Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion
Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 44 Desert Route tiles
- 12 Desert Objective tiles
- 3 Camel Placement tokens
- 13 Camel pawns
- 40 Desert Station tokens
- 1 bag
Additional Setup
- Shuffle all the Desert Route tiles inside the Expansion bag.
- Add all Camel pawns and Desert Station tokens to the general pool.
- Remove the 3 Placement tokens with a Train Pinpoint from the game and add the 3 Camel Placement tokens in their place. Shuffle them with the other Placement tokens before you create the stack on the Clock space of the Station board.
Round Setup
When revealing Route tiles, you must follow a pre-determined mix of tiles from the Core Game bag and the Expansion bag. Each column will still contain as many tiles as the number of square icons at the top of that column.
The pre-determined mix is shown in the rulebook as five columns, listed here from left to right, top to bottom (CORE = Core Game bag, EXP = Expansion bag):
| Column | Tiles from top to bottom |
|---|---|
| 1 | CORE, EXP |
| 2 | CORE, EXP |
| 3 | CORE, CORE, EXP |
| 4 | CORE, EXP, EXP |
| 5 | CORE, CORE, CORE, EXP |
Note: In a solo mode game, where you just use 3 columns, the 3-tile column must be the one containing 2 tiles from the Expansion.
Desert Tiles
Desert tiles (identified by their background) are a new type of Route tile. In addition to Empty sides (which follow the regular placement rules), they also have Desert Trail sides: these can be connected to other Desert Trail sides or to Railroad/Highway sides (see Desert Station Placement below).
Desert Tile Placement
When you place your first Desert Route tile of the game, it can be placed freely. All following tiles (Core Game tile or Desert tile) must have at least 1 side connected to a tile of the same kind.
The new Desert tile must be placed connected to at least 1 other Desert tile.
Desert Station Placement
If you connect a Desert Trail side to a Railroad or Highway side, you must immediately place a Desert Station token; they act as Stations, connecting Desert Trail networks to other kinds of routes.
Camel Pawn Placement
For each Placement token in the Active Area that displays a Camel icon, you may place 1 Camel pawn from the general pool on any tile that has a matching empty Pinpoint.
When you place a Camel, you immediately score 1 point for each Desert Station connected to that Camel only through Desert Trails, up to a maximum of 5 Prestige points. Each Camel in a network with 5 or more Desert Stations is still worth 5 Prestige points.
Note: Star pawns can also be used to place Camel pawns.
End of Game Scoring
Landmarks: Desert tiles may feature Landmarks connected to Desert Trails. There are 4 types of Landmarks: Oases, Pyramids, Obelisks, and Sphinxes. At the end of the game, every Landmark connected to at least 1 Desert Station is considered Active. You score points for each set of different Active Landmarks depending on its size (Landmarks do not need to be connected to each other to be a part of the same set; they just need to be connected to a Desert Station). Multiple sets can be scored; each Landmark can be counted only toward 1 set.
- 1 Landmark: 1 point
- 2 Landmarks: 3 points
- 3 Landmarks: 6 points
- 4 Landmarks: 10 points
Example: At the end of the game, Paul has 5 Landmarks, 4 of which are Active, since the Oasis is not connected to a Desert Station. Paul scores his 4 Landmarks in 2 sets of different Landmark tiles: a set of 3 Landmarks (Pyramid, Sphinx, and Obelisk) for 6 points, and a set of 1 Landmark (Pyramid) for 1 point.
Opening Penalties: Desert Trails with open ends do not count towards the number of Openings at the end of the game.
Playing with Objectives
This expansion includes 3 additional sets of Objective tiles; they work exactly like those in the Core Game (apart from their Desert-themed scoring conditions, of course).
When playing with the Desert expansion, you can use all Objectives from the Core Game, from this expansion, or a combination of both. We recommend including at least 1 Desert Objective. It is not possible to use Objectives from this expansion if you are playing only with the Core Game or with other expansions.
Scoring Conditions
- Desert Temple: The Desert Temple must be connected to at least 4 Landmarks.
- Desert Market: The Desert Market must be part of a continuous path with at least 5 connected Desert Trail segments; in case of looping paths, the same Desert Trail segment cannot be counted more than once.
- Great Oasis: The Great Oasis must have at least 2 Camels in the tiles that surround it. This tile counts as an Oasis Landmark.
Solo Mode Challenges
When you play in solo mode with this expansion, you can only use the Challenges below.
| Challenge | Mission | 1 star | 2 stars | 3 stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sharp Boundary | All Desert tiles that are adjacent to regular Route tiles are in a single row (or column) of your play area. | 45 | 55 | 65 |
| The Lost World | Every Landmark in your play area is part of a single orthogonally adjacent group (they don't need to be connected to each other, just adjacent). | 45 | 55 | 65 |
| Desert of Death | Each Desert tile containing a pawn (Car, Traveler, or Camel) must be orthogonally adjacent to at least 1 regular Route tile. | 45 | 55 | 65 |