How to Play Whistle Stop: Rocky Mountains Expansion

Objective of the Game

The Rocky Mountains Expansion presents a massive obstacle for your railroad company, spanning 3,000 miles with peaks of 14,000 feet. Players are challenged to build their track through to the West Coast. This expansion introduces significant challenges but also offers substantial incentives. The goal is to use clever planning and determination to outpace your competitors.

Preparation (Setup)

Use this setup instead of the base game setup, incorporating the new components from the Rocky Mountains Expansion as necessary.

1. Put the gameboard in the center of the table with the Rocky Mountains Expansion boards inserted in the middle of it.
2. On the turn track, place 1 whistle token per player on the whistle space. Then find the coal space with a number of pawns that matches the number of players. Starting with that space and working down, place 2 coal tokens per player on each coal space.
3. Place the gold nuggets (combining base game and expansion nuggets) with numbers facedown, along with coal tokens, whistle tokens, and resource tokens on one side of the board.
4. Create a stack of each railroad share type (including the Rocky Mountains Expansion shares with the shares from the base game) on the side of the board. Stack each type in numerical order with the number 1 share on top.
5. Shuffle the expansion Upgrades with the base game Upgrades, and randomly choose six more than the number of players. For your first game, it is recommended to include Dynamite Cart, Mining Complex, Mountain Sheds, and Tunnel Network. For subsequent games, you might want to always include 2 of those 4 Upgrades listed above and choose randomly for the rest. For a greater challenge, choose all of your Upgrades randomly.
6. Place four of the chosen Upgrades faceup on the four marked positions on the Expansion board, and put the rest to the side of the gameboard.
7. Shuffle the 15 end tiles (dark green tile back, from both the base game and the Rocky Mountains Expansion). Place 8 tiles faceup in the leftmost column on the game board, and put the other tiles back in the box.
8. Separate out the 24 special tiles (from both the base game and the Rocky Mountains Expansion): 12 Town, 2 Coal Yard, 2 Trading Post, 2 Whistle Factory, 1 General Store, 1 Gold Mine, 1 Black Market, 1 Scrap Yard, 1 Supply Depot, 1 Switch Yard.
9. Choose 1 Coal Yard, 1 Trading Post, 2 random Town tiles, 1 other random special tile (not a Coal Yard, Trading Post, or Town) and 3 random ordinary tiles (with or without stops on them). Randomly place these 8 tiles faceup onto the board in the fourth column from the right.
10. Choose 1 Coal yard, 2 random Town tiles, 1 random special tile, and 3 random ordinary train route tiles. Shuffle those 7 tiles and place them on top of the westmost column of the Rocky Mountains Expansion board (each space has a shaded hex on it).
11. Randomly choose 9 ordinary train route tiles (including the new tiles that have small Whistle and Gold stops on them) and place them randomly faceup into the rightmost column and in the top and bottom positions of the second column. Tiles cannot be placed in an orientation that results in the only continuing route going backward.
12. Shuffle the remaining special and ordinary tiles together. Place the stack of tiles facedown near the board. Turn 3 tiles faceup next to the stack.

Flow of the Game

Consulte o manual para detalhes sobre esta seção.

Ações e Como Jogar

Placing a Tile on the Rocky Mountains

To place a tile on the Rocky Mountains Expansion game board, you must spend a coal or whistle token in addition to the normal cost for taking an action with your train. The icons on the bottom of each space show the cost for placing a tile in each of those spaces. Tokens spent for placing tiles here are returned to the supply immediately.

When you place a tile in the mountains, you gain a reward based on the icons in the center of the space: a rare resource of your choice, a rare resource of your choice and a gold token, or the Upgrade that was in the space before you placed the tile. You gain these Upgrades at no additional cost, and they are like normal Upgrades afterward. If you gain a rare resource as a reward for placing a tile, take it immediately, before your train moves into it, so that you may spend it in a newly placed Town you put down.

Rocky Mountains Expansion Tiles

• When your train lands on a small circle whistle stop, gain a whistle token.
• When your train lands on a small circle gold nugget stop, gain a gold nugget token.
• When your train lands on a small circle common resource stop, gain a common resource of your choice (white, brown, or gray).
• When your train lands on this Rocky Top town, if you spend 1 white and 1 green resource, take the top Rocky Top railroad share from the supply and gain 7 fame points. Otherwise, lose 2 fame points.
• When your train lands on the Black Market, you may swap a stock share for 1 gold token or 1 gold token for a stock share of your choice. You may only choose shares in companies that are currently on the board (including the new end tiles). Swapped shares are removed from the game.
• When your train lands on the Scrap Yard, you may discard one tile from your hand and either gain all resources and tokens shown on that tile or 2 coal tokens.
• When your train lands on the Supply Depot, gain 1 coal token and 1 common resource of your choice.
• When your train lands on the Switch Yard, you may immediately move that train to any other unoccupied small circle stop or special tile in the same column. If a small circle stop is occupied by one of your trains, however, you may move through it to another stop, using normal movement rules.
• When your train lands on one of these end tiles, spend the resources shown to gain the fame points in the yellow star and 1 share each in two different companies. Otherwise, lose fame points in the red star. The shares on these end tiles are available to swap using the Safe Upgrade, the Deposit Box Upgrade, or the Black Market tile.
• When your train lands on Express Station, spend 2 whistle tokens or 4 coal tokens to gain 2 fame points for each train that isn't on the resource track, not counting this train. For example, in a four-player game with 16 trains, if you land your train on this end tile before anyone else moves a train to the resource track and spend the tokens, you gain 30 fame points (15 trains for 2 points each).
• When your last train lands on Last Stop, spend 2 whistle tokens or 4 coal tokens to gain 25 fame points only if all of your other trains are on the resource track. If you land here with your last train and do not spend the 2 whistle tokens or 4 coal tokens, gain 0 fame points. Only your last train may land on Last Stop.

Rocky Mountains Expansion Upgrades

• When you place a train on the resource track, you may take a share of your choice instead of the listed reward. You may only take shares of companies currently shown on the board.
• Place a tile in the Rocky Mountains for 1 less coal. For example, placing a tile on a green mountain space costs 1 coal instead of 2 coal or 1 whistle. Placing a tile on a brown space is free instead of 1 coal.
• Gain a fifth action spot on your player board that may only be used with whistle tokens. You may use it immediately. You may only use your fifth action with a whistle token; place your whistle token on this Upgrade to record the action, like any of your other four action spots. You may take this action in any order (i.e., it does not have to be taken after all of your other actions have been taken).
• Whenever you place a tile in the mountains, gain 1 gold token. If you obtain this Upgrade in the mountains, then gain 1 gold token immediately.
• When you move a train either to, through, or from a tile in the mountains, gain 1 coal token. If you obtain this Upgrade in the mountains, then gain a coal token right away.
• Spend a coal token to move one of your trains to another existing stop (large or small) in the same column. If you move to a stop with one of your trains on it, you may pass through your train to another stop using normal movement rules.
• Spend a coal token to discard a tile from your hand and gain either 1 token or resource cube shown on the tile or receive 2 coal tokens. Do not refill your hand until the end of your turn.
• Spend 1 whistle token to skip over any number of contiguous empty mountain spaces (Rocky Mountains Expansion board spaces with no hex tile on them) to end at a stop anywhere in the mountains or adjacent to the mountains. Mountain spaces containing an Upgrade are still considered empty for this special movement. If you spent a whistle token while gaining this Upgrade in the mountains, you may use this Upgrade's effect right away.
• Spend 1 whistle token to receive 2 whistle tokens.

Fim de Jogo e Pontuação

Consulte o manual para detalhes sobre esta seção.

Dicas para Vencer

• Consider including Dynamite Cart, Mining Complex, Mountain Sheds, and Tunnel Network Upgrades in your first game to get a feel for how the expansion components work together.
• When placing tiles in the mountains, strategically choose spaces that offer rewards like rare resources or Upgrades that complement your overall strategy.
• Pay attention to the costs and rewards of the new end tiles, especially Express Station and Last Stop, as they can provide significant fame points if timed correctly with your train movements.