Railroad Ink
In the multiplayer puzzle game Railroad Ink, your goal is to connect as many exits on your board as possible. Each round, a set of dice are rolled in the middle of the table, determining which kind of road and railway routes are available to all players. You have to draw these routes on your erasable boards to create transport lines and connect your exits, trying to optimize the available symbols better than your opponents.
The more exits you connect, the more points you score at the end of the game, but you lose points for each incomplete route, so plan carefully! Will you press your luck and try to stretch your transportation network to the next exit, or will you play it safe and start a new, simpler to manage route?
Railroad Ink comes in two versions, each one including two expansions with additional dice sets that add new special rules to your games. The Deep Blue Edition includes the Rivers and Lakes expansions. Increase the difficulty by adding the River route into the mix, or use the Lakes to connect your networks by ferry. These special rules can spice up things and make each game play and feel different. Each box allows you to play from 1 to 6 players, and if you combine more boxes, you can play with up to 12 players (or more). The only limit to the number of players is the number of boards you have!
Number of players: 1 - 12
Game duration: 7 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
Play Railroad Ink and 965 other games online.
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Play Railroad Ink and 965 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Each player draws route networks. The more Exits you connect to the same Network, the more points it will be worth. Bonus points can be earned for your Longest Railway, your Longest Highway, and by drawing on the Central Spaces of your Board.
Base Game
At the beginning of each round, the Route dice are rolled once.
The results of the roll will determine which Routes all players must draw that round.
After the roll, all players play simultaneously, drawing the Routes rolled on their own boards.
The game ends at the end of the 7th round (6th round with expansions).
Drawing routes
- Each Route you draw must be connected by at least one side to either one of the Exits or a preexisting Route.
- You must draw all 4 Routes (only once) shown on the dice each round, if possible.
- You can’t draw Routes in a way that directly connects Railways to Highways or vice versa (you need a Station to do that).
You can freely rotate and/or reverse the pattern you see on the die.
Route dice faces
3 dice have:
- Curved Railway
- T-junction Railway
- Straight Railway
- Curved Highway
- T-junction Highway
- Straight Highway
1 die has:
- 2 × Overpass (Straight Railway + Straight Highway, they are not connected)
- 2 × Straight Station (Railway and Highway are connected)
- 2 × Curved Station (Railway and Highway are connected)
Special Routes
- Each player can also use 6 Special Routes, displayed in the top part of the boards
- Each special route can be used only once.
- You may draw a Special Route 1 per round, in addition to the Routes shown on the Route dice.
- You can only use up to 3 Special Routes during the entire game.
End of the round
The number of the round is added in each spaces where a route has been drawn.
You can never erase the Routes you drew in a previous round.
Score
Networks
For each networks, count the number of exits connected to it.
Number of Exits | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
Points | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 32 | 36 | 40 | 45 |
This is the main way to score points.
Longest Highway
This is the longest unbroken streak of adjacent and connected Highway routes. Stations do not interrupt your Highway. A single space may be counted twice provided different routes are used.
You score 1 point for each space that makes up your longest route.
Longest Railway
This is the longest unbroken streak of adjacent and connected Railway routes. Stations do not interrupt your Railway. A single space may be counted twice provided different routes are used.
You score 1 point for each space that makes up your longest route.
Central spaces
You score 1 point for each Central Space you drew anything on. Central Spaces are the 9 spaces in the middle of your board.
Error
You lose 1 point for each error.
Each end of a Route (Highway or Railway) which is not connected to another Route or the outer edge (Exit or simple edge) counts as an Error.
Expansion may add additional points counted as Errors.
Expansion points
Watch the related expansion score. In the base game, there are no score for this part.
Total
Add up all the points from Networks, Longest Highway, Longest Railway, Central spaces, and Expansion points (if any) subtract points from Error', and you get your final score.
The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the winner is the player with fewest errors.
Variants
Deep Blue Edition: River Dice
Rivers are a third kind of Route but they can't be used to connect Exits. They can be connected to each other to create a River.
The game lasts 6 rounds.
River dices face
2 River dices:
- 1 × Straight River
- 3 × Curves River
- Straight River with a bridge Highway
- Straight River with a bridge Railway
Changing rules
Each round:
- You may draw 0, 1, or 2 River dices.
- Rivers you draw don't have to be connected to preexisting Routes and/or Rivers.
- Rivers can't connect to other kinds of Routes nor Exits.
River score
- Each end of a River which is not connected to another River or the outer edge counts as 1 Error.
- For 1 of your Rivers, you gain 1 point for each space of the river and an additional 3 points if both ends are connected to the outer edge.
Deep Blue Edition: Lake Dice
Lakes allows you to create bigger Networks by connecting your Routes to a lake.
The game lasts 6 rounds.
Lake dices face
2 Lake dices:
- Half water (diagonal separation)
- 3/4 water
- 1/4 water
- Half water (diagonal separation) + pier connected to Highway and Railway
- 1/4 water + pier connected to Highway
- 1/4 water + pier connected to Railway
Changing rules
Each round:
- You may draw 0, 1, or 2 Lake dices.
- Lake you draw don't have to be connected to preexisting Routes and/or Lake.
- If an empty space has 3 sides adjacent to open water, it must be filled with water immediately.
Lake score
- Open water does not count as Error.
- Networks connected to the same lake (by Piers) are also connected to each other.
- You get 1 point for each space occupied by your smallest Lake.
Blazing Red Edition: Meteor Dice
Meteors will wreak havoc and destruction, but they also bring precious minerals and ores to Earth.
The game lasts 6 rounds.
Meteor dices face
1 Meteor dice shows a distance:
- 2 × distance 1
- 2 × distance 2
- 2 × distance 3
1 Meteor dice shows a direction:
- To the left
- To the right
- To the top
- To the bottom
- 2 × To the direction of your choice
Changing rules
Each round:
- At the beginning of the round draw a crater where the Meteor hits.
- At the beginning of the game the initial position is the central space, then the initial position is the last space where a Meteor hit.
- From the initial position, draw a crater in the direction shown by the dice and at a distance shown by the other dice.
- A Crater erases any previous Route in this space.
- If, while moving toward its next target, the Meteor reaches the edge, it bounces in the opposite direction to complete its movement.
- If the Meteor will hit a space that already contains a Crater, keeps moving in the same direction until it can hit a free space or it bounces.
- At the beginning of the round, you can mark an available Special Route to ignore the Meteor dice this round.
- You can erase a Crater to draw a new Route in its place.
Meteor score
- You get 2 points for each Route that has an open end connected to a Crater (these open ends don't count as Errors).
Blazing Red Edition: Lava Dice
Volcanoes start erupting, but the Route building must go on!
The game lasts 6 rounds.
Lava dices face
2 Lava dices:
- 2 × half lava (diagonal separation)
- half lava (opposite sides)
- 3/4 lava
- 1/4 lava + Straight Highway
- 1/4 lava + Straight Railway
Changing rules
- At the beginning of the game, draw a Volcano (with 4 lava sides) in the central Space.
Each round:
- You have to draw 1 or 2 Lava dices.
- Lava you draw must be connected to preexisting Lava.
- You can draw a new Volcano in any space not adjacent to preexisting Lava.
- If there are no free spaces adjacent to open Lava, you must either open a new volcano or erase a Route to make space for it.
Lava score
- Open Lava side count as 1 Error.
- You get 5 points for each Lava lake without open sides.
- You get 1 point for each space occupied by your largest Lava Lake (even if it is not closed).