Age Of Steam Rules(For more details see the actual Board Game Rules) Return to Home page
Special eMail Rules
Only one bid is allowed, to reduce delays in starting each turn. Starting Bid subject to a Maximum. The option of plus1 on the starting bid allows you to start at plus 1 over the previous player subject to your maximum.
Since the order may be significant, it is necessary that you send alternatives for each phase of the game.
Directions on board - N, NE, SE, S, SW, NW for Track positioning.
The preferable method is to use the Hex Numbering system, which MUST include a Start & End Hex. So three track would require five hexes. This eliminates the need to specify directions and which track tile.

As long as the Track, Direction, Placement is unambiguous then it is not essential to stick to these abbreviations.
Abbreviations for Track: S=Straight, GC=gentle Curve; AC=acute Curve
When specifying Goods movement it is essential to specify the start and end town. I will assume the most links for the individual, unless otherwise stated.

Setting Up: Place 2 goods in each City: And fill the Goods Display table with Goods: Each variation may change this number
Normally each Player starts with 1 Locomotive & 2 Shares = $10

Play Sequence (5 playable phases - other game phases dealt with by the Gamesmaster)
1. Issue Shares
(subject to a maximum of 15 - each worth $5)

2. Determine Player Order
(Bidding: Winner & 2nd pay full amount of Bid, last pays nothing, the rest pay bid/2)
3. Select Actions:
First Move, First Build, Engineer, Locomotive, Urbanization, Production, Turn Order.
4. Build Track
- Placing (or replacing) a simple Track costs $2, over a River $3, under a mountain $4. Placing Track on a Town costs $1 for the Town, AND $1 for EACH Track to the Town (i.e. $1 to $4). Complex crossing track $3 including replacing a track on a town.
If any Unfinished track is not extended on the next turn then it becomes Un-owned, and can then be extended by anyone.

5. Move Goods (x2) - move blocks of a specific colour to a City of that colour across links between towns/cities for income per link.. (for one of these 'moves' only, an alternative is to Add Loco)

Number of Turns is dictated by the number of Players: 3 players=10 turns, 4=8, 5=7, 6=6

Actions Description:
First Move: Implemented in 'Move Goods' phase (both rounds), allows player to be the first to move.
First Build: Implemented in 'Build Track' phase, allows player to be the first to build.
Engineer: Implemented in 'Build Track' phase, allows player to build 4 track tiles instead of 3.
Locomotive: Implemented immediately to increase the Links on the Engines. (subject to a limit of 6)
Urbanization: Implemented in 'Build Track' phase, allows player to place a New City on a Town before building track.
Production: Implemented at the beginning of the 'Goods Growth' phase, allows player to randomly draw and place 2 goods on the Goods Display.
Turn Order Pass: This gives the opportunity to pass on the next set of bidding without losing position.

Track spurs out of small towns can be 1,2,3 or 4 but not 5 or 6.

Clarification of Table Details (Turns)
Prev is cash from the previous Round i.e after the last Goods Phase.

Additional Rules for Ireland
One turn less than normal for Ireland.
There is no Urbanisation, but de-urbanisation, where the player removes one Goods from the board.
Sea Routes (pre-marked) can be built at a cost of £6.
Blocked Sides cannot be crossed.
Locomotive option does NOT increase the Locomotive but allows a Loco to be upgraded twice as part of Goods 1 & 2.

Additional Rules for Southern England
Urbanisation - No Red New City so London will remain the only Red City
Any Red Goods placed in London should be placed either in NW roll 1-4 NE roll5-6

Additional Rules for Western US
Towns start off with 1 goods, but lose it if they are urbanised.
Mountains cost $5, rivers & Swamp cost $4
Moving a Goods from an Eastern City to a Western City or vice versa gains a bonus of $1. The player moving the Goods decides which railroad gets the $1.
The Eastern Cities are: Duluth, Minneapolis, Des Moines, St Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg & New Orleans. If Kansas is urbanised then it is an Eastern City.
The Western Cities are: Seattle, San Francisco & Los Angeles. If Portland or San Diego are urbanised they are then Western Cities.
Building track: Railroads MUST start at one of the Eastern or Western Cities (not urbanised).
The first time a Western City gets connected to an Eastern City, then $4 income is split between the railroads that connect them.
Until at least one of the Western Cities is connected to an Eastern city all of a railroad's track must be contiguous.
Ties are not possible in this version and are resolved by VP's and Cash then Tracks, then die roll

Additional Rules for Germany
The grey towns are Foreign Terminals and only accept one type of Goods - randomly chosen at the start of each game
Berlin always gets one Goods on every turn.
The numbers 6,7,8,9,10,11,12 on the map are the costs to build a simple track on that hex.
No uncompleted track sections are allowed - only complete links.
Track can be built between Köln/Düsseldorf & Essen/Dortmund at a cost of Dm2.
Engineer action
is different to the standard rules - allows 1 track tile to be placed at half cost (rounded up). (only 3 track not 4!)

Age of Steam GERMANY map Errors, Warfrog reprint edition ONLY
Berlin should be a Black city and accept Black goods. Berlin is colored brown in the Warfrog map.
Lyon, Paris, Antwerpen, Rotterdam, Kopenhagen, Warschau are Foreign Terminals and should be colored Green. They are brown in the Warfrog map.
A white circle joining the Essen/Dortmund hex with the Dusseldorf/Koln hex is missing. This circle is for placing a Track Ownership marker.
Those people owning the original Winsome maps have no problem, these are correct! Since 15 were returned at Spiel for the Warfrog map, only 45 original Winsome Germany maps exist on the planet.
John Bohrer
Winsome Games

Additional Rules for France
Grey Hills cost €2; Grey/Black Hills cost €4 Track can be placed/replaced in Hills by using Engineer.
Production is either normal or allows one 'random' goods to be placed in a city of choice
Urbanisation allows only 2 track in addition to the city: On first turn 2 players may select Urbanisation

Players are not allowed to go bankrupt - Income does not drop below 0.

Additional Rules for Italy
Shares:-

€5 for each Share Issued as normal - however additional Shares for €3 can be issued during Determine Player Order, Build Track and Pay Expenses steps. There is no limit to the number of Shares issued.
Actions
:
Engineering has changed: Can now place/replace one track at no cost. (only 3 track not 4!)
Urbanisation has changed: Can remove Black Goods from City or Table and replace with a random Goods, twice.
Track
:
No unfinished track sections are allowed.
There is no limit to the number of Track laid to Complete a link, but it must be done in the cheapest way, and only one link per turn.
Cost to build in Mountains is €4.
There are some special Track tiles for this map only
Move Goods:

Black Goods move as normal, but have no Black Towns/Cities - instead they reduce each Link owners Income by 1 for each link that it travels over.
There is no Income Reduction
Victory
:
Players lose 2 points for every Share not 3.

________

Cash (+S-B) is current cash held:-
S is extra Cash from Shares, B is Bids, so as soon as you have more Shares and Bid (i.e end of Part1) this will differ from Prev. e.g if Prev is 33 and you have 1 more Share and win the Bid with 2, then Cash +(S)-B will equal 33+5-2.
At the end of the Goods Phase the Cash position will be minus expenses (Track, Shares & Locos) plus Income (ignoring Income Reduction),
e.g at end of Part1 Cash=36 (as above), if 3 tracks are built (cost 6), a total of 11 shares and 5 Locos, and if income=25 the Cash will be = 36-6-11-5+25=39

The only thing not covered in Cash is Income Reduction which is displayed in the Income Column as Previous Income plus income from Goods1&2 minus reduction and is the total for the start of the next turn.
Income Reductions 11-20 = minus 2, 21-30=minus 4, 31-40=minus 6, 41+=minus 8

Final Scores (normal) are calculated from 3 x Income  - 3 x Shares + Number of Track Sections in Completed Links.
Ties are possible!