Der Taubertal-Express Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Idea
• Components
• Setup
• Objective
• Game Flow
  • Turn Order at the Start of a Pass
  • Take Tickets
  • Take Action Tiles
  • Hire Workers
  • Round Sequence
  • Move Steam Locomotive
  • Take Additional Tickets
  • Place Buildings
  • Station Buildings
  • Carriage Halls
  • Goods Buildings
  • Provide, Load and Sell Goods
    • Provide Goods
• The Station Buildings

Game Idea

The prosperous railway town of Lauda, at the start of the 20th century. The players take on the roles of railway pioneers and master builders. They transport famous passengers from the history of the times and open up numerous commercial and railway buildings throughout the Taubertal and the surrounding region.

Along the way, the players gain growing influence through the expansion of the railway town of Lauda. Clever and forward-looking planning is rewarded.

Full steam ahead: now it's high time to board the train!

Components

• 1 game board
• 4 player boards ("Spielertableaus")
• 60 action cubes (12 each in black, white, yellow, blue and purple)
• 4 victory point markers (thick discs)
• 4 victory point tiles (flat discs)
• 4 pioneer markers (flat discs)
• 48 coins (32 silver coins, 16 gold coins)
• 24 workers
• 24 action tiles
• 66 station buildings (36 light purple, 30 dark purple)
• 12 carriage halls (worker or passenger carriage)
• 12 carriage halls (freight carriage)
• 12 passengers
• 64 transport goods (wine, grain, sheep, tools)
• 48 goods buildings (12 each of pastures, grain silos, factories and wineries)
• 50 tickets
• 4 conductor's caps (1 large red, 3 small blue)
• 2 quick-reference rules sheets
• 4 wooden steam locomotives
• 4 driver's cabs
• 4 coal carriages
• 12 passenger carriages
• 12 worker carriages
• 12 freight carriages

Before the first game, carefully punch all parts out of the punch sheets.

Setup

• The game board is spread out in the middle of the table.
• The action cubes are placed separately next to the board, within easy reach of all players.
• The coins, passengers, workers and victory point tiles are laid out within easy reach.
• The transport goods (wine, grain, sheep, tools) are placed on their matching spaces on the game board.
• The action tiles are shuffled and laid out face up. With 2 players, lay out 6 tiles; with 3 players, 9; with 4 players, 12. The remaining tiles are placed face down in several stacks next to the game board.
• The goods buildings are likewise distributed face up on the board. With 2 players, use 8 buildings; with 3 players, 10; with 4 players, 12.
• All carriage halls are placed with their coloured side up in even stacks on their matching spaces.
• The light purple station buildings are shuffled. One tile is placed at random, with either side up, on each of the corresponding spaces on the board. The remaining light purple station buildings are placed in several stacks next to the game board.
• From each dark purple station building, one tile fewer is laid out than there are players (example: with 3 players, 2 police posts, 2 canteens, etc.). The remaining dark purple station buildings are not needed for this game and are returned to the box.
• All 50 tickets are shuffled. Under each of the seven spaces on the left side of the game board, one more ticket than the number of players is pushed face down. Example: in a 3-player game, four cards go under each space.
• Four further tickets are placed face up on the game board.
• The remaining tickets form the draw pile.
• The conductor's caps are set aside. The two quick-reference rules sheets can be passed around as needed.

Each player receives:

• one player board and one wooden steam locomotive in a colour of their choice, which they place on the Lauda station;
• one victory point marker in a matching colour. The markers are placed on space "0" of the victory point track on the game board. The order of the stack does not matter;
• one pioneer marker. Whoever last rode a train places their pioneer marker on the starting space of the pioneer track. This player is called the "start player" (Startspieler) from then on. The other players stack their markers below it in clockwise order (the "second player", "third player", etc.).

Each player then assembles their train. At the start of the game it consists of the following parts:

• one passenger carriage;
• one worker carriage;
• one small coal carriage;
• one driver's cab.

The remaining train parts are set aside within easy reach.

Each player receives one silver coin from the supply. The second player receives, to compensate for playing later, an additional black action cube, which they place on their coal carriage. The third and fourth players receive two and three action cubes respectively. The game begins!

The rulebook illustrates the setup with an example for three players (the victory point track and the pioneer track are labelled on the illustration).

Objective

The winner is the player who has the most victory points at the end of the game.

Game Flow

The game runs over exactly 7 passes ("Durchgänge"), each of 3 rounds:

• First pass: take tickets; take action tiles; hire workers; first round; second round; third round.
• Second pass: the same steps as the first pass.
• Third through seventh pass: "...".
• Scoring: final scoring (Schlusswertung).

Turn Order at the Start of a Pass

At the start of a pass, it is determined in which order the players take their turns. The player who is furthest forward or highest on the pioneer track is the start player and receives the red conductor's cap. The following players (that is, those whose markers are further back or lower on the track) receive the conductor's caps "2.", "3." and "4." The order determined this way applies unchanged for the whole pass.

Take Tickets

All tickets of the current pass (that is, those lying face down underneath the left side of the game board) are taken into hand by the start player.

The start player considers which passenger they want to transport and places the corresponding card under their passenger carriage. They then pass the remaining cards on to the second player. Each player in turn chooses one ticket and places it under their passenger carriage.

Note: if a player is already at the starting station of a passenger (see below), the passenger is immediately placed on the passenger carriage. Depending on whether the passenger is a man or a woman, the tile is placed on the carriage with the matching side up.

The ticket left over is used to start the discard pile.

Passenger card:

• Name of the passenger
• Starting station
• Destination station
• Reward for the transport (victory points, action cubes, coins)
• At the destination station the train has a longer stop, and goods may be sold there (icon: goods can be sold).
• At the destination station, no goods can be sold (icon: goods cannot be sold).

Without a passenger tile: the passenger has not yet boarded. With a passenger tile: the passenger has already boarded.

Each player has room for only one ticket at the start of the game, so they can carry only one passenger.

As soon as a player draws a new ticket during the game for which they have no free space, they must remove a ticket from their train (together with any passenger tile) and replace it with the ticket just drawn. As a penalty, they lose three victory points.

Note: during the game a player can drop to at most five points below zero.

Take Action Tiles

All the action tiles that are available to the players for this pass are distributed:

The start player takes any action tile from the game board and places it on the driver's cab of their train. Then the second, third and fourth players each choose an action tile in turn. Then the start player takes a turn again, and so on, until all tiles have been distributed. Each player thus receives three action tiles.

Hire Workers

Next, each player may hire as many workers as there is space on their worker carriages (at the start of the game, at most two). Hired workers are taken from the display and placed on the worker carriage with the coloured side up. They can later be used to load transport goods from a goods building onto a freight carriage, and at the end of the pass each must be paid one silver coin.

Note: in the first game it is recommended not to hire workers in the first pass, to become familiar with the game flow first.

Round Sequence

Each player whose turn it is (first the start player, then the second, third and fourth players, then the start player again, and so on) takes a black action cube from the supply and places it on their coal carriage. Next they choose one of the action tiles they selected earlier, take the corresponding action cubes from the supply and also place these on the coal carriage. There may be at most eight action cubes on the coal carriage. If space runs out, surplus action cubes are returned to the supply.

Note: the capacity of the coal carriage can be increased by the station building "Wagenwerkstatt" (carriage workshop).

The action tile is then set aside. The action cubes on the coal carriage can now be used, in any order, for the purposes described below. A player may end their turn at any time, and take any remaining action cubes into the next round.

Move Steam Locomotive

To move their own steam locomotive on the player board to another town, a player may use both black and coloured action cubes. The locomotive may not stop on open track. The player must always end their turn in a town.

Example: Stefan's steam locomotive is in Frankfurt. He returns two cubes of any colour (for example one black and one yellow) to the supply and moves his locomotive via Miltenberg to Wertheim.

Whenever a player's steam locomotive is in a town where a passenger wants to board, the passenger tile is placed on the carriage.

When a player reaches a passenger's destination station, the ticket may be placed on the discard pile (the passenger tile returns to the general supply), and the player receives the printed reward. If the reward is victory points, the player advances on the victory point track by the corresponding number of points. Coins and action cubes are taken from the general supply.

Example: in Wertheim Stefan picks up a passenger. He places the passenger tile on his passenger carriage, showing that the passenger is on board and wants to be carried to their destination, Lauda. Stefan then spends two more action cubes (for example one blue and one yellow) to move his locomotive from Wertheim via Tauberbischofsheim to Lauda. For the transport Stefan receives one victory point and one blue action cube, which he can now use for further turns.

Take Additional Tickets

Besides the ticket each player receives at the start of a pass, further tickets may be taken that lie face up on the game board. If a player is in a town where a passenger is waiting, the passenger may be taken along. In this case the corresponding card is taken from the game board and placed under a free passenger carriage. The passenger tile goes on top.

A player may also secure a ticket when they are not at the starting station of a passenger. In this case the corresponding action cube must be paid, and the card - but without a passenger tile - is placed under a free passenger carriage.

In both cases a new card is then placed from the draw pile onto the freed space. When the draw pile runs out during the game, the discard pile is shuffled and used as the new draw pile.

Place Buildings

Building tiles give the player different advantages:

• With station buildings the player builds up their station at Lauda on the player board, and gains a particular effect depending on the building. Light purple buildings are paid for with three action cubes; dark purple buildings are paid for with coins.
• By building carriage halls for four action cubes, the player extends their train with additional carriages.
• By building goods buildings (pasture, factory, grain silo, winery), the player can make goods (sheep, tools, grain, wine) available for transport in the corresponding towns. A goods building costs two action cubes.

To place a building on the player board, the player does not need to have their steam locomotive in the respective town.

Which coloured action cubes, or how many coins, must be returned to the supply for which building is shown on the game board.

If a player has fully covered an area (for example Badisch-Franken, Württembergisch-Franken, or the Bahnhof Lauda) with buildings, they receive victory points for it. If they are the first to do so, they receive additional victory points.

Example: if the player covers Frankfurt, Heidelberg and Mosbach (the area "Rhein-Main-Neckar") with buildings, they receive two victory points. If they achieve this before their fellow players, they receive an additional two victory points.

The function of each building is explained below.

Station Buildings

Station buildings give the player certain advantages - either once, permanently, or at the end of the game. Which station building carries which advantage is described in detail on the last page of the rulebook. The advantage is also explained on both sides of each tile (in text form for "beginners" and by a graphic for "experts").

Whenever the player builds a station building, they advance one space on the pioneer track. If the space is occupied, the pioneer marker is placed on top.

If all spaces of the Bahnhof Lauda are occupied, the player may build over an existing station building by placing the new building tile on top of it. In this case the earlier advantage is no longer available, and the player advances on the pioneer track to the top (that is, to the last space at the very top).

Each station building, including a built-over one, may be present only once on the Bahnhof Lauda.

Carriage Halls

When a player places a carriage hall on their player board (mind the colour!), a carriage is made ready there for collection:

• Brown carriage hall: on arrival, the player receives an additional freight carriage with room for two transport goods.
• Note: only the station building "Lagerhaus" (warehouse) allows the player to load a freight carriage with up to three transport goods.
• Turquoise carriage hall: on arrival, the player receives an additional passenger carriage or worker carriage.

After arrival, the corresponding carriage is coupled to the train and the carriage hall is turned over.

Example 1: Benno is in Mergentheim. He returns the corresponding action cubes and places a brown carriage hall in Schwäbisch Hall. By returning two further action cubes he moves his steam locomotive to Schwäbisch Hall. He now takes the freight carriage from the display, couples it to his train and turns the carriage hall over.

Example 2: later in the game Benno places a turquoise carriage hall in Würzburg. On arrival he chooses an additional worker carriage. He couples it to his train as shown in the picture, and at the start of the next pass he can hire up to four workers.

Note: at the start of the game the players do not yet have a freight carriage, so no goods can be transported (and sold). It is therefore advisable to acquire a freight carriage as quickly as possible by building a brown carriage hall.

Goods Buildings

When a player places a goods building on their player board, they can later make goods available for transport there. The symbols on the towns specify which goods buildings may be placed in which towns.

Example: in Königshofen there may be either a pasture or a winery.

Unlike station buildings, carriage halls and goods buildings cannot be built over!

Provide, Load and Sell Goods

Provide Goods

For the corresponding action cube of the same colour, a goods token may be taken from the game board and placed on the matching goods building of the player board (see example on the right). Only one goods token can lie on a building at a time.

Example: Carla returns a purple action cube and places a "Wine" goods token on the winery in Königshofen. For the return of two white action cubes she places a "Sheep" goods token on the pasture in Boxberg-Wölchingen and another on the pasture in Heilbronn.

Load Goods

To load a transport good, the player must be in the respective town. They load the goods token onto a free space of their freight carriage, and then turn the worker on the worker carriage over (the worker is now "off duty", im Feierabend).

Sell Goods

Whenever a passenger has been transported to their destination station and the train has a longer stop there (see ticket), all goods on the player's own freight carriages may be sold. Selling works as follows:

• For the first type of goods, the player receives one silver coin per goods token.
• For the second type of goods - if present - the player receives two silver coins per goods token.
• For the third and fourth types of goods - if present - the player receives three silver coins per goods token.

The types must be sold in order: first the type that is present most often, then the second most frequent, and so on.

In addition, there are two victory points per goods token sold.

Example: Franziska arrives at her destination station and has 2 wine, 1 sheep and 1 grain on her freight carriages. Since there is most wine, this type must be sold first. For each wine token there is, as explained above, one silver coin, so two silver coins in total. The sheep and grain are each present once. It does not matter in which order they are sold. So there are two silver coins for one type of goods and three silver coins for the other.

Franziska therefore receives seven coins in total. In addition she receives two victory points per goods token sold, so eight in total. Franziska therefore advances eight spaces on the victory point track.

After the sale the goods tokens return to the spaces of the game board.

Note: the supply of money never runs out. Should the rare case occur that not enough coins are available, each player must give up coins until they hold only coins worth 15 silver coins. Each silver coin given up is then converted into one victory point. Gold coins are worth five victory points each.

If a player gains more than 50 or 100 victory points during the game, they place the victory point tile of their colour in front of them accordingly.

(The rulebook illustrates this with a freight carriage marked "Sale possible" and one marked "Sale not possible".)

End of a Pass

After three rounds a pass ends. On the signal of the conductor (start player), the "payday" (Zahltag) is initiated:

All workers hired during the pass that has just ended receive one coin each as wages. Workers who were hired but not used must also be paid. If a worker cannot be paid, the player receives three penalty points per worker! After payday, the workers return to the display.

Example: Max has five coins. In the pass just ended he hired three workers, but could only use two for loading. Nevertheless he must pay all the hired workers, and therefore returns three coins to the supply.

Preparing the Next Pass

The display of goods buildings and light purple station buildings is refilled.

The action tiles that have already been used are shuffled together with the remaining action tiles and turned face up again.

A new pass begins (see page 5).

Check the Display

In rare cases towards the end of a game it may happen that a player can no longer place any goods buildings on their player board because the tile display is too one-sided. In this case all goods buildings on the game board are cleared away and replaced once with new ones.

End of the Game

The game ends after seven passes. Then the final scoring follows. First the remaining material brings in points: each coin on hand and every two action cubes give one victory point. Then the victory points of the station buildings are determined. The player who now has the most victory points is the winner. In case of a tie, the tied players are ranked by the pioneer track: the player furthest forward or highest on the pioneer track wins.

The Station Buildings

Each entry is marked with its type: instant, one-time advantage (gear symbol), permanent advantage (infinity symbol), or advantage at the end of the game (end symbol).

Kiosk (instant): Immediately upon building the kiosk, the player takes three action cubes of their choice from the supply. Only the space on the coal carriage needs to be observed.

Kantine (instant): Immediately upon building the canteen, the player takes one worker and places it on a free space of a worker carriage. The worker must be paid regularly at the end of the pass.

Polizeiposten (instant): Immediately upon building the police post, the player may discard any one ticket (together with the passenger, if any), i.e. return it to the discard pile. This can sometimes be useful for avoiding penalty points.

Kohlenlager (permanent): The owner of the coal store receives not one but two black action cubes in each round, instead of one. The advantage takes effect from the next round.

Bahnmeisterei (instant): Immediately upon building the railway depot, the player takes any one carriage hall from the game board and places it on their player board. The respective carriage is then ready for collection.

Signalmeisterei (permanent): Whenever the owner of the signal box has used up all their action cubes (and the turn therefore ends), they receive one black cube, which they can use in the next round.

Empfangshalle (end of game): As soon as the reception hall has been built, the player slides the tickets of transported passengers under their player board. At the end of the game there is one victory point per transported passenger.

Magazingebäude (end of game): The owner of the warehouse building receives one victory point at the end of the game for each goods building on their player board.

Lokschuppen (end of game): At the end of the game, the owner of the engine shed receives 3 / 2 / 1 victory points (with 1 / 2 / 3 players) for each space of the Bahnhof Lauda not occupied by the other players.

Postamt (end of game): The owner of the post office receives, at the very end of the final scoring, one victory point for every five victory points.

Elektrizitätswerk (instant): Immediately upon building the power station, the player receives three victory points and advances accordingly on the victory point track.

Zollamt (end of game): After each of the player's sales, the owner of the customs office places any one goods token on the customs office. At the end of the game they receive one victory point per token lying there.

Lagerhaus (permanent): The owner of the warehouse may load a freight carriage with up to three goods. To show this, the freight carriage is turned over.

Lackiererei (permanent): The owner of the paint shop may exchange two black action cubes for any one coloured action cube, as often as they like. Example: 2 × black → 1 × yellow.

Stellwerk (permanent): Whenever the owner of the signal tower travels through Lauda or ends their turn there, they receive one black action cube.

Wagenwerkstatt (permanent): The loading capacity of the coal carriage increases to ten action cubes. To show this, the coal carriage is turned over.

Umschlagplatz (permanent): The owner of the transshipment point may once per round exchange any one action cube (except black) for one silver coin.

Dienstwohnhaus (permanent): Whenever the owner of the staff residence has hired two or more workers, one of them does not need to be paid at the end of the pass.

Güterschuppen (permanent): In exchange for the corresponding action cube (example: white → Sheep), the player places the goods token on the goods shed. If three goods tokens are there, they are cleared away and the player receives four victory points.

Wagenmeisterei (end of game): At the end of the game, the owner of the carriage workshop receives five victory points if Heidelberg, Schwäbisch Hall, Würzburg, Miltenberg and Mergentheim are occupied by carriage halls.

Bankhaus (permanent): The owner of the bank pays one coin less for a station building, provided they have already built at least four station buildings.

Wasserturm (end of game): The owner of the water tower receives one victory point at the end of the game for every two station buildings.