How to Play Thurn and Taxis: Power and Glory

Game Objective

In "Thurn and Taxis: Power and Glory", players expand northward, adding provinces to their postal network. The objective is to expand this network to allow mail delivery from Holland to Sachsen and between Preußen and the free cities. Players add horses to their carriages to enable longer and safer journeys, helping the separated provinces of Preußen achieve Power and Glory.

Preparation (Setup)

This is an expansion game and requires the Thurn and Taxis base game to be played. The rules are the same as the base game, with the following exceptions:

• Players take the wooden houses (Post Offices) from the base game of their chosen color.
• Instead of the Company card, players take the Carriage card of their corresponding color and place them in their playing area (the space between the player and the board).
• The carriage cards and the carpenter from the base game are not used with this expansion.
• Place the Bonus markers of the free cities in their respective places on the board.
• The player to the right of the first player receives the Knight figure and keeps it until the end of the game.

Game components include:

• 1 Board
• 4 Carriage Cards
• 69 City Cards (3 of each of the 23 cities, with 1, 2 or 3 Horses on the back, indicated by horseshoes)
• 39 Bonus Tiles (5 x 8 distance, 4 x 7 distance, 3 x 6 distance, 2 x 5 distance, 4 x all Provinces, 4 x Free Cities, 4 x Preussen, 3 x Mecklenburg/Hannover, 3 x Holland/Belgien, 3 x Thüringen/Sachsen, 3 x Hessen/Baiern, 1 x End of Game)
• 1 Knight Figure
• 1 Rulebook

Game Flow

The rules are the same as the base game, with the exceptions detailed in the Setup and Actions section. The game progresses in turns, where players perform actions until the end-game condition is triggered.

Actions and How to Play

Playing a City Card

When a player plays a City card from their hand, they decide whether to:

• In the same way as the base game, play the card in front of them, starting or continuing a route.
• Or play the card face down (horse side) to the right of their Carriage card, creating a sequence of horses pulling their carriage.

Note: When the player uses the Postman's assistance to play two cards, they can choose to play each card in a different way, either as a starting city or adding to a route, or as horses added to their carriage.

Each player can play a maximum of 6 horse cards in front of their carriage.

Closing and Scoring a Route

When a player decides to close and score a route, they must have at least the same number of horses pulling the carriage equivalent to the number of cities on their route. The Carriage itself counts as 2 horses, which are included in this total.

Placing Houses

• The free cities of Frankfurt, Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck are not provinces themselves, nor are they parts of surrounded cities.
• When a player closes and scores a route that contains one or more free cities, they can only place houses in one of these cities.

Collecting Bonus Markers

• The first player to place a house in one of the free cities receives the city's Bonus marker.
• To receive the "Preussen" Bonus, a player must have a house in each city in both parts of Preussen.
• To receive the "all Provinces" Bonus, a player must have at least one house in each province. They do not need to have houses in any of the free cities, however, nothing prevents them from having houses there.

Discarding City Cards

After closing and scoring a route, the player discards the city cards from the closed route and the horse cards they have played in front of their carriage. The player keeps their carriage.

End of Game and Scoring

When a player places all their houses, the round is played until the end. After the player with the Knight figure completes their turn, the game ends.

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Tips for Winning

• When closing and scoring a route, make sure the number of horses pulling your carriage is equal to or greater than the number of cities on your route to be able to score. Remember that the carriage already counts as 2 horses.
• Prioritize placing houses in free cities to collect the corresponding Bonus markers, as the first player to do so receives the bonus.
• Plan your routes to include cities in both parts of Preussen or in all provinces to aim for the "Preussen" and "all Provinces" Bonuses, which can yield significant points.