Rail Barons of the World Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Railroad Operations Cards
  • Hotels
  • Service Bounty
  • New Industry
• Ending the Game
• Adjusting the Difficulty
• Universal Rail Barons
  • Duel Baron Appendix
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Railroad Operations Cards Display
• Player Actions
  • Deliver One Goods Cube
  • Build Track
  • Insurance
• Resolving Railbot Cards
  • Details of each card type
    • Building Links
    • Deadhead
    • Taxation
    • Exhaust Goods
    • Claim Major Line
    • Duel Barons Variant
• Solo Map Appendix
  • Nippon
  • Portugal
  • Australia
  • Eastern U.S.
  • Mexico
  • Sweden
  • Great Britain

Components

• 111 Railbot cards
• 12 Duel Baron cards
• 15 Not in Play tokens
• 1 Insurance token
• 1 Railbot Action token
• 24 Universal Rail Baron cards
• 7 Reference cards

Railroad Operations Cards

The following changes apply to Railroad Operations cards.

Hotels

If you gain a Hotel, score a point whenever you deliver a Goods Cube to that City and whenever the Railbot removes a Cube from that City, whether via the Building Links or Exhaust Goods card.

Service Bounty

If you deliver a Goods Cube to a City shown on a Service Bounty card currently in the Operations cards display, you gain the points as usual. If the Railbot removes a cube from a City with an active Service Bounty card, immediately discard the Service Bounty from the display.

New Industry

These cards work as usual, but you cannot use them to add Goods Cubes to a City not in play.

All other cards can be resolved by you as normal, and are ignored by the Railbot, unless noted specifically in the Appendix for the map you're playing.

Ending the Game

There are two ways to trigger the end of the game: you reach the specified number of Empty City Markers on the map (see Appendix), or you draw the Final Evaluation card. In either case, you complete one more full turn. The Railbot does not take any action on the final turn, and none of the remaining Railbot Row cards are resolved.

If at the end of the game (after adjusting for Bonds), you have 125 or more points, you win the game! If playing with the Duel Barons, your target score is 140 points.

Adjusting the Difficulty

You may tailor the difficulty of the solo experience by using one or more of the adjustments below.

For an easier challenge:

• Start with $5,000 cash and no Bonds.
• Reduce your target score to 110.
• Decrease the map's Base Exhaust value by 1.

For a more difficult challenge:

• Randomly remove one or two cards from the Railbot deck before adding the Evaluation card.
• Limit the maximum number of Operations cards on the market to 3 or 4.
• Increase the map's Base Exhaust value by 1.
• Increase your target score to 135.
• Reduce the number of Empty City Markers needed to trigger the end of the game by 1 or 2.

Universal Rail Barons

Also included are a set of 24 Universal Rail Baron cards that may be used in multiplayer games on any Railways of the World expansion map in place of the map's normal Rail Barons or Goals.

Duel Baron Appendix

Each Duel Baron card is printed with its name, its goal for the player, and its Opponent Effect (shown in red). The goal and effect text is reproduced as printed.

• Benjamin P. Kranz: Gain 3/4/5 points if you own 2/3/4+ hotels. Taxation.
• Caleb V. Kranz: Gain 1/3/6 points if you own a level 6/7/8 engine. Resolve the 3rd card in Railbot's row.
• Christopher L Tychoon: Gain 3/5 points if you have completed a 5/6+ Link delivery. Your engine counts as one level below its marked value for all purposes.
• Dávid Turczi: Gain 7 points if you connect 7+ colored Cities by your own Links. Exhaust one Goods Cube of each color.
• J. S. Albertson: Gain 6 points if you connect 2 Cities of the same color for 3 different colors. Deadhead.
• J. T. Howard: Gain 4/7 points if you complete 2/3+ Major Lines. Railbot claims a Major Line.
• John Berny: Gain 2/4/6 points if you own 4/6/8+ links connected to Purple Cities. Remove all unused Purple New Cities from the game.
• Jon Eric Olsen: Gain 5/10 points if you have delivered 1/2+ Goods Cubes of each color. Insurance costs an additional action.
• Lars Toft: Gain 1/2/4 points if you have delivered 1/2/3+ pairs of Purple & Black Goods Cubes. Delivering to Blue and Yellow cities is worth one less point.
• Mark Dainty: Gain 5 points if you connect 2 Red Cities only using your own Links. Delivering to Red Cities is worth 2 less points.
• P. Andrew Sellers: Gain 4 points if you own 2+ links between the same 2 Cities. Your hotels no longer grant bonus points for deliveries.

Setup

1. Choose a map and place it in the center of the table.
2. Use the 'Not in Play' discs to cover any Cities that are not in play (if needed).
3. Also place 'Not in Play' discs to cover any Major Lines that are not in play (if needed).
4. Combine the 14 Railbot cards matching the map you've chosen with all 11 common Railbot cards (those with no map indicated), bringing the Railbot deck to a total of 25 cards. Return all other Railbot cards to the box, they will not be used.
5. Set up the Goods Cubes on the Cities per the number listed on each City, but skip all Cities not in play. Cities not in play do not count towards Empty Cities during play, and cannot receive Goods Cubes.
6. Shuffle all Railbot cards showing the left card icon together, and remove three of those cards from the game without revealing them.
7. Deal 3 of the remaining cards showing the left card icon face up to form the Railbot row. If you deal a Taxation or a Deadhead card at this point, deal another card to replace it, and reshuffle the original card back into the deck.
8. Now shuffle all the remaining Railbot cards together, except the Final Evaluation card, to form the Railbot draw deck.
9. Shuffle the Final Evaluation card together with the bottom 2 cards of the Railbot draw deck and place them back on the bottom.
10. Prepare the Railroad Operations card deck a. Sort out the Service Bounty cards, randomly choose 2 of them, and place those Service Bounty cards face up to create the Operations display. b. Return the unused Service Bounty cards, and all the Start cards from the Operations deck back into the box. c. Shuffle the rest of the Operations cards together and deal 1 faceup next to the Service Bounty cards. Place the Operations deck facedown next to the Operations display.
11. If you are using the Duel Barons variant (pg. 3), set up the Duel Baron cards as follows, otherwise skip this step. a. Shuffle the Duel Baron cards and place 4 face up in a row above the Railbot deck. Return the unused Duel Baron cards to the box. b. Increase your target score by 15 points (see Ending the Game).

Gameplay

There is no turn order auction. Each turn, you perform two actions first, then a Railbot card is resolved (see Resolving Railbot Cards), then you perform your third action. The Railbot Action token is to remind you of the turn order (see below). Then, you gain income, pay dividends and draw a new Operations card to add to the display as usual.

The Railbot opponent never has, gains, or uses Cash, Bond Certificates, or an Engine Level. It does not need a score marker on the Income and Score Track as it has no Income and no Score. If any action would normally give Railbot Cash or points, ignore that effect and perform the rest of the action normally.

Railroad Operations Cards Display

The Railroad Operations cards display now holds a maximum of five cards. If adding a card to the display causes the display to hold more than five cards, discard the Railroad Operations card farthest from the draw deck as if it was pushed off the display.

Player Actions

The player actions remain the same except for the following changes:

Deliver One Goods Cube

When you take the Deliver One Goods Cube action, you lose 1 point for each Railbot Link you use to make the delivery.

Build Track

Cities that are 'Not in Play' are considered impassable terrain. Major Lines that require you to connect to a City 'Not in Play' cannot be scored, unless noted otherwise in the appendix.

Insurance

This is a new action available to the player. You can spend the first 2 actions of a turn to put an Insurance token on the first or the second card in the Railbot's action row. The third card (nearest the draw deck) cannot have an Insurance token. To use Insurance, it must be the first 2 actions of your round, before the Railbot's card activates.

An Insurance token on a Railbot card negates the effect when it is triggered by Railbot. Once placed, the Insurance token stays on the card until it is selected by the Railbot, and then it is returned to you. You may only have one Insurance token in play at any time.

Example: At the start of your turn, you decide you want to avoid the Deadhead and Taxation effect later on, so you use your first two actions to place the Insurance token on that card. This will prevent it from activating when triggered by the Railbot.

Resolving Railbot Cards

After you perform your first two actions, flip the top card of the Railbot deck.

Every Railbot card has a card slot indicated in red at the bottom. Resolve the card in this card slot from the Railbot row, discarding it. Then, slide the remaining cards left (filling gaps) and place the newly drawn card into the rightmost space on the Railbot row before proceeding to your own third action.

Example: You reveal the next Railbot card, which is an Exhaust Purple card that activates the middle card slot. You resolve the Stockholm/Norrköping/Kalmar card, remove it from the row, and then move the remaining cards left to fill in the empty space.

If the card to be resolved has an Insurance token, the card has no effect. Instead, return the Insurance token to your supply, and discard the card. The remaining cards move to the left to fill in the empty space as usual.

If the card revealed is Final Evaluation, the end of the game has been triggered. Do not resolve a Railbot card, finish your current turn, and then play one more full turn. The Railbot does not take an action during that final turn. Finally, proceed to game end scoring (see Ending the Game).

Details of each card type

Building Links

A Building Links card shows three or four Cities. Find these Cities on the map. If the first and the second City are not yet connected (neither by you nor the Railbot), it creates the shortest (costing the least money) possible path between them. If the Cities are already connected (including via multiple Cities and/or using your Links), you must remove a cube of your choice from the first City. If a color matching that of the second City is available, you must pick a cube of that color, otherwise you may pick any Goods Cube. If all available paths (regardless of length) use at least one of your Links, gain 1 point.

Repeat this procedure for the pairing of the second and third City, and if present, the pairing of the third and fourth City. This might empty one or more Cities. If so place Empty City Markers as normal.

Example: Railbot is activating the Kalmar/Alvesta/Malmö card. First, you check for a Kalmar to Alvesta connection. There is none, so the Railbot builds a new Link between the Cities (Railbot does not pay anything to build). Then you check for an Alvesta to Malmö connection. You have already connected these Cities with two Links, so the Railbot removes a Goods Cube from the starting City (Alvesta). Since the ending City (Malmö) is black, you must remove one of the black Goods Cubes from Alvesta. You also gain 1 point on the Score Track as this delivery uses at least one of your Links.

Deadhead

Reduce the number of Railroad Operations cards in the display permanently by one. Place the Deadhead card at the end of the Railroad Operations display farthest from the draw deck as a reminder that the number of cards in the display has been reduced. If display is currently full, discard the furthest card and place the Deadhead card in its place. These Deadhead cards will never be pushed off.

Example: You already have a Deadhead card blocking the 5th Operations card slot, and now another Deadhead card has activated. The card in the 4th space is discarded and replaced with the new Deadhead card, leaving you with just 3 Operations card slots.

Taxation

You must immediately pay twice your income to the bank, taking Bond Certificates, if needed, to complete the payment.

Exhaust Goods

An Exhaust Goods card shows a color. Remove from the map a number Goods Cubes of that color equal to the map's Base Exhaust value (see Appendix). You may remove the Goods Cubes from any Cities of your choice on the board. This might empty one or more Cities. If so, place Empty City Markers as normal.

Claim Major Line

Some Railbot cards have a Major Line icon at the bottom. When such a card is resolved, select a not-yet-claimed Major Line of your choice, and claim it for the Railbot. The Railbot does not score for Major Lines it has claimed, but merely blocks you from claiming it for yourself. It does not matter if the Railbot actually has Links that connect that Major Line.

If the card with the Major Line icon has the Insurance token on it, this effect is ignored.

Duel Barons Variant

Each Duel Baron has a goal for you to achieve and an Opponent Effect which could hinder your ability to achieve victory.

At any time on your turn, you may check if you've met any of the goals of the unclaimed Duel Baron cards. If so, you may claim one by placing one of your Control Locomotives on that Baron card. Then, score the amount of points indicated on the card.

When a Railbot card with a Baron icon is resolved, you must choose an unclaimed Baron for the Railbot to claim if possible. Place one of the Railbot Control Locomotives on that Baron, and resolve its Opponent Effect.

Example: On a previous turn, you connected 2 Red Cities with your own Links, so you claimed the Rail Baron on the left and gained 5 points. Later, the Railbot activates a card with the Baron icon on it, so you must claim a Duel Baron for the Railbot. You decide to pick the 3rd Baron and then resolve its Opponent Effect, in this case paying Taxation.

If the card with the Baron icon is Insured against, these effects are ignored.

Solo Map Appendix

Nippon

Base Exhaust: 3; Empty City Markers: 8

Out of play Cities: Miyazu, Chosi, Maebashi, Utsunomiya, Yuzawa, Koriyama, Iwaki, Aizu, Fukushima, Sendai, and Yamagata. Major Lines A and E are out of play.

Operations cards adjustments: Remove the following Nippon Operations cards: Hotel Sendai, Local Campaign Aizu, and Local Campaign Yamagata.

Set up changes: Start with 3 Railroad Operations cards available, and do not use any Nippon Service Bounties.

Portugal

Base Exhaust: 3; Empty City Markers: 8

Out of play Cities: None, all Cities are in play.

Operations cards adjustments: Capital Charters owned by you trigger on the relevant maritime connections placed by the Railbot.

Set up changes: Deal an additional Operation card into the starting display (totaling 2 Operations cards and 2 Service Bounty cards). When setting up the Railbot deck, place the Final Evaluation card approximately halfway through the deck instead of at the bottom. The first time you reveal this card, the game does not end. Instead, the Railbot will place a Black City (see below) and then you immediately mix the Final Evaluation card into the bottom three cards of the deck as normal.

Miscellaneous: Exhaust cards may not remove Goods from Açores or Madeira. When calculating the shortest/least expensive route for the Railbot to build Links, it may use Maritime connections, and acts as if they cost $6.

Placing a Black City: When the Final Evaluation card is first drawn, place a Black New City tile on the first available Gray City named on the leftmost card in Railbot row, starting from the top of the card until one is found. If the first card has no Gray Cities, continue with the second, and then third. If there are no Gray Cities on the Railbot row cards, place it on any Gray City of your choice without an Empty City Marker on it.

Remember to shuffle the Final Evaluation card with the bottom two cards of the Railbot deck! Then move to your third action, do not draw a second Railbot card.

Railbot card notes: The Railbot card with Açores/Lisboa and Madeira/Sagres only builds the maritime connections, regardless of if you already have built your own Links there. Then the Railbot exhausts one Goods Cube from Açores and Madeira.

Australia

Base Exhaust: 3; Empty City Markers: 8

Out of play Cities: None

Operations cards adjustments: None

Set up changes: Start with the Ferry Passage card in the Operations card display. It should be the farthest card from the draw deck.

Special rules: Target score for Australia is 105 points.

If you build a Gray New City on a town by paying for it (not from Railroad Operation cards), draw three Goods Cubes. Place two on the Gray New City and one on the town tracker card in the 'built' column. At the end of the game you will earn points based on how many New Towns you constructed.

New Towns Built	1	2	3	4	5
Points Gained	2	4	6	10	16

When you deliver your first Goods Cube to a town, place the delivered cube on the tracker card in the 'delivered' column for that town. You must deliver at least 1 Goods Cube to a town by the end of the game. If you do not, you automatically lose. Otherwise, at the end of the game you gain points based on the number of towns to which you have delivered Goods Cubes.

Towns Delivered To	1	2	3	4	5
Points Gained	1	2	3	5	8

If for the Railbot's action, they must build track to a town that hasn't been built yet, the Railbot builds a Gray New City on that town, adding 2 random Goods Cubes as per the Australia rules.

Eastern U.S.

Base Exhaust: 3; Empty City Markers: 8

Out of play Cities: Boston, Providence, New Haven, Albany, Buffalo, Toronto, Duluth, Tulsa, Little Rock, Shreveport, and Dallas. Major Line F is out of play.

Set up changes: Place 1 less Goods Cube in each City during setup. Deal an additional Operation card into the starting display (totaling 2 Operations cards and 2 Service Bounty cards).

Place the Final Evaluation card approximately half-way into the Railbot deck instead of at the bottom. At the start of the game, the Railbot only builds links using the top half of each card. When Final Evaluation is first drawn, Railbot will now start building the links on the bottom of each card instead. Then immediately mix the Final Evaluation card into the bottom two cards of the Railbot deck as you would during normal solo setup.

Special rules: You may not build West of the mountains until either you reach 30 points, or the Final Evaluation card has been drawn for the first time.

Mexico

Base Exhaust: 3; Empty City Markers: 8

Out of play Cities: None

Set up changes: Return all the Purple Cities to the box. Remove all purple Goods Cubes from the bag and set them near the main board. Put 1 purple Goods Cube (in addition to regular setup) on Guadalajara and Brownsville.

When setting up the Railbot's deck, put aside the Exhaust Purple card. Then follow the standard procedure for building the deck, and then as a final step place the Exhaust Purple card about halfway into the deck.

Operations cards adjustments: Remove the Salina Cruz Service Bounty.

Special rules: After a Railbot card with a purple Goods Cube icon is resolved, place a purple cube on the denoted city. Whenever a New Industry Railroad Operations card is played, place one purple cube on that City in addition to the random Goods Cubes drawn. When the Exhaust Purple card is revealed from the Railbot deck you lose points based on the number of purple cubes on the board.

Purple Goods Cubes	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Points Lost	2	3	5	8	12	17	23	30

Then draw another Railbot card and continue play as normal. Perform the same procedure when Final Evaluation is revealed, and a third time after your last turn.

Sweden

Base Exhaust: 3; Empty City Markers: 8

Out of play Cities: Kiruna, Norvik, and Storlien

Operations cards adjustments: Remove the Storlien Hotel and Storlien Service Bounty cards.

Set up changes: Place two Railroad Operations cards into the starting display instead of one. Place one Service Bounty instead of two. Then add the Ferry Passage card to the display. It should be the farthest card from the draw deck.

Special rules: None

Great Britain

Base Exhaust: 4; Empty City Markers: 8

Out of play Cities: Edinburgh, Workington, Hull, Skegness, Chester, Shrewsbury, Holyhead, Aberystwyth, Barnstaple, Plymouth, Exeter, and Bournemouth.

Major Lines B and D are out of play.

Operations cards adjustments: Remove the Barnstaple Service Bounty and Plymouth Hotel Operations cards.