Over the years, a series of historical Catan scenarios were published in German with English rules included. After 2002, these scenarios became part of the Catan Histories line of games. Each game in this line is published simultaneously in both German and English. These games make history interactive and exciting. They use the familiar Catan rules while incorporating new ideas to convey the themes. The second game in this line is Settlers of America, Trails to Rails. ~ Exploring and Settling the American West ~ The 19th Century has arrived and you and the rest of America are heading west. Your wagon trains of settlers strike out seeking fresh lives and opportunities. Your new cities sprout like mushrooms. These new cities quickly come to rely on railroads for the transport of vital goods. Trails become rails and create great wealth. Soon, a complex railroad network develops, and steam-belching iron horses connect the thriving cities. If you are the first to use your trains to deliver all of your goods to your opponents’ cities, you win and fulfill your destiny as the era’s greatest pioneer. ~ Playing the Game ~ In the east, each player starts the game with three cities, one train, and one rail. As the game progresses, the productivity of your initial cities declines. So, you must go west, young settler. You produce lumber, ore, grain, coal, and cattle (resources) each turn based on a dice roll, the locations of your cities, and the terrain types of adjacent terrain hexes. You can use these resources to build settlers (wagon trains), rails (tracks), and trains adjacent to your existing cities. You can also buy development cards. You can spend grain to move your settlers and coal to move your trains. When a settler ends its turn on an empty city-site, replace it with a new city. This frees up a goods cube for delivery. Your trains move along your rails for free, but they must spend gold to move on an opponent’s rail. When your train moves adjacent to an opponent’s city that does not already have a goods cube, you may deliver one of your freed goods cubes. ~ Gold! ~ You acquire gold from certain development cards and whenever you receive no resources on a non-7 production roll. You also gain gold when you connect a city-site to the rail network for the first time. You can trade two gold for a resource of your choice. You must also pay other players gold when your trains use their rails. ~ Winning! ~ If you are the first to deliver all of your goods, you win. So, you must not only expand your economy, but you must also upgrade your infrastructure. The player that best balances city building with developing an efficient network of rails wins.
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