Snowdonia: The Siege of Petersburg / The Channel Tunnel 1881 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Siege of Petersburg
  • Additional Components
  • Setup
  • Actions
  • Blue and Gray (new Action area H)
  • Check the Weather: Moving the Generals
  • End of Game
  • Scoring
  • Trains
  • Events
• The Channel Tunnel 1881
  • Setup
  • Actions
  • End of Game (the "Breakthrough")
  • Scoring

The Siege of Petersburg

An advanced scenario for Snowdonia for 2 or 4 experienced Snowdonia players. This scenario has no solitaire, 3 or 5 player versions.

The American Civil War has been raging for more than 3 years, and the fighting front in the East has almost reached the gates of Richmond, the Confederate capital in Virginia. General Robert E Lee's Confederate forces oppose the advance of Union General Ulysses S Grant by manoeuvring between Richmond and the city of Petersburg to the south. Petersburg's railroad connections form a lifeline for the routing of Confederate supplies from the other parts of the Confederate States to Richmond. Grant's army is supplied via the James River, and the Union needs to build a railroad of its own (the Union Military Rail Road) from the river to the Petersburg lines, while at the same time cutting the Confederate railroads.

You're not particularly interested in the military situation. Your business is to build the railroads, and your employers aren't especially concerned about which side or sides you help, as long as you complete the work. Unfortunately, military action does tend to get in the way, and some of your careful constructions may be destroyed, albeit temporarily. You win by providing the most assistance to one or both sides before the final battle that will decide the siege.

In this scenario, Stone is used to construct sites for Supplies and Garrisons at key Stations. The non-excavation Building sites are replaced with Supplies sites and Garrison sites. Ownership of these sites will, at the end of the game, gain you Contract bonuses, but the bonuses are paid by the Union or Confederate armies, so you must make sure your sites are on the right side of the lines once the siege is over. You also have a limited ability to influence the fighting and may have a particular interest in who wins.

Additional Components

30 new cards:

• 15 replacement Contract cards
• 4 new Train cards
• 9 new Station cards
• 1 replacement Action Area G card
• 1 replacement Weather Effects chart card
• 1 Union General piece
• 1 Confederate General piece

Setup

• Railroad route: Place the Petersburg card face up on top of Llanberis. Place Globe Tavern (4) next to Petersburg with its arrow pointing anti-clockwise. Place the remaining Station cards numerically round the board, so that the route runs from Jarrett's Station (1, the Confederate end) through to Globe Tavern (4) then on to Appomattox Manor (8, the Union end). Jarrett's Station and Appomattox Manor count as two ends of the railroad, and each player can construct the railroad from either or both ends, as desired.
• Track cards: Shuffle the Track cards and place them as indicated by the Station cards, except that the 4 Track cards between Jarrett's Station and Ream's Station are face up (already built). Other Track cards and all the Stations receive rubble as in the base game.
• Surveyors: There are spaces for Surveyors on Jarrett's Station and Appomattox Manor, one for each player. The Start Player is player 1, the next player clockwise is player 2, and so on. Starting with player 1, each player places their Surveyor on the appropriately numbered space on these Stations. This means there will be either 1 player at each end for a 2 player game, or 2 players at each end for a 4 player game. The position of a player's Surveyor does not restrict them from taking actions from the opposite end of the railroad, if desired. You can work for the Union, the Confederacy or both, though there are some Contract cards that give more victory points dependent on the fortunes of one side or the other.
• Action space cards: Use the appropriate action space cards for the number of players, either 2 or 4. There is a replacement card for action Area G. This introduces action Area H, "Blue and Gray" (see below).
• Trains: Use all 4 of the new Train cards, plus No 2 Enid and No 5 Moel Siabod to form the Engine Shed.
• Game markers: Put a Game Marker on Excavation Work Rate 3 and another on Track Work Rate 1. These rates are fixed for this game (there is no variation for weather).
• Weather effects chart: Put the new Weather effects chart card over the chart on the board. This is now a "Moving the Generals" chart.

Actions

• Excavation (B): As in the base game, except that players can excavate from either end of the railroad. Note that, although the track already exists at the Confederate end, players must still excavate the Station spaces in order from the end of the line.
• Local quarries: If there are no more Rubble cubes to excavate from any Track and Station cards, do not replace the Excavate Action space card. Labourers carrying out an Excavate action take up to 3 Rubble cubes from stock if there are insufficient or no Rubble cubes on the board. This represents local quarries, and there are no Building sites for them. Local quarries cannot be excavated if there are Rubble cubes in play on the route or Stations.
• Works (C): As in the base game.
• Lay Track (D): As in the base game, except that Track is laid from the uncompleted Track card closest to Jarrett's Station or Appomattox Manor (player's choice), regardless of where your Surveyor starts. Completed Track cards can be destroyed by military events (see below).
• Build (E): There are no normal non-excavation Building sites in the scenario. Instead, there are Supplies sites and Garrison sites. Garrison sites cost 2 Stone, are marked with 'G' and give 5 VPs at the end of the game. Supplies sites cost a number of Stone cubes and 2 rubble cubes, and give a range of VPs at the end of the game. Garrisons and Supplies can be built only after an excavation site on the Station card has been excavated. Where there are multiple Supplies sites, these must be constructed in sequence. We've indicated this sequence with arrows on the Station cards. As in the base game, all Track cards leading up to a Station card must have been excavated before these Building sites can be built.

Blue and Gray (new Action area H)

If the next Weather disc is blue, you may replace it with a grey disc or vice versa. You cannot replace a yellow disc.

Check the Weather: Moving the Generals

There are no weather effects in The Siege of Petersburg. The Excavation Work Rate is permanently set at 3, and the Lay Track Work Rate is permanently set at 1. However, the weather mechanism is used in determining the movement of the armies. The Blue and the Gray discs indicate a pro-Union and pro-Confederate movement respectively.

In the Check the Weather phase, if the current weather disc is:

• Blue: the Union General moves one Station forward (towards Jarrett's Station).
• Grey: the Confederate General moves one Station forward (towards Appomattox Manor).
• Yellow: nothing happens.

End of Game

The game end is triggered when both General pieces are on the same Station card, which represents the final battle to decide the siege. Play one more final round (except for restocking Contract Cards and checking the weather), then score. During this final round neither General can move.

Scoring

The Union wins the siege, if the final battle is on Jarrett's Station, Stony Creek Station or Ream's Station. The Confederates win the siege, if the final battle is on Meade Station, City Point or Appomattox Manor. Otherwise the campaign is drawn.

• Completed Track: Building sites with the Track icon score against Track requirements, not Building site requirements.
• Completed Garrisons: Add the victory points on each Garrison site space on which the player has an Ownership marker. Don't remove the Ownership markers yet; these are used for scoring Garrison bonuses on Contract cards.
• Garrison bonuses: Garrisons are Union garrisons if they are between Appomattox Manor and the Union General at the end of the game; they are Confederate garrisons if they are between Jarrett's Station and the Confederate General at the end of the game. A garrison on the Station with the final battle can be used for either side at the player's choice. Move the indicated number of the player's Ownership markers from completed Garrison sites from the correct side and gain the victory points on the Contract card. If the player cannot remove enough markers, leave them where they are, and the card scores nothing.
• Garrison sites cannot be used for normal Building site bonuses.
• Supplies bonuses: Supplies are Union supplies if they are between Appomattox Manor and the Union General at the end of the game; they are Confederate supplies if they are between Jarrett's Station and the Confederate General at the end of the game. A Supplies site on the Station with the final battle can be used for supplies for either side at the player's choice. Move the indicated number of the player's Ownership markers from completed Supplies sites from the correct side and gain the victory points on the Supplies Contract card. If the player cannot remove enough markers, leave them where they are, and the card scores nothing.
• Supplies sites CAN be used for Supplies Contracts or for normal Building site bonuses.
• Contract fulfilment icon: if the player's Surveyor started at the end of the winning side (Jarrett's Station for the Confederates, Appomattox Manor for the Union), the Contract is fulfilled; a draw means the card scores nothing. For card 29, the Supplies must be from Supplies sites of the winning side.
• Surveyor bonuses: The Surveyor bonus is scored in relation to the starting position of the player's Surveyor. Players from the Union end look for the VPs in blue on the Station card, players from the Confederate end look for the VPs in grey on the Station card.

Trains

• General JC Robinson: Costs 1 Steel Bar. Comes with one Coal. The owner may pay one Coal at the start of a round to gain a temporary Labourer for the round. Before resolving the Build Action Area (E), if the owner is performing at least one Build action this round, the owner may perform an additional Build action for building a Garrison only.
• "The Dictator": Costs 1 Steel Bar. Comes with no Coal and cannot be used to gain a temporary Labourer. If the Union General is on or past the Jerusalem Plank Road, then before resolving the General Area (it doesn't have to have a Labourer on it), the owner may pay 1 Rubble, putting it on The Dictator. At end of game, gain 3 VPs for every Rubble cube on The Dictator.
• General Haupt: Costs 1 Steel Bar. Comes with one Coal. The owner may pay one Coal at the start of a round to gain a temporary Labourer for the round. Whenever the owner takes the Move Surveyor action, take one Stone from the Stock Yard, if available.
• Holden Rhodes: Costs 1 Steel Bar. Comes with one Coal. The owner may pay one Coal at the start of a round to gain a temporary Labourer for the round. Whenever the owner takes the Build action, the owner takes 2 Rubble from stock.

Events

• Excavate: Replace the base game excavate event with: Remove all the rubble from the next unexcavated card from the Union end (Appomattox Manor).
• Lay Track: Replace the base game event with this new military event. Look at the next weather disc (in the middle position on the Weather Track). If it's Blue, it's a Union attack. If it's Gray, it's a Confederate attack. If it's Yellow, nothing happens.
• Attack: Push back the enemy general 1 Station, then advance the friendly general (indicated by the weather disc) 1 Station. If the Station the enemy general abandoned had no Garrison, destroy all Supplies sites on the Station. For destroyed Supplies sites, the owning players can place their Ownership Markers on any of their Contract cards with a Building site or Supplies bonus. If they have no appropriate Contract cards, the Ownership Markers are returned to the player's supply.
• Complete a Station: Replace the base game event with this new military event. Look at the next weather disc (in the middle position on the Weather Track). If it's Blue, it's a Union cavalry raid. If it's Gray, it's a Confederate cavalry raid. If it's Yellow, nothing happens.
• Cavalry raid: Find the Station where the enemy general is positioned. Find the completed Track card nearest to that Station towards the enemy general's start position. Turn the Track card over (don't replace rubble cubes). If the Track card had an Ownership Marker, that player can place that Ownership Marker on any of their Contract cards with a Track bonus. If they have no appropriate Contract cards, the Ownership Marker is returned to the player's supply.

The Channel Tunnel 1881

A two-player advanced scenario for Snowdonia by David Brain (development thanks to Paul Mansfield).

In 1881, Sir Edward Watkin, a British railway entrepreneur and Alexandre Lavalley, a French Suez Canal contractor, were partners in the Anglo-French Submarine Railway Company that conducted exploratory work on both sides of the Channel into digging a Tunnel between England and France. On the English side a 7 feet diameter Beaumont-English boring machine dug a 6,000 feet pilot Tunnel from Shakespeare Cliff. On the French side, a similar machine dug 5,500 feet from Sangatte. However, the project was abandoned in May 1882, owing to British political and press campaigns asserting that a Tunnel would compromise Britain's national defences.

This scenario imagines the difficulties that would have been faced by the two sides had the project continued. As well as digging and building, the players must consider Crisis Management and not let events get out of control.

Setup

• Remove #1 train (LADAS), #6 train (Padarn) and #7 train (Ralph) from the standard set (leaving 4 regular trains).

• Replace action D (Lay Track) with the new action D (Boring Machine), see Actions for details.

• Replace action E (Build) with the new action E (which only has one Labourer space on it).

• Replace action G (Move Surveyor) with the new action G (Crisis Management), see Actions for details.

• Replace actions A and F with the 1-2 player variant cards as usual.

• Remove Contract #27: "move surveyor" from the Contract deck (along with #28 and #29 which aren't used in a two-player game anyway).

• Remove Contracts #1, #2 and #8 (which activate during action D) and Contract #4 (Swap Weather Disc) and replace them with the four new Contract cards for this scenario. There should now be 27 Contract cards. Shuffle them to form the Contract deck and lay out the first three Contract cards face-up in the usual spaces.

• Put out the initial Coal (1) and Iron (7) resources, but do not put anything in the Stone space. Put 13 Iron Ore and 15 Stone in the bag along with 5 of the Event cubes. Lay out the 4 regular Trains below the board and put the appropriate Coal on each of them. Put the rest of the Coal cubes in the bag. Remove any unused resource cubes.

• This scenario is played with the Blue (English) and Yellow (French) pieces only (since everyone knows it always rains in England and is sunny in France ...). Each player begins with 2 Labourers, with the other 2 in the Pub, and a Boring Machine (represented by a card), which starts at their end of the track and moves towards the middle as the game progresses. There are 2 extra Labourers that start in the Pub, because there is no Surveyor in this scenario.

• Players can get 1 of these extra Labourers out of the Pub as in the base game; the other is linked to the Boring Machine (see below).

Actions

• A, Stockyard: the same as the base game.

• B, Excavation: Excavation always occurs at a work rate of 2, since there is no Weather to affect it. Excavation always occurs at the location of your Boring Machine. When you perform the Excavate action on Tunnel Track cards, you remove two rubble. You may choose to pay 1 Stone (to the bag) and put 1 of your Ownership markers on the card (this is known as "shoring up"). If you do this, you must also discard the rubble, otherwise you may add it to your supply.

  When the last rubble has been removed from the Tunnel card, remove any Ownership markers, immediately flip the card to its completed side and put all Ownership markers back on.

  Move your Boring Machine card to a position immediately before the next card (Tunnel or Station). Clearing rubble from a Station occurs at a rate of 2 as well, but there is no "shoring up" involved.

  Important note: Contracts that require Track sections instead count Tunnel sections that are entirely "shored up" with Stone, in other words, all of the spaces on the card are filled with Ownership markers of one colour.

• C, Works: the same as the base game.

• D, Boring Machine (replaces Lay Track): To select this space, you must pay 1 Iron Ore and move your Labourer from your Boring Machine card to the D action space. When activated, it may be used to either build a non-excavation building site, with a discount of 1 Stone to the indicated cost, or excavate Tunnel rubble at double rate, in other words, 4 pieces of rubble instead of 2. The Tunnel may be "shored up" as usual, using 1 Stone for every 2 pieces of rubble excavated.

  If a card is cleared of rubble, the Boring Machine immediately moves on to the next card (Tunnel or Station), also see B below.

• E, Build: the same as the base game. A player may only build on the two overground Stations or on the Station where their Boring Machine is, or has just passed. Once the Boring Machine reaches a new Station, a Black marker should be placed on the previous Station to show that it cannot be built upon. Remember: the two overground Stations are always available for building by either player, unless an Event completes them, and Stone or Steel Bar sections of underground Stations can be built without the rubble needing to be cleared away first.

End of Game (the "Breakthrough")

When the two Boring Machines are at the same Tunnel card or Station, the current round concludes and the game ends. This may happen during the round, or it may happen if an Event is triggered during restock.

Scoring

Scoring is the same as the base game except:

1. Instead of Track sections, the player scores the indicated points for each marker on the Tunnel sections, even if it wasn't wholly "shored up": 2 points for each marker on 2 size Tunnels, 3 points for each marker on 3 size Tunnels. Track contracts do require the entire Tunnel card to be "shored up" in order to be counted.
2. Each player loses 2 points for each of their Ownership markers in the Crisis area (ignore Weather discs).
3. One player gains 5 points for each card beyond the Middle that their Boring Machine has reached before meeting the other Boring Machine; in other words, the first player to the Middle will always score 5, but they may score 10 if they can excavate the next Tunnel card before the "Breakthrough" and so on.