Manual — Rail Barons of the World

© 2021 FRED Distribution Inc. All Rights Reserved. Eagle-Gryphon Games 801 Commerce Drive, Bldg #5 Leitchfield, KY 42754
www.Eagle-Gryphon.com
Dávid Turczi & John Albertson
Components
• 111 Railbot cards
• 12 Duel Baron cards
• 15 Not in Play tokens
• 1 Insurance token
• 1 Railbot Action token
• 24 Universal Rail Baron cards
• 7 Reference cards
This expansion allows you to play a solo version of Railways of the World. All rules of Railways of the World as well as the individual map apply, unless noted otherwise.
Setup
1. Choose a map and place it in the center of the table.
2. Use the ‘Not in Play’ discs to cover any Cities that are not in play (if needed).
3. Also place ‘Not in Play’ discs to cover any Major Lines that are not in play (if needed).
4. Combine the 14 Railbot cards matching the map you’ve chosen with all 11 common Railbot cards (those with no map indicated), bringing the Railbot deck to a total of 25 cards. Return all other Railbot cards to the box, they will not be used.
5. Set up the Goods Cubes on the Cities per the number listed on each City, but skip all Cities not in play. Cities not in play do not count towards Empty Cities during play, and cannot receive Goods Cubes.
6. Shuffle all Railbot cards showing the left card icon together, and remove three of those cards from the game without revealing them.
7. Deal 3 of the remaining cards face up to form the Railbot row. If you deal a Taxation or a Deadhead card at this point, deal another card to replace it, and reshuffle the original card back into the deck.
8. Now shuffle all the remaining Railbot cards together, except the Final Evaluation card, to form the Railbot draw deck.
9. Shuffle the Final Evaluation card together with the bottom 2 cards of the Railbot draw deck and place them back on the bottom.
10. Prepare the Railroad Operations card deck
a. Sort out the Service Bounty cards, randomly choose 2 of them, and place those Service Bounty cards face up to create the Operations display.
b. Return the unused Service Bounty cards, and all the Start cards from the Operations deck back into the box.
c. Shuffle the rest of the Operations cards together and deal 1 faceup next to the Service Bounty cards. Place the Operations deck facedown next to the Operations display.
11. If you are using the Duel Barons variant (pg. 3), set up the Duel Baron cards as follows, otherwise skip this step.
a. Shuffle the Duel Baron cards and place 4 face up in a row above the Railbot deck. Return the unused Duel Baron cards to the box.
b. Increase your target score by 15 points (see Ending the Game).
Cards set up for a solo game of Railways of Mexico with the Duel Barons variant.
12. Select one set of Control Locomotives for yourself and a different set of Control Locomotives will be used by the Railbot. Neither you nor the Railbot use any of the map’s standard Railroad Baron cards, return them to the box.
Gameplay
There is no turn order auction. Each turn, you perform two actions first, then a Railbot card is resolved (see Resolving Railbot cards), then you perform your third action. The Railbot Action token is to remind you of the turn order (see below). Then, you gain income, pay dividends and draw a new Operations card to add to the display as usual.
Railroad Operations Cards
The following changes apply to Railroad Operations cards.
Hotels
If you gain a Hotel, score a point whenever you deliver a Goods Cube to that City and whenever the Railbot removes a Cube from that City, whether via the Building Links or Exhaust Goods card.
Service Bounty
If you deliver a Goods Cube to a City shown on a Service Bounty card currently in the Operations cards display, you gain the points as usual. If the Railbot removes a cube from a City with an active Service Bounty card, immediately discard the Service Bounty from the display.
New Industry
These cards work as usual, but you cannot use them to add Goods Cubes to a City not in play.
All other cards can be resolved by you as normal, and are ignored by the Railbot, unless noted specifically in the Appendix for the map you’re playing.
Ending the Game
There are two ways to trigger the end of the game: you reach the specified number of Empty City Markers on the map (see Appendix), or you draw the Final Evaluation card. In either case, you complete one more full turn. The Railbot does not take any action on the final turn, and none of the remaining Railbot Row cards are resolved.
If at the end of the game (after adjusting for Bonds), you have 125 or more points, you win the game! If playing with the Duel Barons, your target score is 140 points.
Adjusting the Difficulty
You may tailor the difficulty of the solo experience by using one or more of the adjustments below.
For an easier challenge:
• Start with $5,000 cash and no Bonds.
• Reduce your target score to 110.
• Decrease the map’s Base Exhaust value by 1.
For a more difficult challenge:
• Randomly remove one or two cards from the Railbot deck before adding the Evaluation card.
• Limit the maximum number of Operations cards on the market to 3 or 4.
• Increase the map’s Base Exhaust value by 1.
• Increase your target score to 135.
• Reduce the number of Empty City Markers needed to trigger the end of the game by 1 or 2.
Universal Rail Barons
Also included are a set of 24 Universal Rail Baron cards that may be used in multiplayer games on any Railways of the World expansion map in place of the map’s normal Rail Barons or Goals.
Credits
Solo Design: John Albertson & Dávid Turczi
Development & Barons: Randal Lloyd & John Albertson
Playtesters: Ben Kranz, Caleb Kranz, and Lars Toft
Graphic Design: Alex Colby
Railways of the World Design: Martin Wallace & Glenn Drover
Duel Baron Appendix:
Benjamin P. Kranz: Gain 3/4/5 points if you own 2/3/4+ hotels. Taxation.
Caleb V. Kranz: Gain 1/3/6 points if you own a level 6/7/8 engine. Resolve the 3rd card in Railbot’s row.
Christopher L Tychoon: Gain 3/5 points if you have completed a 5/6+ Link delivery. Your engine counts as one level below its marked value for all purposes.
Dávid Turczi: Gain 7 points if you connect 7+ colored Cities by your own Links. Exhaust one Goods Cube of each color.
J. S. Albertson: Gain 6 points if you connect 2 Cities of the same color for 3 different colors. Deadhead.
J. T. Howard: Gain 4/7 points if you complete 2/3+ Major Lines. Railbot claims a Major Line.
John Berny: Gain 2/4/6 points if you own 4/6/8+ links connected to Purple Cities. Remove all unused Purple New Cities from the game.
Jon Eric Olsen: Gain 5/10 points if you have delivered 1/2+ Goods Cubes of each color. Insurance costs an additional action.
Lars Toft: Gain 1/2/4 points if you have delivered 1/2/3+ pairs of Purple & Black Goods Cubes. Delivering to Blue and Yellow cities is worth one less point.
Mark Dainty: Gain 5 points if you connect 2 Red Cities only using your own Links. Delivering to Red Cities is worth 2 less points.
P. Andrew Sellers: Gain 4 points if you own 2+ links between the same 2 Cities. Your hotels no longer grant bonus points for deliveries.
Rosie Rosenfeld: Gain 1/2/4 points if you have delivered 1/2/3+ pairs of Blue and Yellow Goods Cubes. Delivering to Black and Purple cities is worth one less point.

each color Insurance costs an additional action Lars Toft Gain 1 2 4 points if you have delivered 1 2 3 pairs of Purple Black Goods Cubes Delivering to Blue and Yellow cities is worth one less point Mark Dainty Gain 5 points if you connect 2 Red Cities only using your own Links Delivering to Red Cities is worth 2 less points P Andrew Sellers Gain 4 points if you own 2 links between the same 2 Cities Your hotels no longer grant bonus points for deliveries Rosie Rosenfeld Gain 1 2 4 points if you have delivered 1 2 3 pairs of Blue and Yellow Goods Cubes Delivering to Black and Purple cities is worth one less point

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The Railbot opponent never has, gains, or uses Cash, Bond Certificates, or an Engine Level. It does not need a score marker on the Income and Score Track as it has no Income and no Score. If any action would normally give Railbot Cash or points, ignore that effect and perform the rest of the action normally.

Railroad Operations Cards Display
The Railroad Operations cards display now holds a maximum of five cards. If adding a card to the display causes the display to hold more than five cards, discard the Railroad Operations card farthest from the draw deck as if it was pushed off the display.

Player Actions
The player actions remain the same except for the following changes:

Deliver One Goods Cube
When you take the Deliver One Goods Cube action, you lose 1 point for each Railbot Link you use to make the delivery.

Build Track
Cities that are ‘Not in Play’ are considered impassable terrain. Major Lines that require you to connect to a City ‘Not in Play’ cannot be scored, unless noted otherwise in the appendix.

Insurance
This is a new action available to the player. You can spend the first 2 actions of a turn to put an Insurance token on the first or the second card in the Railbot’s action row. The third card (nearest the draw deck) cannot have an Insurance token. To use Insurance, it must be the first 2 actions of your round, before the Railbot’s card activates.
An Insurance token on a Railbot card negates the effect when it is triggered by Railbot. Once placed, the Insurance token stays on the card until it is selected by the Railbot, and then it is returned to you. You may only have one Insurance token in play at any time.
At the start of your turn, you decide you want to avoid the Deadhead and Taxation effect later on, so you use your first two actions to place the Insurance token on that card. This will prevent it from activating when triggered by the Railbot.

Resolving Railbot Cards
After you perform your first two actions, flip the top card of the Railbot deck.
Every Railbot card has a card slot indicated in red at the bottom. Resolve the card in this card slot from the Railbot row, discarding it. Then, slide the remaining cards left (filling gaps) and place the newly drawn card into the rightmost space on the Railbot row before proceeding to your own third action.
You reveal the next Railbot card, which is an Exhaust Purple card that activates the middle card slot. You resolve the Stockholm/Norrköping/Kalmar card, remove it from the row, and then move the remaining cards left to fill in the empty space.
If the card to be resolved has an Insurance token, the card has no effect. Instead, return the Insurance token to your supply, and discard the card. The remaining cards move to the left to fill in the empty space as usual.
If the card revealed is Final Evaluation, the end of the game has been triggered. Do not resolve a Railbot card, finish your current turn, and then play one more full turn. The Railbot does not take an action during that final turn. Finally, proceed to game end scoring (see Ending the Game).

Details of each card type:

Building Links
A Building Links card shows three or four Cities. Find these Cities on the map. If the first and the second City are not yet connected (neither by you nor the Railbot), it creates the shortest (costing the least money) possible path between them. If the Cities are already connected (including via multiple Cities and/or using your Links), you must remove a cube of your choice from the first City. If a color matching that of the second City is available, you must pick a cube of that color, otherwise you may pick any Goods Cube. If all available paths (regardless of length) use at least one of your Links, gain 1 point.
Repeat this procedure for the pairing of the second and third City, and if present, the pairing of the third and fourth City. This might empty one or more Cities. If so place Empty City Markers as normal.
Railbot is activating the Kalmar/Alvesta/Malmö card. First, you check for a Kalmar to Alvesta connection. There is none, so the Railbot builds a new Link between the Cities (Railbot does not pay anything to build). Then you check for an Alvesta to Malmö connection. You have already connected these Cities with two Links, so the Railbot removes a Goods Cube from the starting City (Alvesta). Since the ending City (Malmö) is black, you must remove one of the black Goods Cubes from Alvesta. You also gain 1 point on the Score Track as this delivery uses at least one of your Links.

City This might empty one or more Cities If so place Empty City Markers as normal Railbot is activating the Kalmar Alvesta Malmö card First you check for a Kalmar to Alvesta connection There is none so the Railbot builds a new Link between the Cities Railbot does not pay anything to build Then you check for an Alvesta to Malmö connection You have already connected these Cities with two Links so the Railbot removes a Goods Cube from the starting City Alvesta Since the ending City Malmö is black you must remove one of the black Goods Cubes from Alvesta You also gain 1 point on the Score Track as this delivery uses at least one of your Links

Deadhead
Reduce the number of Railroad Operations cards in the display permanently by one. Place the Deadhead card at the end of the Railroad Operations display farthest from the draw deck as a reminder that the number of cards in the display has been reduced. If display is currently full, discard the furthest card and place the Deadhead card in its place. These Deadhead cards will never be pushed off.
You already have a Deadhead card blocking the 5th Operations card slot, and now another Deadhead card has activated. The card in the 4th space is discarded and replaced with the new Deadhead card, leaving you with just 3 Operations card slots.

Taxation
You must immediately pay twice your income to the bank, taking Bond Certificates, if needed, to complete the payment.

Exhaust Goods
An Exhaust Goods card shows a color. Remove from the map a number Goods Cubes of that color equal to the map’s Base Exhaust value (see Appendix). You may remove the Goods Cubes from any Cities of your choice on the board. This might empty one or more Cities. If so, place Empty City Markers as normal.

Claim Major Line
Some Railbot cards have a Major Line icon at the bottom. When such a card is resolved, select a not-yet-claimed Major Line of your choice, and claim it for the Railbot. The Railbot does not score for Major Lines it has claimed, but merely blocks you from claiming it for yourself. It does not matter if the Railbot actually has Links that connect that Major Line.
If the card with the Major Line icon has the Insurance token on it, this effect is ignored.

Duel Barons Variant
Each Duel Baron has a goal for you to achieve and an Opponent Effect which could hinder your ability to achieve victory.
At any time on your turn, you may check if you’ve met any of the goals of the unclaimed Duel Baron cards. If so, you may claim one by placing one of your Control Locomotives on that Baron card. Then, score the amount of points indicated on the card.
When a Railbot card with a Baron icon is resolved, you must choose an unclaimed Baron for the Railbot to claim if possible. Place one of the Railbot Control Locomotives on that Baron, and resolve its Opponent Effect.
On a previous turn, you connected 2 Red Cities with your own Links, so you claimed the Rail Baron on the left and gained 5 points. Later, the Railbot activates a card with the Baron icon on it, so you must claim a Duel Baron for the Railbot. You decide to pick the 3rd Baron and then resolve its Opponent Effect, in this case paying Taxation.
If the card with the Baron icon is Insured against, these effects are ignored.

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