=========================== Game Instructions ===========================
Trans America
For 2 to 6 players, expandable to 8 players
How to Play
Goal
Each player tries to connect his 5 cities with a network of tracks. As soon as
a player has done this, the round ends. The other players lose points. At the end
of the game, the player who has the most points left is the winner!
Game Start
All players are assigned a color, given the same number of starting points
[default is 13], and randomly assigned a play order. The first player will start
the first round. The second player will start the second round, and so on.
Playing a round
The cities are shuffled and each player is given 1 city of each color, such that
no 2 players have any of the same cities and there are 1 or more cities of each
color that no player has.
On your first turn, you place your hub on any junction on the map. It does not
have to be on a city. This is the start of your network. On following turns, you
must either play 1 track on an unoccupied double line, or 1-2 tracks on unoccupied
single line(s). If you choose to play only 1 track on a single line, you can forfeit
the second track. You can only play tracks that are connected to your hub or to
other tracks that are connected to your hub. If you place 2 single tracks, they
do NOT have to be adjacent to each other.
As soon as any player, whether it is his turn or not, has all of his cities
connected, the round ends. All other players must determine how many more tracks
would be needed to finish connecting all of his cities, single lines count as 1
and double lines count as 2. Scores will be reduced by the number of tracks needed.
End of the Game
When any player reaches 0 points, the game ends and the player(s) with the
most points win(s).
Vexation
In addition to the black tracks, each player is given 3 tracks of his color
for each round. A player may use a track of his color instead of a black tile at
any time, until all 3 have been used. The colored tracks are only usable by the
player they belong to. If other players want to use parts of the route network
that are connected only by tracks of a foreign color, they have to establish
another link. No more than 2 colored tracks may adjoin the same junction. Colored
tracks may not be replaced by black ones.
Expanding: More Players
This original game supported up to 6 players. This implementation allows
you to play with 7 or 8 players by adding 1-2 cities of each color.
2) You can play with an expanded America map which introduces a 6th color,
purple, with cities in Mexico and Canada. Each player will be given 1
purple city along with 1 city for each of the original colors.
You can use both expansion options at the same time, playing with 7-8 players
and use the 6-color America map. You probably do not want to use the expanded map
with less than 5 players.
More maps!
In addition to the original Trans America and Trans Europe game boards, this
implementation includes additional map choices. Each map is intended to also add a
new, if slight, dynamic to the game. All additional maps support up to 8 players.
North America: The original US map is extended into Canada and Mexico adding
a 6th color (purple) which has cities in Mexico and Canada. Players will need to
connect all 6 of their cities. Note: it is not recommended to play this map with
less than 5 players.
Australia: The Australia map has 6 colors of cities with the cities being
predominately along the coast and the middle of the map being difficult to cross.
Each player is randomly given only 5 cities. It is possible that multiple players
are missing the same color.
Australia (alternate cities): This is the same as the other Australia map
except with different cities. This map spreads the cities further inland as an
alternate in case the other map doesn't play very well.
The Cities
The standard games, Trans America and Trans Europa, have 7 cities of each of
the 5 colors. When only 2 or 3 players are playing, only 5 cities of each color are
used. This implementation uses the same cities as the standard game when you play
with 2-6 players on the America and Europe maps. For the expansions, there are
a few deviations with the standard cities as well as the new cities depending on
the number of players and which map is used. Here are most, maybe all, of the
deviations:
1) While the America maps use 9 cities of each color for more than 6 players,
the Europe map adds cities of each color 1 at a time, so there are 8 cities
of each color for 7 player and 9 for 8 players.
2) With 8 players on the Europe map, Moskva switches to green and Riga
switches to yellow.
3) With 7-8 players on either America board, Minnesota is replaced by Des Moines.
4) With 7-8 players on the standard America board, Winston is replaced by
Wilmington. Savannah and Hartford are added to orange.
5) With 7-8 players on the expanded America map, Tampa and Montpelier are
added to orange instead of Savannah and Hartford.
6) With the expanded America map, Chihuahua is used for 2-3 players or 7-8
players, but not for 4-6 players.