Kids Express
Kids Express Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
Kids Express is a cooperative game.
To win, you need to retrieve more items of luggage than the bandits. At the end of the game, all the luggage you managed to save and keep in the stagecoach is yours, and any left in the train is the bandits'.
Components
Before your first game, follow the assembly instructions to construct the Train, the Stagecoach, and Sam on his horse.
- The Train = 1 Locomotive + 1 First-class car + 1 Second-class car + 1 Hideout car
- 4 double-sided Player Aid boards
- 4 Bandit standees: Misty, Tuco, Doc, and Silk
- 1 standee of Sam on his horse
- 3 flickable Slingshots (You will only use 1 Slingshot in each game. The game comes with 2 spare Slingshots, just in case you lose any.)
- 4 Kid standees: Noa, Tom, Joy, and Lily
- 1 Stagecoach
- 37 double-sided Luggage tokens: 10 Safes, 10 Suitcases, 10 Bags, 7 Parcels. Each item of Luggage contains a hidden gold nugget...
Setup
- Place the 4 Train cars in the center of the table in the following order: Locomotive, First-class, Second-class, Hideout.
- Place Sam on his horse next to the Train and put the Slingshot on its platform.
- Place the Stagecoach next to the Hideout.
- Place the 4 Bandits in the Hideout.
- Shuffle the 10 Safe tokens and place them in a stack, safe side up, in the Locomotive.
- Shuffle the 10 Suitcase tokens and place them in a stack, suitcase side up, in the First-class car.
- Shuffle the 10 Bag tokens and place them in a stack, bag side up, in the Second-class car.
- Shuffle the 7 Parcel tokens and place them in a stack, parcel side up, in the Stagecoach.
- Take turns choosing which kid character you would like to play as and place your character's standee in the Stagecoach. Place the Player Aid board for your character in front of you. Put the standees and Player Aid boards for any kids not being played back in the box.
The solo mode makes no difference from the rules presented in this booklet; you simply play with only one kid character.
Now you're all set up and you can begin the game!
How to Play
The player who most recently saw a train goes first. Once they have finished their turn, the player to their left takes their turn, and so on around the table until the end of the game.
On your turn, go through the following 2 steps in order:
- You can move your Kid standee OR shoot with Sam. You can only do 1 of these actions.
- THEN you must pick up 1 Luggage token from the location your standee is in and apply this token's effect.
Step 1: Move your Kid standee OR shoot with Sam
You can either:
Move your Kid standee
You can move into any Train car you like, move between the Train and the Stagecoach, or choose not to move at all. The only place you can't go is into the Hideout.
Take your Kid standee and place it in the Train car of your choice, so long as there are no Bandits in that location.
TIP: It's not usually worth it to stay in the Stagecoach. You're trying to retrieve as many items of Luggage from the Train as you can. Unfortunately, if there's a Bandit in each Train car, you'll have no choice but to stay in the Stagecoach.
OR Shoot with Sam
Move the Sam standee. Decide whether you'd like to make your shot easy or difficult, then use your Player Aid board to position Sam closer to or farther away from the Train (see the picture in the rulebook).
- Board vertical: a harder shot.
- Board horizontal: an easy shot.
Place the Slingshot on the platform and flick or use a finger to hit it toward 1 or more Bandits, aiming to knock them over.
Any standees knocked over by the Slingshot are immediately placed in the Hideout if they are Bandits, or the Stagecoach if they are Kids.
Step 2: Pick up an item of Luggage AND apply its effect
Take 1 Luggage token from the stack in the location your Kid standee is in. Turn it over and apply its effect. Keep it in front of you (unless it is in the second category below, the one showing an arrow toward the Hideout; the rulebook marks that category with a swirl icon).
There are 4 different effect categories:
Token showing a Bandit and an arrow to a Train car (Bandit moves)
The Bandit shown on the token is moved to the Train car shown. Now 1 of the following 2 scenarios occurs:
- If there are Kids in the Train car the Bandit is moving to, the Kids run away. Immediately take any Kid standees in that Train car and place them in the Stagecoach.
- If there are no Kids in the Train car the Bandit is moving to, the Bandit who has just moved, as well as any other Bandits already in that Train car, each steal an item of Luggage. From the stack in that Train car, take as many Luggage tokens as there are Bandits in the Train car and put them in the bandits' Hideout. Do not turn over these tokens, and do not apply their effects.
Token showing an arrow toward the Hideout
The Luggage token you have just turned over is placed in the bandits' Hideout and you don't get to keep it in front of you.
Token showing Bandits grabbing luggage
Each Bandit in the Train takes 1 Luggage token from the Train car they are in and places it in their Hideout, without turning it over. Any Bandits in the Hideout do not do anything.
Token showing a sleep symbol ("Z z z")
Nothing happens.
End of the Game
The game ends immediately as soon as 1 of the stacks of Luggage tokens RUNS OUT, either in a Train car or in the Stagecoach.
First make a stack of all the Luggage tokens left in the Stagecoach and all the Luggage tokens retrieved by each player. This stack is the loot that you managed to get back from the bandits.
Now make a second stack of all the Luggage tokens left in all the Train cars, including the bandits' Hideout. This stack is the loot that the bandits managed to keep.
Check which stack is taller. If you managed to save more luggage (your stack is taller) than the bandits managed to keep, you win. Way to go!
For an Extra Challenge
You can choose to make shooting the Slingshot more difficult:
- Noa: shoot with your non-dominant hand.
- Tom: shoot with your eyes closed.
- Lily: place the Slingshot directly on the table rather than on the platform before shooting.
- Joy: shoot from twice as far away. Place Sam the length of 2 Player Aid boards away from the Train before shooting.
As a reward for playing in hard mode, if you make a hit, take a bonus Luggage token from the stack in the Train car the Bandits you knocked over were in. You only take 1 bonus token even if you knocked over multiple Bandits. Apply the effect of the bonus token after you've applied the effect of the token you gain normally in Step 2.