deckexpresstennesseecentral
The Tennessee Central Railway Company (TC) underwent many ownership changes over the course of its operation. During this game, each player secretly holds company shares that are gradually revealed and reacquired by other players. Building track affects the value of each company, so time your investments carefully with locomotives. The player with the most money wins the game.
Deck Express is an exciting series of railroad investment games where players purchase stocks, build track, and profit from locomotives. Each rail line features a unique train game, custom artwork, and rulebook using a standard deck of playing cards for the game components. All aboard!
LB_NUMBER_OF_PLAYERS: 2 - 4
Game duration: 8 mn
Complexity: 1 / 5
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Play deckexpresstennesseecentral and 1194 other games online.
No download, directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
You are a wealthy railway owner, competing to make the most money. During the game, you gradually reveal company Shares, exchange Shares with other players, and manipulate the value of Shares by building Track. Time your investments carefully to maximize your profit! The player with the most money after the deck runs out is the winner!
Setup
Each suit represents a rail company. All players start with 3 Shares (face cards) and 5 Track (number cards). The rest of the deck is shuffled with each Locomotive (joker) placed randomly in different thirds of the draw pile. Locomotives signal when players earn dividends for their Shares.
Player Turns
On your turn you can 1) Build Track (play a number card) or 2) Invest (draw from the deck). To Build Track, you stack a number card from your hand on top of the matching suit stack in the middle of the table. To Invest, you draw a card from the deck into your hand. If you draw a Locomotive, or the last card of the draw pile, your turn continues with the Paying Dividends phase.
Paying Dividends
Dividends are paid three times during the game. Once when each Locomotive is drawn from the deck, and once when the draw pile is empty. When you Invest and draw a Locomotive (joker), instead of placing it in your hand, you immediately assign it to the top of any company suit stack. If you draw the last card from the deck, it goes into your hand.
All players then simultaneously play one Share (face card) from their hand to the table in front of themselves and receive their appropriate dividends.
Scoring
To determine the value for a visible Share in front of a player, examine the matching suit stack. If the top card is a Locomotive, count the number of cards in the suit stack and that is the Share's value. If the top card is an Ace, the Share is worth $1. If the top card is a number card, the Share is worth that number value (2 = $2, 3 = $3, etc.).
If the deck is empty, the game ends. Otherwise, after dividends are paid out for all visible Shares, each player chooses one of their visible Shares to pass to the next player. It stays face-up on the table, and is now owned by the new player, who will receive dividends for it on the next payout.
End of Game
The game ends at the third dividend, when the last card from the deck is drawn. After receiving the third and final dividend payout, each player subtracts the number of cards still left in hand from their score, regardless of rank. The player with the most money wins the game!