Light Rail
Light Rail Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Set Up
Sort the rail cards into separate decks by color (Blue Line, Yellow Line, Pink Line, Green Line; 10 per color, 40 total). Give one deck to each player. Shuffle your deck. Set it route-side down. Remove any extra decks; they will not be used.
Shuffle the objective cards (8 total) and deal two to each player face-down. Only you may look at your objectives. Keep them secret until the game ends.
Draw one rail card from the top of your rail deck into your hand. Throughout the game, you may only have one rail card in hand.
Clear space in the center of the play area, referred to as "the city."
Example objective card: "Cross-Town Express: You must have the most cards in the longest route. It may be incomplete."
How to Play
Players take turns clockwise, starting with the player who was most recently on a train.
On your turn, place your rail card adjacent to a rail card already in the play area. You may place it in one of the six locations highlighted in the diagram. (The first rail card of the game can be placed anywhere.)
- You may not place cards on top of other cards.
- You may not move cards.
- You may not place cards beyond the city limit. (For details on city limits, see City Limits below.)
- If you complete a route, a player will score credit. (For details on completing routes and scoring credit, see Scoring Credit below.)
Draw another rail card from your deck into your hand and end your turn.
Example
The highlighted spaces are all legal placements for the next rail card. Imagine the pattern as a brick wall.
You place the card in the lower right, creating a complete route. This will earn players credit as explained under Scoring Credit.
City Limits
You may not place cards outside the city, nor may you place cards that would cause existing cards to be outside the city.
The city limits depend on the number of players, but the city center is not pre-defined. You guide the city's growth with each placement.
- 2 players: (1,2,3,4,3,2,1)
- 3 players: (1,2,3,4,5,6)
- 4 players: (1,2,3,4,5,6,5,4,3,2,1)
(The city limits can be hard to see in play and new players may need a practice game to grasp the skill.)
Example of City Limits in a 2-Player Game
Your opponent (Blue) just placed the card indicated by her hand. In doing so, she has limited the potential city centers.
If you next place a card in space A, you would make a column of four cards. This is the maximum size of the center column in a 2-player city. This is a legal placement.
You might try to place a card in space B instead. However, that would mean the card marked C is outside the city limits. Therefore, this is an illegal placement.
Placing in space D would be illegal because it would cause the card marked E to be outside the city limits.
Placing in space F or G is legal because they would not cause any existing cards to be outside the city limits. Either option would also define the column indicated by the blue hand to be the city center.
Scoring Credit
If you cap both ends of a route or make a looping route, it is complete. The player with the most segments of their color on a complete route earns 1 credit for each different type of building on it. If tied, all tied players score the route's credit. (You may track score during the game or tally it at the end of the game.)
Ending the Game
The game ends when the city is complete. Check if your secret objectives have been fulfilled. You earn 3 credit for each of your completed objectives. The player who has the most credit wins! In case of a tie, tied players share victory.
Advanced Option: Wrapping
At the end of the game, routes that open to one side of the city connect to the openings from the opposite edge of the city. Players score wrapped routes just like normal routes.
Example of Scoring
- This route scores for pink because there are more pink segments than blue segments. It only has one type of building, so it is worth 1 credit.
- This route scores for blue because there are more blue segments than pink segments. It has two building types, so it is worth 2 credit.
- These routes are worth 0 credit because they have no buildings.
- Pink and blue have an equal number of segments on this route, so both score credit from it. It has two building types, so it is worth 2 credit.
Example: Wrapping
This route wraps from A, to B, to C, then to D. Blue has the most segments and scores 2 credit.