Build the great railroad connections across the United States. Manage your wagon stock, link cities step by step to complete your secret linking objectives. Anticipate your opponents' goals to hinder their development. Les Aventuriers du Rail is a fast, affordable and tricky game.

Friends who traveled around the world amassed fortunes. Nothing attracts them more than to set themselves the craziest challenges. At the dawn of this new century, they are betting on connecting as many cities in the United States as possible by a rail network. Everyone chooses the cities they will connect, and embarks on a mad race!

To start the game

Place the board in the center of the game

Each player chooses a color, takes the 45 wagons in front of him and places his marker on the zero of the scoring track.

Shuffle the “Wagon” cards. Deal 4 cards to each player. The rest form the “Wagon” deck, face down, next to the board. Draw and turn over the top 5 cards next to the draw pile.

Shuffle the “Destination” cards. Deal 3 cards to each player. The rest forms the “Destination” deck, face down, next to the board. Each player may consult the “Destination” cards and keep at least 2 of them. Discarded cards go under the draw pile.

Each player keeps his “Wagon” and “Destination” cards secret.

The game turn

In turn, each player performs one and only one action among the following three:

• Take “Wagon” cards
  • The player can draw 2 “Wagon” cards from the draw pile or from the visible cards.
  • Each time a visible card is drawn, it is replaced by the top card in the draw pile.
  • As an exception, drawing a locomotive from among the visible cards counts for 2. It is therefore forbidden to draw another card in this case.
  • If during the game, there are 3 locomotives among the 5 visible cards, the 5 cards are placed under the draw pile and replaced by 5 new ones.
    
    
    
• Take ownership of a route on the map
  • The player takes possession of a road linking two towns by discarding as many “Wagon” cards of the color of the road as there are road segments.
  • To take possession of a gray route, the player discards “Wagon” cards of one and only one color of their choice.
  • Locomotives are multicolored and replace “Wagon” cards of any color.
  • Once in possession, the player places a plastic wagon on each segment of the road.
  • The player immediately scores points on the score track, according to the number of wagons, as indicated on the board.
  • Double roads connecting two cities can both be occupied, provided they are occupied by different players. As an exception, with 2 or 3 players, a double route is closed as soon as a single link is established.
    
    
    
• Take new “Destination” cards
  • The player draws 3 “Destination” cards and consults them secretly.
  • The player must keep at least one of the three cards. Discarded cards, if any, are placed under the “Destination” deck.

Game over

When, at the end of his turn, a player has a reserve of 0, 1 or 2 wagons, a final turn is made up to and including the player.

At the end of this last round, each player counts their bonus and penalty points:

• Each completed destination (that is to say connected by a continuous chain of wagons in the player's color) is worth as many points as indicated on the map.
• Each unaccomplished destination results in the loss of as many points as indicated on the card.
• The player who has the longest continuous path of wagons of his color scores an additional bonus of 10 points.
  
  

After the final count, the player with the most points wins the game.

Do you want to know more? Go read the column “Les Aventuriers du Rail - Approved by Aby”

• 2 to 5 players
• 45 minutes
• 8 years +