U.S. Telegraph
U.S. Telegraph Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 4 Large Cities (raised hexagonal tiles)
- 22 Regions (tiles made up of 7 hexagonal Terrains, with or without a Resource)
- 80 Resources (cards of 4 types, 20 copies each)
- 15 Workers (wooden meeples)
- 120 Buildings (30 tokens of each color: 6 base Buildings with a black back and 24 Buildings with a white back)
- 4 individual Boards (1 per color, each showing 7 Construction Projects)
- 120 Construction Markers
Setup
The first time you use the game, carefully hand-detach all the cardboard tiles from their pre-cut sheets.
Common Elements
- a Take out of the box as many Large Cities as there are players.
- b Shuffle the Regions and place them face down, in a pile away from the center of the table. Draw according to the number of players:
- with 2 players, 4 Region tiles
- with 3 players, 6 Region tiles
- with 4 players, 8 Region tiles
Place the Large Cities and the Regions in the center of the table according to the number of players, to form the game board (illustrated setup shapes are given for 2, 3, and 4 players).
Leave room around this starting layout, because the play area can expand over the course of the game.
- c Shuffle the Resource cards to form a draw pile, which you place face down next to the play area.
- d Place the reserve of Workers to one side of the table.
- e Place the Construction Markers in one or more reserves on the table.
Individual Elements
Each player chooses a color, then separates their 30 Buildings into the 6 with a black back and the 24 with a white back; then shuffles each of the two sets separately and turns them face down.
Each player then has in front of them:
- Their individual Board
- 3 piles of 8 Buildings (white back) and 1 pile of 6 Buildings (black back)
Each player then draws the 1st Building from each pile and places them face up on the matching space (same number) on their individual Board.
Choose the 1st player at random: they draw 4 Resource cards, the 2nd player draws 5, the 3rd player draws 6, and the 4th player draws 7.
Game Objective
The winner is the first player to succeed:
- either at building all 30 of their Buildings,
- or at connecting 2 Large Cities with an unbroken chain of Buildings of their color.
Game Concept
Each of you, at the head of a large investment company, will take part both in the development and the standing of your own home city located along the route of the telegraph (Denver, Omaha, Sacramento, or Salt Lake City).
This means financing new Construction Projects, such as the erection of important new Buildings, new stretches of railroad, and of course a part of the Transcontinental Telegraph (or U.S. Telegraph) itself.
On each of your turns, you may build new Buildings on Terrains, provided you have the Resources (water, wood, clay, metal) needed for their construction and use, all while trying, through clever placement, to reduce their construction cost. If you are not able to do so (or do not wish to yet), you may lay them in a waiting position, on your individual Board, within the Construction Projects.
Note: Building your Buildings on Terrains while following the Chains shown by arrows within the Construction Projects will let you save a good number of Resources.
Game Play
A game is a succession of turns (a variable number of them), in which each player takes their turn one after another clockwise, starting with the 1st player.
Game Actions
On your turn, you must choose between two types of actions:
- either Draw: draw 0, 1, or 2 Buildings.
- or Build: build 0, 1, 2, or 3 Buildings.
Note: You are not required to perform all of your Actions. You may even perform none at all.
Drawing Buildings (0-2 Actions): For each Draw Action, draw 1 Building from one of the 4 Building piles on your individual Board, and either:
- build it directly on a Terrain of the game board if you can pay its Construction Cost (see the Construction Rules), or
- place it face up on the matching space of your individual Board, if you cannot or do not wish to build it.
This action may be performed 0, 1, or 2 times.
Building a Building (0-3 Actions): For each Build Action, choose one of the face-up Buildings on your individual Board, and build it on the game board by paying its Construction Cost.
This action may be performed 0, 1, 2, or 3 times.
Your turn ends when you have used all your Actions, or when you decide to stop early in order to draw Resource cards.
Construction Markers. Every time you build a Building on a Terrain, place a Construction Marker on the picture of that same Building on your individual Board. This lets you see at any time which Buildings have already been built and which remain to be drawn.
Drawing Resource cards.
If you perform no action at all, draw 3 Resource cards. If you do not use all of your available actions, at the end of your turn draw as many Resource cards as the number of actions you did not use.
The cards are kept secret in your hand. There is no limit to the number of cards you may hold.
When the draw pile of cards runs out, immediately shuffle the discard pile of played cards to form a new draw pile.
Remark: Drawing Resource cards happens at the end of the player's turn. You therefore cannot draw or build a Building after having drawn Resource cards.
Construction Rules
There are 4 Resources: water, wood, clay, and metal. Each Building has a Construction Cost of 1 to 4 specific Resources, or, for the "Telegraph (#70)," 5 Resources of your choice.
The player must discard as many Resource cards as the Building requires in order to build it.
The Building must be placed on a free Terrain of a Region tile.
Example: To build the "Gold Panning (#40)" Building, the player must discard 2 water cards, 1 wood card, and 1 metal card.
Cost Reduction (Resources already present on the game board)
The Resources present on certain Terrains, in the form of lakes, forests, clay ground, or iron mines, let you reduce the number of Resources to discard at the moment of construction, according to the following principle:
Reduce the Building's cost by 1 matching Resource for the Resource, if any, shown on the Terrain where it is built, and for each Resource shown on the adjacent Terrains that surround it.
Example: To build the "Gold Panning (#40)" Building in the center of this Region tile, the player benefits from 1 metal on the central hexagon and 2 waters and 1 metal on the adjacent Terrains. Using the 2 waters and 1 of the 2 metals available, they then only have to discard a single "wood" card to build this building.
Free Construction (Building Chains)
Each player has, on their individual Board, 7 Construction Projects, recognizable by their background color and by the Chaining possibilities (arrows between the tiles and numbers that follow one another). Building a Building is "free" if you manage to build it on a Terrain adjacent to the Building of your color that comes just before it in the Chain shown on your individual Board.
Example 1: Building the "Watchtower (#22)" will require no Resources if you build it on a Terrain adjacent to the one where you already built your "Border Post (#21)" Building.
Example 2: Likewise, chaining the construction of Buildings #61, 62, and 63 in increasing order, while respecting the adjacency of construction, will let you avoid paying the Resources needed to build #62 and #63. You will therefore only have to pay the Resources needed to build #61, which can itself become free if the player builds it on a Terrain adjacent to their Building #60, if that was already built on a previous turn.
Example 3: Likewise, Telegraph Buildings (#70) cost 5 Resources of your choice, but if you manage to build one adjacent to another, the free-construction rule applies.
Cases of construction that cannot be free:
- Reversal: Building #61 is built after Building #62.
- Skipping a construction: Building #63 is built on the Terrain adjacent to #61 (without #62 being contiguously present).
- Wrong color: a player's Building #61 is built on the Terrain adjacent to another player's Building #60.
- Base Buildings: the 6 Buildings (with a black back) #10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 are the bases of each Construction Project.
Extra Cost for Resources (New Settlement)
A Settlement on the game board is made up of one or more contiguous Buildings belonging to the same player. When creating (and only when creating) a new Settlement (building a Building on a Terrain that is not adjacent to any construction of your color), you must pay an extra cost of 1 Resource card of your choice per Settlement of your color already present on the game board (not counting the new one). Two Settlements of the same color may be merged into a single one when a new Building is built on a Terrain that connects them.
Example: The green player already has two Settlements on the game board. To be able to build the "Corral (#11)" on a Terrain that is not contiguous with another Building of their color, in addition to the necessary Resources, they must discard 2 additional Resource cards of their choice.
Alternative Cost (Replacing Resources)
At any time in the game, you may discard 2 Resource cards (identical or not) to provide 1 Resource of another type. You may do this several times for the construction of the same Building. You cannot do this with Resources present on Terrains.
Construction Project Bonus (The Workers)
When a player builds the last Building of one of their Construction Projects (the Buildings do not need to be adjacent to each other or to be part of the same Settlement), you gain 1 Worker. You may use it (including on the turn you gained it) to get one extra action of the same type (Draw or Build) as the one(s) you just performed. This Worker may also be used to draw 1 Resource card. You may play several Workers in a row on the same turn. A played Worker is returned to the box.
Remark: If the player has already drawn at least 1 Resource card during their turn, a Worker can then only be used to gain 1 additional Resource card.
Extending the Game Board
When you draw the last Building from one of your piles, after having built it or placed it on your individual Board, draw a Region tile and add it to the game board, making sure that it touches at least one side, even that of a Large City tile. Empty spaces may thus form between Regions.
End of Game
The game ends immediately as soon as a player has either:
- built all 30 of their Buildings on the game board, or
- connected two Large Cities with an unbroken chain of Buildings of their color.
That player is then declared the winner, and the game ends immediately without finishing the round.
Rules Often Forgotten During the First Game
- A player may discard 2 Resource cards of any type to replace a required Resource card.
- When a player creates a new Settlement, they must pay an extra cost of Resources equal to the number of Settlements they already have.
- When a player has built all the Buildings of the same Construction Project, they gain a Worker meeple.
- When a player draws the last Building from one of their 4 Building piles, they must place a new Region tile to extend the game board.
Credits
Designer: Marcel-André Casasola Merkle. Super Meeple team: Sébastien De Poortere, Charles Amir Perret, Bernard Philippon, Alexandre Pierru, Arnaud Pierru.
Illustrations: Fabrice Weiss, Jules Dubost.
Rules writing and review: Bernard Philippon and Guillaume Gille-Naves.
Art direction: Igor Polouchine. Packaging: ORIGAMES.
Manufactured in China by Whatz Games.
U.S. Telegraph is a game published by SUPER MEEPLE, 6 rue de la grange aux belles - 75010 Paris. © 2018 SUPER MEEPLE. SUPER MEEPLE and its logo are registered trademarks of Super Meeple.