Great Western Trail: Rails to the North — Rules Manual

An Expansion by Alexander Pfister for 2 to 4 players, aged 14 and up

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6 new station master tiles
8 private building tiles
2 per player, double sided
4 player discs
1 per player
4 auxiliary add-ons
1 per player
60 branchlets
15 per player
10 medium town tiles

2 each of
20 exchange tokens
back
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back
COMPONENTS
1 extension board
a-sideb-side
In “Great Western Trail - Rails to the North”, you carry on leading your familiar
rancher life by herding cattle from Texas to Kansas City.
As the industrialization of the nation has progressed, however, your focus of
delivery has changed to the cities in the North and in the East - such as Chicago
and New York City. But business in that direction is much tougher. So you would
be well-advised to expand your operations even farther North by establishing
branchlets in several towns along the new and shiny rail system and thus gain
access to many new and helpful options.

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SETUP
Start setting up the base game by following the usual rules of the base game setup, with only
one exception: Skip step 2 entirely for now (so do not place the station master tiles). Also
make sure that you leave some room above the game board.
When you are done with the base game setup, continue with the expansion setup:
18.
Fold the extension board like this:
Then place the extension board above the base game board and slide it over the top edge,
covering the original city strip with the new city strip.
Make sure that the pole of each cross on the extension board merges properly with its pole on
the base game board.
New city strip
Original
city strip
19.
Shuffle the 10 medium town tiles face down. Then draw 6 of these tiles and place one at random
face up onto each of the 6 medium town spaces on the extension board. Return the 4 spare tiles to
the box.
Medium town space
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20.
Add the 6 new station master tiles to the ones from the base game and shuffle these 11 tiles.
Then place one at random face up onto each of the 5 station master spaces of the base game board.
Then place one at random face up onto each of the 2 station master spaces of the extension board.
Finally, place the remaining 4 tiles face up to the right of New York City.
Place all exchange tokens as a general supply to the left of the extension board.
21.
Bell space
Now each player receives the following items of her color:
The auxiliary add-on, which she places below the left of her player board.
The additional player disc, which she places onto the colored disc space of her auxiliary add-on.
The 15 branchlets, which she places in groups of 3 onto each of the 5 bell spaces of her auxiliary add-on.
She also gains one exchange token from the general supply and places it in front of her.
The new private building tiles, which she adds to her other building tiles. (As always, all players must have the same sides of their building tiles face up. Which sides are face up is up to you.)
22.
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Town squares
Branchlet spaces
A
B
C
Kansas city office
Rail tracks
Switch
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Playing the game
For the most part, the game is played as described in the base game rules.
The main addition of this expansion to the gameplay is the action “Place one branchlet”.
This action is usually performed as part of a single or double auxiliary action (because your
auxiliary add-on provides it as a sixth possible auxiliary action).
The left disc space of this new auxiliary action is unlocked from the start.
The right disc space can be cleared via the usual means but requires you to pay 2 Dollars when
you clear it.
Single auxiliary action
Discard one cattle card with
a breeding value of 2 and
perform the action “Place one
branchlet” once (see below).
Double auxiliary action
Discard two cattle cards, each of
which has a breeding value of
2, and perform the action “Place one
branchlet” twice (see below).
Action: Place one branchlet
When you perform this action, take
one branchlet from the leftmost
occupied bell space of your auxiliary
add-on. Then place that branchlet
onto a free branchlet space of any one
town square that is accessible to you.
A town square is considered accessible to you if at least one rail track connects it directly to at least
one of the following:
• the Kansas city office or
• a city crest that has one of
your discs or
• another town square that
has one of your branchlets.
Note that a connection is
considered direct even if it
runs through any switches .
Attention: You are not
allowed to place a branchlet
onto any town square where
you already have one (so
each player can place a
maximum of one branchlet
per town square).
Example: When placing her next branchlet, Mary has 3 options:
• town square A - because it is directly connected via a rail track to
the Kansas City office,
• town square B - because it is directly connected via a rail track to
her disc on the city crest of St. Louis,
• town square C - because it is directly connected via a rail track to
another town square with one of her branchlets on it.
All other town squares are not accessible to her.

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• If your chosen branchlet space shows a cost, you must pay that cost immediately to the bank in order to place your branchlet there.
• If it shows a Dollar bonus, gain that many Dollars immediately.
• If it shows an immediate action, either perform that action immediately or forfeit it.
Immediate actions on branchlet spaces
Take one exchange token from the general supply and place it in front of you. (See section “The exchange tokens” on page 9 on how to use them.)
Move your certificate marker 1 space forward.
Gain one objective card from the general objective display.
After you have placed your branchlet, check what type of town this town square belongs to. Depending on its type, an additional action may be triggered now:
• If you have placed your branchlet onto the town square of a small town, no additional action is triggered.
• If you have placed it onto the town square of a station town, you may now upgrade the attached train station as described in “Upgrading a train station” in the base game rules (with the only difference being that the upgrade is triggered by the placement of your branchlet and not your engine). If you do not perform the upgrade now, you cannot do it later.
• If you have placed it onto the town square of a medium town, the immediate action of the attached medium town tile is triggered (see next page for an overview of these immediate actions). You must either perform that action immediately or forfeit it (without the option of performing it later).
• If you have placed your branchlet on the town square of a big town, no additional action is triggered. However, each big town has a city crest attached. Having a branchlet on the town square of a big town lets you deliver your cattle to it later. (See section “Changes to subphase 5 ‘Delivery’ when reaching Kansas City” on the next page.)
Small town
Station town
Medium town
Big town

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Immediate actions of the medium town tiles
Move your engine up to 3 spaces forward.
Either gain 5 Dollars OR take one cattle card with a breeding value of 3 from the cattle market and put it on your personal discard pile free of charge. If there is no such cattle card in the cattle market, you cannot choose this option.
Remove up to 2 of your hand cards from the game (and thus your deck) by returning them to the box.
Perform the action “Hire one worker” at a 2 Dollar discount.
Perform the action “Place one of your private building tiles onto a building space on the trail”. As always, you need the proper number of craftsmen for the building but you do not have to pay any Dollars.
Additional notes:
• Once a branchlet is placed on a branchlet space it remains there for the rest of the game.
• If you have no branchlets left on your auxiliary add-on, you cannot perform the action “Place one branchlet” any more.
When your cattleman reaches Kansas City, you carry out the 5 Kansas City subphases as usual, including delivering to one city crest in subphase 5. However, this city crest does not necessarily have to be a city on the city strip. It can be the city crest of any big town at whose corresponding town square you have one of your branchlets.
The rules for delivering to one of these city crests are basically the same as for the city crests on the city strip:
• You must meet or exceed the city value with your total breeding value.
• You must pay attention to whether the corners of the city space are white or dark.
• If a delivery action is triggered, you must perform it immediately (see the gray box on the next page).
Changes to subphase “Delivery” when reaching Kansas City
Also, as usual, the transport costs that you may have to pay depend on the position of your engine. To calculate them for delivering to the city crest of a big town, do the following: Find the space of the railroad track whose printed number equals the city value of the city crest you just delivered to. If your engine is on this space or farther up the railroad track, you have no transport costs. If your engine is farther down the track, you must pay transport costs as usual: Pay 1 Dollar to the bank for each cross that is located between the nose of your engine and the space on the railroad track whose printed number equals the city value.
Example: Mary delivers to Minneapolis which has a city value of 13. Her engine is on space 9 of the railroad track. She must pay transport costs of 3 Dollars since there are 3 crosses between the nose of her engine and space 13 of the railroad track.

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Keep in mind that you still cannot deliver to the same city more than once. The only exceptions are still Kansas City and San Francisco. However, note that San Francisco is now located in the upper left part of the extension board. The last city on the city strip is now New York City, to which you can also only deliver once.
As soon as you have one disc on Columbia and one on St. Louis, take one exchange token from the general supply and place it in front of you. At the end of the game, you lose 5 victory points.
If you deliver to Memphis, gain one objective card from the general objective display AND 2 Dollars.
When you deliver to New York City, take one of the station master tiles displayed next to it and place it in front of you free of charge. If it shows an immediate action, perform it as usual.
At the end of the game, San Francisco still gives you victory points for each disc you have placed on it. However, the number of points depends on how many bell spaces of your auxiliary add-on you have cleared by then (see the next page for details).
New delivery actions and game end victory point bonuses
Each time you deliver to Kansas City, you still gain 6 Dollars. However, at the end of the game, for each of your discs on the city space of Kansas City, you now lose 8 victory points.
If you deliver to Milwaukee, gain one objective card from the general objective display AND 3 Dollars.
The same applies once you have one disc on Chicago and one on Detroit.
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End of the game
The end of the game and the final scoring are carried out exactly as in the base game.
However, in step 3 of the final scoring, pay attention to the following: If you have delivered
to San Francisco during the game, you must check how many victory points each of your
discs on the San Francisco city crest is worth. This is determined by the number of bell spaces
on your auxiliary add-on that you have completely cleared: Each of your discs on the San
Francisco city crest gives you 2 points per completely cleared bell space.
Example: Mary has 4 branchlets left on her auxiliary add-on and has therefore cleared
3 bell spaces, thus each of her 2 discs on the San Francisco city space is worth 6 victory
points (3 cleared bell spaces x 2 victory points).
Each player starts the game with one exchange token and may gain new ones on different
occasions:
Also, you may immediately take one exchange token when you:
• clear the second bell space of your auxiliary add-on (because you have already placed a
total of 6 branchlets on the extension board)
How to use your exchange tokens
The exchange tokens are special because you can use one or more of them at any point in the
game - even, in the middle of an action or when it is not your turn.
To use an exchange token, place it back into the general supply next to the extension board.
Then draw up to 2 cards from your personal draw stack and discard as many cards as you
drew.
the exchange tokens
• as a delivery
bonus
• as an immediate bonus
when placing a branchlet
• as an immediate bonus from
one of the station master tiles
• clear the fifth bell space of your auxiliary
add-on (because you have already placed all
15 branchlets on the extension board)
Overview of the new components
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the new Building tiles
Gain as many Dollars as you have craftsmen in your craftsmen row.
Perform the action “Place one branchlet”.
For each bell space on your auxiliary add-on that you have completely cleared, move your certificate marker 1 space forward AND gain 1 Dollar.
Move your engine up to as many spaces forward as you have hazard tiles in front of you.
Perform the action “Remove a hazard”.
Note: The following building tile (11) has previously been released as part of the “DSP-goodie box 2017” by Frosted Games. If you already own it, please use only one building 11 per player.
the new station master tiles
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Immediate action: Take one exchange token from the general supply and place it in front of you.
Individual task at game end: Gain 2 victory points for each area of the extension game board in which you have placed at least one of your branchlets. In total, there are 6 separate areas on the extension board (distinguishable by color).
1 permanent certificate.
Individual task at game end: Gain 3 victory points for every 2 train stations that have one of your discs.
Individual task at game end: Gain 2 victory points for each of your building tiles on the game board.
Immediate action: Move your certificate marker up to 2 spaces forward.
Individual task at game end: Gain 5 victory points for every 2 exchange tokens that you still have in front of you.
Immediate action: Perform the action “Place one branchlet”.

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Note: The following 2 station master tiles have previously been released as a small promo. If you
already own them, please use only one copy of each tile when playing.
Immediate action:
Gain 12 Dollars.
2 permanent
certificates.
No individual task.
Credits
Development by:

info@eggertspiele.com
www.eggertspiele.com
Game Design: Alexander Pfister
Producer: Sophie Gravel
Development: Viktor Kobilke
Illustrations: Andreas Resch
Editing/Layout: Viktor Kobilke
Revision: Neil Crowley
Communications: Mike Young
Foreign Affairs: Andrea Ahlers,
Katja Wienicke
Marketing: Martin Bouchard
© 2018 Plan B Games Europe GmbH
Sinstorfer Weg 70, 21077
Hamburg, Germany
Eggertspiele is a brand of Plan B Games Europe GmbH.

No part of this product may be reproduced without specific permission.

Retain this information for your records.

Made in Germany.

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