Trans Europa & Trans Amerika
Trans Europa & Trans Amerika Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 double-sided game board (front: Central Europe; back: U.S.A.)
- 85 rails
- 6 small markers (to mark the starting point)
- 6 large markers (to mark prestige points)
- 90 playing cards:
- 35 city cards for "Trans Europa" (7 each in 5 colors)
- 35 city cards for "Trans Amerika" (7 each in 5 colors)
- 19 special cards (only for the variant)
- 1 "starting player" card
Objective
The game is played over several rounds. Each round, every player draws five random cities.
The faster you connect your five cities with an unbroken rail network, the more prestige you earn for it.
Nothing stands in the way of your rapid rise from track worker to railway president!
The winner is the first player to reach 13 prestige points after several rounds.
Setup
- First agree which side of the board you want to play on: "Trans Europa" (front) or "Trans Amerika" (back). Then spread out the board with the chosen side face up in the middle of the table and set out the matching 35 city cards.
- Place all the rails in several piles next to the board, within easy reach for everyone.
- Each player chooses a color and places their starting marker (small cone) in front of themselves for now. Each player places their prestige point marker (large cone) on the starting space of the prestige point track.
- If you are playing with only two or three players, first sort out the 10 city cards marked with a dashed border (2 per color) and put them back in the box.
- With 4 to 6 players you use all 35 city cards.
- Now separate all 35 (or 25) city cards by their colored backs, shuffle each separately, and lay them out as 5 face-down stacks next to the board.
- Each player takes 1 card of each color into their hand (that is, 1 brown, 1 white, 1 pink, 1 orange, and 1 turquoise) and looks at them secretly. The remaining cards are left — unseen! — next to the board for the next round.
- The oldest player becomes the starting player and places the starting player card in front of themselves.
How to Play
Before the actual contest can begin, you must first place your starting marker. The starting player begins, then all the others place their marker in turn, clockwise.
You may place your marker on any free crossing point of the board's grid. This may be a city, but it does not have to be.
The starting marker is the starting point for your own rail network, which you then build outward from it, so choose its location carefully!
Building Track
The starting player begins, then play continues in turn. On your turn, you may place up to two rails on free single lines (= flat terrain), or one rail on a free double line (representing, so to speak, a bridge or ferry over water, or a slower, more difficult route across mountains).
Clarification: on the Trans Europa board, both the ferry crossing (through the English Channel) and the tunnel (through the Swiss Alps) count as a single line.
Important: you may only ever add rails that connect, via an unbroken rail network, to your starting marker. You may branch off wherever you like. If you place 2 rails on your turn, they may be added at different points of the network.
If you connect "your" rail network to that of one or more other players, from that moment those networks count as one shared rail network and all players involved may now use it freely.
Example: If you place the indicated rail 1 on your turn, you immediately form a shared network with the green player, and you could place your second rail 2 at another spot already, e.g. towards Brussels.
You continue playing in turn this way until one of you has connected the 5 cities on your cards — actively (that is, on your own turn) or passively (that is, through another player) — to your starting marker with an unbroken rail network. All players then reveal their five city cards.
The current round ends immediately at this point, with this player as the winner. Scoring now takes place.
Special case: if, by placing your first rail, you connect the 5th city of another player, you may still finish your current turn before the round ends. Because of this, it can happen (very rarely) that two of you have connected your 5 cities.
Should you have used up all the rails, the round also ends.
Scoring
The winner of the round advances their prestige point marker 4 spaces forward, as shown in the bottom left corner of the board.
All other players count how many rails they — independently of one another! — would still have needed to place in order to also connect their 5 cities:
- 1 missing rail: 3 points
- 2 missing rails: 2 points
- 3–4 missing rails: 1 point
- 5 or more missing rails: 0 points
Notes:
- Naturally, each double line (= crossing water or mountains) still counts as two rails here as well.
- Of course you may always choose the shortest possible connection for your cities that are not yet connected.
- You do not actually place the missing rails.
Preparation for the Next Round
All further rounds proceed the same way:
- Take all the rails off the board.
- Each player gets their starting marker back.
- Shuffle all 5 × 7 (or 5 × 5) city cards again as separate stacks.
- Each player takes 5 new, differently-colored city cards.
- The starting player card passes to the left-hand neighbor, who begins the new round by placing their starting marker, and so on.
End of the Game
The game ends after the round in which at least one of you has reached 13 or more prestige points, that is, moves their marker onto the building at the end of the prestige point track.
If several of you manage this, the winner among them is whoever would have moved further past this space. If this is also equal, enjoy several winners.
For technical game-design reasons, the two boards do not correspond 100% to actual geography. We ask you to bear this in mind.
Variant: The Special Cards
Anyone who wants to can try this more varied variant of the game after a few exciting games of the basic game. The first 15 special cards mostly simplify or speed up the individual rounds, while the last 4 cards instead make them more demanding and strategic.
Shuffle all 19 special cards and place them as a face-down stack next to the board. Before placing the starting markers, turn over the top card. This special card applies for the whole round and to every one of you. For the next round, again before placing the starting markers, a new card is turned over, and so on.
The special cards have the following effects:
- Cover the prestige point chart in the bottom left of the board with this card. In this round the points distribution is somewhat more "generous" (and thus especially suited to playing with younger children).
- Cover the prestige point chart in the bottom left of the board with this card. In this round the points distribution is somewhat more "demanding" (and thus better suited to experienced players).
- In this round you may place up to 3 rails (instead of up to 2) on each turn — for example, also one double and one single rail.
- During this round, every double stretch over water counts as a single stretch.
- During this round, every double stretch over mountains counts as a single stretch.
- Everyone puts their white city card back with the remaining cards, meaning everyone plays this round with only 4 city cards.
- Everyone puts their turquoise city card back with the remaining cards, meaning everyone plays this round with only 4 city cards.
- Everyone looks at their 5 city cards. Then, simultaneously, each of you puts any one of them face down back with the remaining cards. So in this round everyone plays with only 4 city cards — but which ones?
- You do not place up to 2 rails on every turn as usual: instead, on the round's first lap you may place up to 3, on the second up to 2, and on the third at most 1. Starting from the fourth lap, this rhythm repeats. For a clearer overview, the round's starting player should lay this card in front of themselves and mark with a rail (also always announcing it aloud) how many rails you may place on the current lap.
- Each player reveals their pink and orange city card, or their pink and brown city card, or their brown and orange city card (as applicable), so that everyone can see which two cities these are.
- The round's starting player takes one additional pink, brown, or orange card (as applicable) from the leftover stack into their hand and looks at it. They then pass one of their two same-colored cards on to their left-hand neighbor, who in turn also decides which of their two same-colored cards to pass on to the left, and so on. The last player puts the unwanted same-colored card face down back on the leftover stack.
- All of you simultaneously choose any one of your 5 city cards and pass it face down to your left-hand neighbor, who then looks at it. You repeat this a second and then a third time. Because of this, someone might end up with cards of only two colors in hand. You should already bear this in mind when passing. Attention: you must show the colors (backs) of your city cards to your fellow players whenever asked!
- Memorize your 5 city cards well. Then pass them face down to your left-hand neighbor, who then plays this round with them. That is, you now know not only your current 5 cards, but also those of your left-hand neighbor. You should bear this in mind in how you play.
- In this round you may place track "every which way": each player may place up to 2 rails (or one double rail) on any free stretch, completely regardless of whether it is connected to their own network, or to any network at all! Naturally, the winner of the round here too is still whoever, according to the basic rules, is first to connect their 5 cities to their starting marker.
Of course, you can also agree together on one particular special card at the start of the game, or of each round, whose effect then applies for the whole game, or for that one round. For example, for a game played mostly with younger children we recommend permanently covering the prestige point chart with card 1.
It is also possible, and quite interesting, to play with several special cards at the same time. Just try them out and form your own impression of which ones you particularly like — perhaps also in combination with other special cards.