External Links:
Contents
| 1 | map
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| 20 | carriage cards (3, 4, 5, 6, 7 carriage, each 4x)
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| 30 | bonus tiles
1x game end
2x 5 distance, 3x 6 distance, 4x 7 distance
4x all provinces
3x Baden, 3x Schweiz/Tyrol, 3x Württemberg/Hohenzollern, 3x Böhmen/Salzburg, 4x Baiern |
| 66 | city cards (22 cities, each 3x) for route building
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| 80 | houses (20 each in 4 colours)
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Game preparation
- Put the map in the middle of the table.
- Sort the 20 carriage cards by colour and by length of the route.
- Stack the 30 bonus tiles face up on the corresponding fields of the map.
In each stack place the tiles in ascending order, lowest on the bottom and highest on the top.
- Shuffle the 66 city cards.
Deal 6 cards face up and place the remainder face down as a supply next to the map.
- Every player receives 20 houses of one colour.
- The starting player is determined by chance.
Overview
Each player builds a postal system.
To do so, each player tries to build an effective network of post offices (houses) in the cities on the map, acquire valuable carriages, and collect bonus tiles.
They can get help from the postal officials.
When a player acquires a number 7 carriage or has placed all his houses, the game is in its final round. When the round ends, the game ends.
The player with the most victory points wins.
Playing the game
The starting player begins and the other players follow in clockwise order.
The player on turn performs the following actions in the order shown:
- The player must add a city card to his hand.
- The player must play a city card from his hand.
- The player may close and score his current route.
Then the next player is on turn.
In addition, the player may accept the support of one postal official during his turn.
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postal carrier, postmaster, administrator, cartwright |
1. Add a city card to his hand
The city cards represent the cities on the map.
The player must add one of 6 face-up city cards or the top card of the supply to his hand.
After a face-up card is taken, it is immediately replaced with the topmost card of the supply.
When the supply is exhausted, the discards are shuffled and become the new supply.
| Support from an official in this phase: |
|---|
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Postmaster: when the player accepts the support of the postmaster,
he can add a second card to his hand from the face-up cards or the top of the supply.
If the player has no cards on the hand at the beginning of his turn, he must accept the support of the postmaster.
Note: Since the players start the game with no cards, in the first round player every player must accept the support of the postmaster. |
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Administrator: when the player is not satisfied with the 6 face-up city cards,
he can accept the support of the administrator to replace the 6 face-up city cards before he takes a card. The face-up cards are discarded and replaced with cards from the supply. |
2. Play a city card from his hand
The central element of the game is the construction of postal routes.
The player must play a card from his hand to begin a new route or extend his current route.
Playing a card adds the city on the card to his route. A route must be a single line with no branches.
A player can have only one route at a time.
He must discard or close his current route before he can begin a new route.
When playing a city card there are two possible cases:
The player has no route. In this case the player plays any card to start a new route.
The player has a route. In this case the player plays a card of a city to extend his route. The new city must be adjacent (i.e. directly connected by a road on the map) to a city at an end of the route or to the only city in a one-city route. The new city must not already be in the route.
If the player has no such city card or chooses not to play one then he discards his route without scoring it and plays any card to start a new route.
Note: If the new city is adjacent to both ends of the route then the player must choose which end of the route to extend to the new city.
It is not permitted
- to add a city that is not adjacent to a city at an end of the route
- to insert a city into the middle of the route
- to rearrange the route
- to add a city that is already in the route.
Example:
The route consists of the 4 cities Carlsruhe - Stuttgart - Nürnberg - Regensburg.
 | Innsbruck has no direct road to either to Carlsruhe nor to Regensburg,
and therefore may not be added to either end. |
 | Würzburg may not be inserted between Stuttgart and Nürnberg
because the route may not be rearranged. |
| Stuttgart may not be added
because it is already contained in the route. |
| Support from an official in this phase: |
|---|
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Postal carrier: when the player accepts the support of the postal carrier, he may play a second city card to add a second city to his route, following the normal rules for playing a city card. |
3. Close and score his current route
The player may close and score his route if it contains at least 3 cities.
To close and score a route the player:
- places houses;
- collects any bonus tiles earned;
- acquires any new carriage earned; and
- discards any cards in excess of three from his hand.
a. Place houses
The player has 2 options for placing houses on cities which are included in his route:
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1. He may place a house on 1 city of the route in every province; or
2. He may place a house on each city of the route in 1 province.
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Note: the provinces and cities are color coded on the map and cards.
Example:
The player closes the route Sigmaringen - Stuttgart - Nürnberg - Regensburg - Ingolstadt - Augsburg.
- He places 1 house on 1 city of the route in each province:
- In the province of Hohenzollern he places 1 house on Sigmaringen
- In the province of Württemberg he places 1 house on Stuttgart
- In the province of Baiern he places 1 house on one of the 4 cities, for example, on Ingolstadt.
He may not also place a house on Nürnberg, Regensburg or Augsburg.
or
- He places 1 house on each city of the route in 1 province:
He places 1 house on each city of his route in Baiern: Nürnberg, Regensburg, Ingolstadt and Augsburg.
He may not also place a house on Sigmaringen or Stuttgart.
Notes:
A house placed on a city remains there for the rest of the game.
A player may have only one house on a given city.
A player may include a city he has placed a house on in later routes.
A player may place a house on a city on which other players have placed houses.
Placing houses is optional. A player may place as few or as many of the houses that the above rules allow him to place.
b. Collect bonus tiles
The player collects any bonus tiles he is entitled to.
Bonus tiles for long routes (5, 6 or 7 cities long)
If the route contains 5, 6, 7 or more cities, he collects the uppermost bonus tile from the stack for the route length.
If the route is longer than 7 cities, he collects a length 7 bonus tile.
Note: if the bonus tile he earned is no longer available, he collects the tile for the next lower route length.
Note: a player may in the course of the game collect several bonus tiles for the same route length.
Bonus tiles for provinces
If the player has houses on all the cities of a province or all the cities of a grouped pair of provinces, he collects the uppermost bonus tile for that province or province pair.
It is not necessary to have added houses to all of the cities when closing the current route.
Note: if the player fulfills the condition for a province bonus tile and none are left for that province or province pair, the player gets no tile.
Note: a player may in the course of the game collect only one bonus tile for a given province or province pair.
Bonus tiles for all provinces
If the player has at a house on at least one city in every province, he collects the uppermost "all provinces" bonus tile.
Note: a player may in the course of the game collect only one "all provinces" bonus tile.
Note: The player must actually place houses on the cities to receive a province, province pair or "all provinces" bonus tile. Thus, if he cannot place houses on the necessary cities because he ran out of houses, he does not collect the tile.
Bonus tile for game end
If the player causes the game to end by being the first to acquire a number 7 carriage or by placing his last house, he collects the "Game end" bonus tile.
c. Acquire new carriage
If the closed route contains at least as many cities as the number of the lowest carriage which the player has not yet acquired, he takes that carriage.
He may not skip over a carriage he has not acquired to a higher one even if his route is long enough.
| Support from an official in this phase: |
|---|
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Cartwright: when the player accepts the support of the cartwright, he can acquire the next highest carriage
even if his route contains one or two cities fewer than normally required.
Example: A player who already has a number 6 carriage closes a route containing 5 or 6 cities.
He may use the support of the cartwright to acquire a number 7 carriage. |
d. Discard city cards
If the player has more than 3 cards in his hand then he chooses 3 cards to keep and discards the rest.
The cards played to add cities to the route are also discarded at this time.
In his next turn the player will begin a new route.
Game end and scoring
When a player has acquired a number 7 carriage or has placed all his houses, the round is played to its end. Thus, the game continues until the player to the right of the starting player ends his turn.
Now every player calculates his victory points:
The victory points of his highest carriage
plus the victory points of all his bonus tiles
minus the number of his unplaced houses |
Example
7 points
+ 16 points
- 4 points
= 19 points |
carriage victory points
number 3 carriage
number 4 carriage
number 5 carriage
number 6 carriage
number 7 carriage |
2 points
3 points
5 points
7 points
10 points |
The player with most victory points wins.
In case of a tie, the tied player who earned the "game end" bonus tile is the winner. If the player who earned the "game end" bonus tile is not among those tied, the tied player who is the closest clockwise from him is the winner.
Power and Glory
Now the players move north to add those provinces to the postal network.
This expanded network allows you to carry letters from Holland to Sachsen and between Preußen and the free cities.
Hard working postal carriers add horses to their carriages to enable them to travel farther and more safely, which
will help the separated Preußen provinces to achieve power and glory.
Contents
| 1 | map |
| 4 | carriage cards |
| 39 | bonus tiles
5x 8 distance
4x 7 distance
3x 6 distance
2x 5 distance
4x all provinces
4x free cities
4x Preußen
3x Mecklenburg/Hannover
3x Holland/Belgien
3x Thüringen/Sachsen
3x Hessen/Baiern
1x game end |
| 69 | city cards (3 each of 23 cities)
The backs of the city cards have 1, 2 or 3 horses.
The number is also shown on both sides of the cards as horseshoes.
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The rules are the same as for the base game except as described below.
Preparation
- The players take the wooden houses (post offices) in their colors from the base game.
- The players take the carriage cards of their colors and place them in their play areas.
- The carriage cards and the cartwright from the base game are not used with this expansion.
- Place the round bonus tiles for the free cities on their respective cities on the map.
Playing the game
Play a city card from the hand
When playing a city card, the player can either play it to add a city to his route as in the base game or
play it horse side up to the right of his carriage card to add to the number of horses pulling his carriage.
A player may have a maximum of 6 cards as horses before his carriage.
Note: when the player accepts the support of the postal carrier to play two cards,
he may choose with each card whether to add a city to his route or add horses to his carriage.
Closing and scoring a route
In order to close and score a route, a player must have at least as many horses pulling his carriage as there are city cards in the route.
Note: the carriage itself comes with 2 horses, which are counted in the total.
Placing houses
The free cities (Frankfurt, Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck) are not provinces themselves and are not part of the surrounding provinces.
When a player closes and scores a route with one or more free cities, he may place a house on only one of the free cities.
Collect bonus tiles
- The player who places the first house on one of the free cities immediately takes the bonus tile for that city.
- To earn the Preußen bonus tile, a player must have a house on every city in both parts of Preußen.
- To earn the "all provinces" bonus tile, a player must have at least one house in every province.
He need not have houses on any of the free cities.
Discard city cards
After a player closes and scores a route, he discards the city cards used to build the route and the horse cards that he had played next to his carriage.
He keeps the carriage.
Example: A player has a route of 6 cities (Halle, Berlin, Hannover, Hamburg, Bremen and Münster) and 7 horses pulling his carriage.
Since the number of horses pulling the carriage is at least equal to the number of cities in the route, he may choose to close and score the route.
He takes the top-most bonus tile for a length 6 route if one is still available. For placing houses, his best choices are:
Either he places 1 house on each of the cities in both parts of Preußen (Halle, Berlin and Münster),
or he places 1 house on Preußen (Halle, Berlin or Münster), 1 house on Hannover, and 1 house on one of the free cities (Hamburg or Bremen).
Afterwards the player discards the city and horse cards.
Note: the player may not in any case place houses in both free cities when scoring the route.
Game end
When a player has played all his houses, the round is played to the end as in the base game.
The game using the base game rules
You may also play "Power and Glory" using the rules for the base game.
In this case, the carriage cards from the base game are used and the support of the cartwright may be accepted.
The backs of the city cards are ignored and the cards are used only to add cities to routes. The new carriages are not used. Use the new rules for earning the bonus tiles.
The Princess' Messenger
The Princess' Messenger expansion brings an additional feature to Thurn and Taxis: the nobility letters. The players may use those letters to secure the support of additional officials.
Contents
28 nobility letters
1 Princess' Messenger figure
Rules
The rules of Thurn and Taxis remain unchanged, with the following exceptions:
Preparation
1. Before starting the game, place one nobility letter in each city on the game board.
2. The first, second, third and fourth players receive zero, one, two and three letters, respectively.
3. The Princess' Messenger figure is placed next to the game board.
The Nobility Letters
Each time a player places a house in a city that doesn't already have one, he takes the nobility letter lying there and places it in front of him. Each city provides only one letter in this manner. Players who later place a house in the city do not receive a nobility letter.
Nobility letters enable a player to buy the support of multiple officials during his turn.
- The support of one official is free as in the basic game.
- A player can pay nobility letters in order to receive the additional support of one, two or all three remaining officials.
- Each of the four officials can be use only once per player turn.
- For each additional official that a player would like to use, he must pay two of his nobility letters.
- The player must possess the nobility letters at the beginning of his turn, i.e. the cartwright cannot be paid for with letters obtained during the current turn.
- Paid nobility letters are removed from the game.
- The Administrator can be used after the player has drawn one or two cards as well as before the player has drawn any cards.
- Nobility letters are worthless at the end of the game.
Example: Uwe already has Freiburg and Sigmaringen on the table and has Salzburg in his hand. He possesses four nobility letters. He takes Kempten from the face-up cards. It is replaced by Ulm from the face-down pile. Since he would really like to have Innsbruck – to be able to move through it to Salzburg – he uses the aid of the Administrator (free support) and exchanges the face-up cards. Innsbruck appears. Uwe can now pay two nobility letters to take Innsbruck with the aid of the Postmaster (1st additional support) as a second draw. If he would now like to play two cards by means of the Postal Carrier (2nd additional support), he would again have to pay two nobility letters.
The Princess' Messenger
When a player scores a route and receives no carriage (because the route is not long enough or he voluntarily declines to take a carriage), he takes the Princess' Messenger figure. He keeps it until another player takes it in the same manner.
The player who has the Princess' Messenger needs to use only one nobility letter (instead of the usual two) for each additional official.
The player who has the Princess' Messenger at the end of the game receives one victory point.
Yucata Implementation
- The Princess' Messenger is not used when the Princess' Messenger expansion is used with Power and Glory.
- When a player starts his turns with no cards in his hand and uses the Administrator as well as the Postmaster, he must pay letters to use the Administrator rather than the Postmaster regardless of which he uses first.
Offices of Honor
Players try to use the officials as evenly as possible in order to receive different office tiles. The more different tiles a player can return at one time, the greater benefits he receives.
Contents
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6 Administrator tiles |
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8 Postmaster tiles |
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8 Postal Carrier tiles |
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4 Cartwright tiles |
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12 victory point chips |
Preparation
Place stacks of the following numbers of office tiles on the game board:
2 players: 3 Administrator, 4 Postmaster, 4 Postal Carrier and 2 Cartwright
3 players: 5 Administrator, 6 Postmaster, 6 Postal Carrier and 3 Cartwright
4 players: all tiles
With 2 or 3 players, place the unused tiles back in the box.
Description
Every time a player uses the support of an official he takes a corresponding tile.
Example: In the first round each player must use the Postmaster to draw two city cards. Therefore each player will take a Postmaster tile.
When a player takes the last tile from any stack, all players must return tiles to the stacks. Begin with the player whose turn it is and continue clockwise around the table. Each player must return one to four different tiles to the stacks. He need not return all he can. Rewards are as follows:
1 tile returned: the player earns nothing.
Note: if a player has no tiles, he returns none and earns nothing.
2 tiles returned: the player may draw one card.
3 tiles returned: the player takes a victory point chip.
4 tiles returned: the player may place one of his houses on the game board.
Note: when placing a house the player immediately takes any earned bonus tiles. If he places his last house the game ends after the current round of normal turns.
Example 1: Anna is the starting player. Ben is next and initiates a tile return round. Carl is next and returns four different tiles and places his last house. After the tile return round ends Carl and Dave get their final normal turns and the game ends.
Example 2: Same as example 1 except that the fourth player Dave initiates the tile return round. Anna is the starting player. Dave is the last player and initiates a tile return round. After the tile return round ends the game ends.
If necessary, players execute additional complete tile return rounds until the emptied stack is no longer empty.
After the last round of normal turns but before final scoring there is a final tile return round. In this round players may return only 3 or 4 tiles to earn a victory chip or place a house.
Yucata Implementation
The final tile return round begins with the last player and proceeds in reverse order to end with the starting player.