In the middle of the 19th century, the time of the Industrial Revolution, you must take advantage of the steam age and build your railroad empire by developing railroads, expanding buildings, and moving passengers to make the most profit at the end of twelve rounds! Railways is the first game in the "Nano9games" family. With 9 cards, 9 dice, and 9 cubes, you must build a network and connect the buildings to move passengers. You will use cards and icons to perform actions. During each round, play cards to combine icons to perform actions: Build a link Move a passenger Build a building Upgrade an existing link Take money Decrease pollution Add a new passenger If you play two icons from the same card, you must increase your pollution. Your goal is to make as much profit as possible, and you earn money when you move passengers through links and buildings... With a second set of cards — and dice and cubes in a different color — you can play Railways with two players. —description from the designer
Game intelligence
1. Lay out the map with its printed buildings already in place.\n2. Give the player 2 Rail Workers to start.\n3. Prepare Action Cards and shuffle them into a draw deck.\n4. Place building dice and Rail Cubes within reach as supply.\n5. Set Profit, Rail Link, and Pollution trackers to their starting values per the rulebook (pg. 1–6).\n6. Follow any additional setup steps on pages 1–6 of the rulebook.
On your turn you play Action Cards from your hand to take actions. Each Action Card may contain one or more Action Icons in a section. When you use an Action Icon on a card for your first action, that card is immediately discarded — any remaining icons on that same card are no longer available. Your second action (if available) must be powered by a different Action Card still on the table. Actions include: moving passengers (Move Passengers), buying/completing Rail Links, building buildings, and others indicated by Action Icons. After resolving actions, draw back up to hand size as specified in the rulebook.
Calculate Profit + (3 × number of Rail Links) − Pollution at game end. Higher scores are better. Players can aim to beat their own previous scores, attempt binary win/lose conditions from pg. 11, or tackle the ultra-hard 'Rail Baron' multi-condition challenge. Target score: No fixed target for standard play; scores above 50 are considered difficult. Binary victory conditions on pg. 11 set specific win/lose thresholds. Scoring sources: Profit earned from Destination Icons and Move Passengers stops, 3 points per completed Rail Link, Pollution reduces final score
Source: Rulebook
The most useful rules for getting a first game right.
To earn profit, you normally need the Leisure building symbol (icon) available via an Action Card. If no Action Card in your hand shows the Leisure icon, you have two alternatives: (1) Use any other two Destination Icons as a substitute for the single Leisure icon to generate profit. (2) Earn 1 profit for each stop visited when executing the Move Passengers action — no Leisure icon required for this method.
When you take the Move Passengers action, you earn 1 profit for each stop that passengers visit along their route. This profit is earned regardless of whether you have a Leisure icon on any Action Card, making Move Passengers an always-available source of income.
At the start of the game, the player is given 2 Rail Workers. If no Action Card in hand shows the Rail Worker Icon, Rail Workers cannot be obtained directly from cards. However, by linking track to an Industrial building and then sending passengers there, the player can earn additional Rail Workers as a reward for that delivery.
If you establish a Rail Link to an Industrial building and then send passengers to that building via the Move Passengers action, you receive Rail Workers as a result. This is the primary alternative method to gain Rail Workers when the Rail Worker Icon does not appear on any Action Card in your hand.
Added buildings are represented on the map by a die whose face value tracks the number of passengers at that building. If passengers are moved away such that the die's count is decremented to 0, the building immediately disappears and the physical die is removed from the map. The space it occupied is now empty.
The rules (pg. 7) limit the total number of buildings that can be constructed during the entire game to 3. Once a building is removed from the map (because its die reached 0 passengers), it cannot be placed back. The die that was removed may, however, be repurposed: it can be used to add passengers to any printed building on the map that currently has no die on it.
When a building die is removed from the map because its passenger count hit 0, that die is not discarded permanently. It may be placed on any printed building on the map that currently has no die, adding passengers to that building as indicated by the die face. This does not count against the 3-building construction limit because it is not building a new building — it is restoring passengers to a pre-existing printed building.
An Action Card may contain two Action Icons within the same section. If both icons are applicable to the same action you are taking, you may use both of them together for that one action. However, if the two icons would apply to two different actions, only the icon used for your first action is available — the card is discarded after the first action, making the second icon inaccessible.
Don't neglect the Move Passengers action as an income source. Because it grants 1 profit per stop regardless of hand composition, optimizing your rail network for long multi-stop routes maximizes passive profit even when Leisure icons are scarce. Alternatively, saving two Destination Icons as a Leisure substitute gives flexibility.
Each completed Rail Link is worth 3 points in the final score formula. This makes expanding your network aggressively very valuable — three Rail Links alone contribute 9 points. Prioritize the 'Buy a Complete Rail Link' action whenever resources allow.
Because only 3 buildings can ever be built and removed buildings cannot be rebuilt, avoid draining a strategically important added building of all its passengers. Keep at least 1 passenger on critical buildings to prevent them from disappearing and invalidating attached Rail Links.
Linking to an Industrial building is the only way to gain Rail Workers when the Rail Worker Icon is absent from your hand. Establishing this link early ensures a steady supply of Rail Workers without depending on favorable card draws.
Since a card is discarded after its first icon is used, plan carefully when a card has two icons. If both icons apply to the same action, use them together. Never count on using two icons from the same card for two different actions — structure your turn order so the more valuable icon is used first.
A die removed from a depleted building is not wasted. Redirecting it to a printed building with no die boosts passenger availability on the map without spending a building construction. This is especially useful late in the game when all 3 construction slots are spent.
No. When you use the first icon to take your first action, the card is immediately discarded. The second icon is lost. Your second action must come from a different Action Card still available on the table. The only exception is if both icons apply to the same single action, in which case both may be used together for that one action.
The building disappears (die removed from map) and the Rail Link is simultaneously deactivated. Remove the Rail Cube from that link to indicate it is no longer active.
No. The placed building is removed, severing the connection. The two remaining buildings are now isolated. Passengers cannot be routed through one to reach the other. To reconnect them, you must place a Rail Link Unit between them AND activate it with the 'Buy a Complete Rail Link' action.
Yes, the removed die can be placed on any printed building on the map that currently has no die, adding passengers to it. This does NOT count toward the 3-building construction limit because you are restoring passengers to a pre-existing printed building, not constructing a new one.
You have two options: (1) Use any two other Destination Icons as a substitute for the Leisure icon to generate profit. (2) Take the Move Passengers action and earn 1 profit for each stop passengers visit along their route — no Leisure icon needed.
You start the game with 2 Rail Workers. If you can build a Rail Link to an Industrial building and then send passengers there via the Move Passengers action, you will earn Rail Workers as a reward for that delivery.
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