Train will slowly pass one another round after round until they are clear of one another.

At the end of the game, only the Bandits on the Roof or in the Starting Train count their Loots for their team. The Loots of the Bandits on the Armored Train do not count for the team total and those players are eliminated.

If you're playing in Betrayal mode, one Bandit can be the only winner.

Setup

1. Equally split the players into two teams. Should you have an odd number of players, Il Professore joins the smaller team. Check the red boxes.

Sit around the table with one Bandit from the first team, then one from the second team, and repeat. 2 Bandits from a same team cannot seat next to one another, except when playing with an odd number of players.

One team will play in red, the other one in blue. Each player from both teams takes a Team badge matching their team's colors.

2. Take the Wild Bunch token and 23 Neutral Bullets (13 from the base game and 10 from the expansion) and put them at the centre of the table.

3. Set up the Starting Train: set the Locomotive followed by the 3 Cars from the base game in any order you like: the Restaurant, the Baggage Car and the First Class car.

Set aside as many $250 Purses as there are Bandits playing, then place the Loot tokens in the Cars following the usual rules.

Place inside the Caboose of the Starting Train all the pawns of the Bandits playing.

4. Set up the Armored Train by putting first the Locomotive, then the Tender Car, one armored Car, the Armory Car, one armored Car, the Infirmary Car and one armored Car.

Place the Armored Train's Locomotive next to the Starting Train's Locomotive, going in opposite directions.

Place 1 Gatling on the Roof of the Armory Car and 1 Gatling on the Roof of the Infirmary Car. Pick 1 Bag at random and place it face down inside each of those 2 Cars.

Place at random 1 Bag, face down, on the roof of each of the 3 armored Cars.

Place at random 1 Secret Document, face down, inside each of the 3 armored Cars.

Place 1 Courier pawn on the roof of the first and last armored Cars, and 1 Courier pawn inside the central armored Car.

Place the 3 Gold Nuggets, face down and without looking at them, on the Tender Car.

Place 1 Strongbox inside the Locomotive.

5. Take the contents corresponding to the Bandit you are playing: your Character sheet, your 6 Bullet cards and 1 $250 Purse token, placed face down on your Character sheet.

Set up your personal deck with the 10 following Action cards: 2 Move, 2 Fire, 2 Robbery, 1 Punch, 2 Floor Change and 1 Nudge. (The Marshal cards are not used for this expansion and can be put back in the box.)

Note for a 3-player game: the Nudge card for the Bandit teammate with Il Professore is removed from the game.

Shuffle your deck and place it face down on your Character Sheet, next to your 6 Bullet cards.

6. Depending on the number of players, choose 5 Round cards at random to make a deck: 4 Round cards for 2 to 4 Bandits, or 4 Round cards for 5 or more Bandits, and at the bottom of the deck, 1 Cavalry Charge card, either in normal mode or betrayal mode (see the Cavalry Charge cards below).

Tip: use the normal mode Cavalry Charge cards for your first few games.

You are ready to start the game.

Il Professore's setup (red box, step 3, only when playing with an odd number of players): take the Binocular cards based on the number of players and add them to the following cards to form Il Professore's deck. (The printed sheet does not state how many Binocular cards go with each player count.)

• With 3 Bandits: 2 Scheme, 1 Rapid Fire, 1 Fire at the last Courier, 1 Bonus Nudge.
• With 5 Bandits: 2 Scheme, 1 Rapid Fire, 1 Fire at the last Courier.
• With 7 Bandits: 3 Scheme, 1 Rapid Fire, 1 Fire at the last Courier.
• With 9 Bandits (if you have Mei or Silk): 3 Scheme, 1 Rapid Fire, 1 Fire at the last Courier.

Shuffle the cards and place the pile face down on Il Professore's Character sheet on the dedicated location. Unused cards are put back in the box.

Playing with an Odd Number of Players: Il Professore

Il Professore always has a trick up his sleeve. Wounded during the war, he never could ride again and cannot attack a train himself. But he always keeps an eye on his team from his promontory using his Springfield Model 1861 rifle.

This Bandit has his very own content and acts automatically in the game. His purpose is to help the team with fewer players.

Setup:

1. Place the sheet of Il Professore and the Team badge from the smaller team between two members of the other team.
2. Do not give Il Professore a $250 Purse, but put his Loot marker on the lowest position of his Diabolical Plan ladder on his Character sheet.

The Rounds

Apply the same rules as for a standard game and add the following rules.

The game consists of 5 Rounds, each one divided in the 2 usual phases: Schemin' (the plan), then Stealin' (the actions).

During the Schemin' phase, Bandits can communicate, but remember that your opponents can hear you.

During the Stealin' phase, Bandits cannot communicate. Each Bandit must decide on their own what to do with the Action card played or the Nudge card.

Schemin' Phase

Il Professore is played like any Bandit: at each round, the first card of his deck is added to the common pile by the enemy Bandit sitting to his right.

• During a Speeding-up turn, the first two cards of Il Professore's deck are added to the common pile.
• During a Tunnel turn, the first card of Il Professore's deck is added face down to the common pile.
• Il Professore never benefits from the Diversion or Action plan effects.

The Special Turns

Diversion

During a Diversion turn, you can choose to skip your turn and randomly choose one card from each of your opponent's hands, without looking at it. Your opponents, on the other hand, can look at it before discarding it under their personal deck.

Skipping your turn means you cannot play or draw Action cards during that turn.

Note: only one Bandit from each team can use the Diversion effect during a Diversion turn.

Action plan

After the Schemin' phase ends, each Bandit can keep one card from their hands for the next Round. By doing so, they will draw one fewer card at the start of the next Round and add the card they kept to their Hand. (If you're playing the Expert variant, ignore this icon.)

End of a Round: Moving the Starting Train

At the end of every Round and after completing the end of Round event, move the Starting Train 2 Cars from the Armored Train.

End of Rounds Events

Couriers in movement

All the Couriers pawns change floors. If you are on the same spot as a Courier after this Event, you must immediately change floors and add a Neutral Bullet to your personal deck.

Heavy fire

If you are on the Roof of the Starting Train or the Armored Train at the end of the Round, take a Neutral Bullet and add it to your personal deck. Then choose one of your Loots and put it, face down, on your position.

Swivel Arm

If you are on the Roof of the Starting Train or the Armored Train at the end of the Round, move to the Roof of the Caboose, without changing Trains.

Help!

In turn order, you can move your pawn to the location of one of your allied Bandits. You can change Cars and/or floors, and even Trains.

Coordinated Action plan

If at the end of the round, you are on the same location as a team member, draw 2 additional cards at the beginning of the next Round.

Note: if you are in the Armory Car at the end of this Round, only draw 2 additional cards (not 4). You can only benefit from one of the effects of the Coordinated Action Plan and the Armory Car (see the Armored Train section below).

Heal

If, at the end of the Round, you are on the same location as a team member, discard up to 2 Bullet cards. If you have any, discard Neutral Bullets first; put them back in the stock. If you haven't any Neutral Bullets, discard opponent's Bullets and put them back in the box.

Note: if you are in the Infirmary Car at the end of this Round, only discard up to 2 Bullets (not 4). You can only benefit from one of the effects from Heal and the Infirmary Car (see the Armored Train section below).

The Actions

Punch

When punching, you can now send your target to the adjacent Car of the other Train, at the same floor (Inside or Roof).

Reminder: when you Punch a Bandit, you choose and place one of their Loots, face down and without looking at it, on your position.

Move

There is an additional Move option:

• Inside a train, you can move one Car back or forth in your train, or move to the adjacent Car of the other Train.
• When on the Roof, one of your moves (out of the three possible) can be to go to the Roof of the adjacent Car of the other Train.

Can move to the Roof of all the Cars visible on the picture in the rulebook.

Fire

Inside the train, if your Car is adjacent to the Car of the Train in front of you, you can also shoot a Bandit or a Courier located inside that Car.

On the Roof, the Line of Sight rule from the base game applies to the targets on your Train. You can target any Bandit or Courier located on the Roof of the other Train.

Nudge

This new Action is specific to the "Couriers & Armored Train" expansion and to team play.

During the Action phase, the Bandit who has played the Nudge card gives one of their team members one Action from the base game: Move, Floor Change, Fire, Robbery, Punch.

The chosen Bandit is then free to perform the Action how they prefer, or not perform the Action.

Example: Django played a Nudge card. He offers a Move action to Doc. Doc decides to move on the roof 2 Cars towards the back of the Starting Train.

Robbery

Use the Robbery action to randomly take 1 Loot on your position. Place it face down on your Bandit sheet — you can look at its value.

The Gold Nuggets and the Bags

There are 3 Gold Nuggets on the Tender Car's roof at the beginning of the game. One is worth $1500, the other two ones are worth $0.

There is a Bag on the roof of each armored Car and inside the Infirmary and the Armory Cars at the beginning of the game. Bags can be worth $300, $400, $500, $600 and $700.

The Secret Documents

Inside each armored Car is a Secret Document at the beginning of the game. There are 3 kinds of Secret Documents: the blue team's goal, the red team's goal and a decoy.

Different situations are possible:

1. The Secret Document is your team's - place the token face down on your Character sheet.
2. The Secret Document is the other team's - put the token back on the Train, where it was, face down. You cannot keep the other team's Secret Document.
3. The Secret Document is the decoy - you can choose to keep it or put it back, face down, on your position.

You cannot show the value or nature of your Loots but you are free to say anything you want.

Floor Change

Same Action as in the base game. You cannot change Trains when using a Floor Change card.

Il Professore's Action Cards

Scheme

Move Il Professore's Loot marker one space higher on his Diabolical Plan ladder. If the marker is already on the last space of the ladder, nothing happens.

The Binoculars

Each Binoculars card targets a specific Bandit.

If the Binoculars target one of Il Professore's opponents standing on a Roof, Il Professore fires and the target gets one Neutral Bullet. If the Bandit is inside a Train, nothing happens.

If the Binoculars target a Bandit from Il Professore's own team, that Bandit can immediately do the base game Action of their choosing (Move, Floor Change, Fire, Robbery or Punch).

Bonus Nudge (only used when playing with 3 Bandits)

The Bandit on Il Professore's team immediately gets the base game Action of their choosing (Move, Floor Change, Fire, Robbery or Punch).

Fire on the last Courier

If there is no Courier on the Roof of the Armored Train, this Action has no effect.

But the Courier standing on the Roof of the Car closest to the Caboose of the Armored Train gets shot by Il Professore. Take one Neutral Bullet card from the stock and place it, face down, under the Wild Bunch token. That card counts when awarding the title (see Final Scoring below).

Rapid Fire

If there is no enemy Bandit on a Roof, this Action has no effect.

Il Professore fires at all the enemy Bandits standing on a Roof. Give each target one Neutral Bullet card, to be added to their personal decks.

If there are not enough Neutral Bullets in the stock, Il Professore's Fire actions have no effect.

Il Professore's Action cards are shuffled at the end of every Round and make up a new deck.

The Armored Train

About the Couriers

Meeting a Courier

When on the same position as a Courier (after a Move, Floor Change, Punch, Fire or Event), you must immediately change floors and add a Neutral Bullet to your personal deck.

If there are no more Neutral Bullets in the deck, simply change floors.

Couriers never move between Cars, but will change floors after a "Couriers in movement" Event or if targeted by a Fire action.

Firing on a Courier

When targeting a Courier:

• Take one of your Bullet cards and place it face down under the Wild Bunch token. This will be taken into account at the end of the game.
• Make the Courier pawn change floors. If Bandits are on the Courier's new location, they must change floors and take a Neutral Bullet.

Note: if out of Bullets when shooting a Courier, nothing happens.

Example: Doc shoots the Courier. He puts one Bullet card under the Wild Bunch token. The targeted Courier moves down and inside the armored Car, with Cheyenne, who is sent to the Roof and takes a Neutral Bullet.

The Tender Car

Players can only go on the Roof of the Tender Car, never inside.

The Armory Car

If standing in the Armory Car at the beginning of a Round (before the Schemin' phase), draw 2 additional cards and add them to your hand.

The Infirmary Car

If standing in the Infirmary Car at the beginning of a Round, you can discard up to 2 Bullet cards. Discard the Neutral Bullets first, put them back in the stock. If you haven't any Neutral Bullet cards, discard the opponents' Bullets, put them back in the box.

The Gatlings

There are two Gatlings: one on the Roof of the Infirmary Car, the other on the Roof of the Armory Car. When playing a Fire Action on a Gatling location, you have two options:

• you shoot the standard way and use one of your Bullets.
• or you shoot with the Gatling: target everyone on the Roof of the Starting Train and in the Line of Sight on the Armored Train.
  • If one or more Bandits are shot, give them a Neutral Bullet and, without looking at its value, choose one of their Loots of their Bandit sheet and put it face down on their location.
  • If one or more Couriers are shot, do not put a Neutral Bullet under the Wild Bunch token but make their Courier pawn change floors.

If there are not enough Neutral Bullets left for all the targets, you cannot use the Gatlings.

Bandits who are on the same location as you are cannot be targeted.

The Bandits

The following Bandits' abilities have been slightly modified.

Django

Django's ability does not apply when he uses a Gatling.

When shooting a Bandit, Django makes his target move away from him to an adjacent Car. Django can make the target change Trains, but never change floors.

Cheyenne

Cheyenne's ability applies to Bags and Purses.

Belle

A Bandit can target Belle if the other potential target is a Courier.

Mei

Mei cannot change Trains when using her ability.

Tuco

Tuco's ability does not apply from one Train to another.

Misty

Misty's fists are her most faithful companions. No one wants to be in her way when she's in a bad mood.

During the Schemin' phase, you can play your Bullet cards from your hand on the common pile. During the Action phase, those cards become Punch cards for Misty. After using them, remember not to discard those Bullet cards and shuffle them back in your deck.

The Twinzz

The Twinzz are inseparable, fast and cunning. They have made it a habit of climbing on one another to be taken seriously by grown-ups and show them who the real bosses are.

During a Tunnel turn, you play twice in a row during your turn (just like in a Speeding-up turn) and can therefore:

• draw 6 cards, OR
• play 2 cards in a row face up, OR
• draw 3 cards and play 1 card face up.

You can play the new Bandits Misty and the Twinzz with the Colt Express base game or any expansion.

The Cavalry Charge Cards

The Cavalry Charge cards replace the Station cards. There are 2 different sets of cards: normal mode and betrayal mode. When setting up the game, the players choose together which mode they want to play.

In normal mode, the game will definitely remain a cooperation within the same team.

In Betrayal mode, members of the same team can have different goals at the end of the game. The Betrayal mode can only be played with 4+ players (Il Professore does not count as a player).

Normal Mode

• Understaffing: Any Bandit still in the Armored Train is granted one last Move action. With multiple Bandits still in the Armored Train, their moves will be performed in turn order.
• Delayed assault: If at the beginning of the last Round a Bandit is in the Starting Train and has a Secret Documents token, the Schemin' phase ends after 2 turns. Otherwise the Schemin' phase lasts 5 turns.

Betrayal Mode

• Survival of the fittest (x2): The richest team declared, only the richest Bandit on that team who is in the Starting Train, wins the game. Secret Documents are a collective Loot, they do not count in your personal tally. Same goes for the Wild Bunch title. Emptying your barrel does grant you personally $1000.
• Double bottom: The Bandits with their team's Secret Documents and on the Starting Train win the game. Two Bandits can thus share the win. The decoy of the Secret Documents does not count for this winning condition. If there is no Bandit meeting these two conditions, the richest Bandit in the Starting Train wins the game.

The End of the Game

Final Scoring

At the end of the game, only Bandits located in the Starting Train add their tally to their team's total.

Here are the different ways of getting richer:

• Each Bandit adds up the Loots placed on their Character sheet.
• The Gunslinger prize is different from the base game. Each Bandit whose barrel is empty at the end of the game earns $1000. If your barrel is not empty, you cannot win the Gunslinger prize.
• The Secret Documents on the Character sheets are revealed. If the token matches the team's color, the team earns $4000. The decoy is worth nothing.
• A new collective prize is in the game, the Wild Bunch prize, worth $1500.

To know the winner, check the Bullet cards placed under the Wild Bunch token (those are the Bullets fired on the Couriers by the Bandits) during the game. The team which fired the most Bullets at the Couriers wins the Wild Bunch title. If both teams are tied, neither wins the title.

Il Professore

At the end of the game, Il Professore earns for his team as many dollars as indicated on his Loot marker's position on the Diabolical Plan ladder (between $0 and $1500).

Neutral Bullet cards placed under the Wild Bunch token by Il Professore are taken into account for his team's total.