British Rails

How to play, in about five minutes.

What you are trying to do

Build a railway across Great Britain and haul freight on it. You win the moment you hold GBP 250 million and your own track joins all four major cities — London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow — in one connected network.

Turns are equal. If you qualify in the first seat, the round is still played out, and if someone else qualifies in the same round the richer company takes it.

Starting

Press New game. Choose how many companies play, name them, and set each one to You or Computer. Computer companies play at Cadet, Veteran or Ace.
Everyone gets GBP 60 million and three consignment notes.
There are two building turns before any train runs. Your first track must start at a major city; after that everything you lay has to join your own network.
On your third turn you place your train at any city on your track and start running.

Controls

To do this	Do that
Move around the map	Drag it.
Zoom	Scroll, pinch, or the `+` and `−` buttons. Whole map zooms back out.
Lay one segment	Click a milepost on your network, then click a neighbour. The cost shows on the dashed line.
Lay a run of track	Click somewhere further off. The line is built toward it as far as this turn's GBP 20 million allows.
Run the train	Click any milepost within reach. Reachable mileposts are marked while it is your turn to run.
Load and deliver	Use the buttons in the Train panel while your train is in a city.
Take back a mistake	Undo last, in the building part of the turn.

The order of a turn

Run first, then build. Track you lay this turn cannot be used until your next turn, so think a turn ahead.

Run. Nine mileposts with the starting engine. Stop in cities to load and deliver as often as you like.
Done running. This closes the running part of the turn and opens the building part.
Build up to GBP 20 million of track, or buy a new engine instead.
End turn.

Money

What	Cost
Open country	GBP 1M a milepost
Hills, summits	GBP 2M, GBP 5M
Towns and cities	GBP 3M; major cities GBP 5M
Rivers, estuaries	add GBP 2M, add GBP 3M
A new engine	GBP 20M and your whole building turn
Running over a rival's line	GBP 4M, paid to them, good for the rest of your turn

Only one company may own an ordinary line. Major cities are the exception: everyone may build into them, however crowded the approaches get.

Scoring

Money comes from deliveries and nowhere else, except the GBP 4 million a rival pays you to run on your track. A delivery pays between GBP 9 and GBP 53 million, set by how far the goods have to travel from the nearest place that makes them.

Losing

Nobody is eliminated. You lose by watching another company get to GBP 250 million and four major cities first. The usual way that happens is spending too much on running fees, or leaving Glasgow until the end.

Saving and restarting

The game saves itself after every action, in this browser only. Press Resume saved to pick it up again, or New game to start over. Starting a new game replaces the save.