On the Underground: The Underground Challenge – London / Berlin Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
• Gameplay
• Game End

Setup

1. Choose a city you want to play with, and set up the board following the standard rules, except for choosing lines and placing Score tiles.

2. Determine your difficulty level – easy, medium, hard or insane.

   To further customize the difficulty of the game, you may make these optional adjustments:

   • Decrease difficulty: Start with one (or two) Branch tiles.
   • Increase difficulty: Remove two (or four) Destination cards from the deck and return them unseen to the box.

3. Shuffle the Line cards for your chosen city and draw and reveal two cards (if playing easy or medium) or three cards (if playing hard or insane).

   The cards show the lines already built at the beginning of the game. Place Track tokens onto the board on the appropriate track spaces on the board.

   Berlin only: Remove a Landmark tile from each Landmark station that a line reaches or passes through.

4. Choose any Score tile to represent your score and place it on space 0 of the score track.

   Take the Start Player tile to represent the local transport authority (the "Underground") which you will be playing against, and place it on the score track. To determine where on the score track it should be placed, add the points shown on each of the two or three Line cards drawn.

   If playing on medium or insane difficulty levels, add an additional 20 points.

   Berlin only: If two of the Line cards chosen have a matching symbol (triangle, diamond or circle), add an additional 30 points.

   The sum represents the Underground's starting score, which will increase as the Passenger makes use of its lines.

5. Choose your own lines from those not placed on the board:

Gameplay

Each turn:

• Take four actions with each being placing Track tokens or taking Branch tiles, as in normal gameplay.
• Perform Passenger movement.
• Perform Passenger movement again.

The Passenger will thus visit one or two stations, and the Destination cards matching those stations will be removed and replaced as in normal gameplay. The Passenger then will visit another one or two stations, with the destination cards matching those stations also being removed and replaced.

Passenger movement rules are the same as in the game for multiple players, with the following exception:

• If a Passenger movement is up to the player's choice (due to an equal number of empty spaces and lines involved in each potential route), the player must choose the route that gives the Underground the most points.
• If all potential routes would give the Underground and the player equal points, the player may choose any one of those lines.

Game End

If your Score tile reaches or overtakes the Underground's tile, the game is over, and you have successfully completed The Underground Challenge!

Berlin only – Landmark tile scoring: Scoring 3 points for each landmark tile of the type with the most tiles can be triggered before the end of the game (including between passenger moves), if that would allow you to win by reaching or overtaking the Underground's Score tile.

The number of Destination cards left in the draw deck shows how successful you were:

• 1–4 cards: Plate Layer
• 5–7 cards: Track Inspector
• 8–10 cards: Superintendent
• 11+ cards: Chief Engineer

Alternatively, if replenishing destinations leaves the deck of Destination cards empty, the game ends immediately, and the Challenge was not successfully completed. We suggest playing again at a lower difficulty level… or taking a cab.