The game is played over two halves: the canal phase and the rail phase. To win the game, score the most victory points (VPs), which are counted at the end of each half. VPs are gained from your canals, rails, and established (flipped) industry tiles. Each round, players take turns according to the turn order track, receiving two actions to perform any of the following:

• Build an industry tile
• Build a rail or canal
• Develop an industry
• Sell cotton
• Take a loan

At the end of a player's turn, they replace the two cards they played with two more from the deck. Turn order is determined by how much money a player spent on the previous turn, from lowest spent first to highest spent. This turn order mechanism opens some strategic options for players going later in the turn order, allowing for the possibility of back-to-back turns.

After all the cards have been played the first time (with the deck size being adjusted for the number of players), the canal phase ends and a scoring round commences. After scoring, all canals and all of the lowest level industries are removed for the game, after which new cards are dealt and the rail phase begins. During this phase, players may now occupy more than one location in a city and a double-connection build (though expensive) is possible. At the end of the rail phase, another scoring round takes place, then a winner is crowned.

The cards limit where you can build your industries, but any card can be used for the develop, sell cotton or build connections actions. This leads to a strategic timing/storing of cards. Resources are common so that if one player builds a rail line (which requires coal) they have to use the coal from the nearest source, which may be an opponent's coal mine, which in turn gets that coal mine closer to scoring (i.e., being utilized)..

SLEEVING:

70 cards size 63,5x88mm (standard)

COMPONENTS:

1 - Gameboard

1 - Rulebook

4 - Counter sheets

8 - Player wooden discs (4×2: one pair per player)

66 - Cards (distribution below)

30 - Black coal cubes

25 - Orange iron cubes

1 - Black marker

100 - Plastic coins (60דsilver”, 40דcopper”)

7 - Plastic storage bags

12 - Distant Market tiles

AWARDS & HONORS:

2010 Nederlandse Spellenprijs Nominee

2008 Tric Trac Nominee

2008 International Gamers Awards - General Strategy; Multi-player Nominee

2008 Golden Geek Best Gamer's Board Game Nominee

2007 Meeples' Choice Award

2007 Jogo do Ano Winner

2007 Jogo do Ano Nominee

BGG link