Cotton, coal, iron and canals in the north-west of England, 1770–1870. Two eras, nine rounds each at three players, and a scoreboard that only counts tiles you managed to flip. Below: the engine, the four rules that trip up beginners, and the opening in front of you right now.
Every turn you spend cards to take actions. Tiles you build start face up and score nothing. They score when they flip — and each flip also pushes your income marker up the Progress Track, which pays you at the end of every round. The whole game is a race to flip tiles, and to be networked to the places that let you flip them.
Take 2 actions (only 1 in the first round of the Canal Era). Discard one card per action — including when you pass. Refill to 8 at the end of your turn.
All money you spend goes on your Character tile, not to the bank. That pile decides turn order: least spent goes first next round.
Re-sort turn order, then collect income equal to your income level.
Negative income you cannot pay forces you to demolish your own industry tiles for half their build cost, rounded down — they leave the game and score nothing. Short even then: −1 VP per £1.
| Action | Cost | Card needed | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build | tile cost + coal / iron |
SPECIFIC | Location card: build any industry in that town, even outside your network. Industry card: build that industry anywhere in your network — or anywhere on the board if you have no tiles or links out yet. Double-action build: discard any 2 cards, use both actions, build anything anywhere. |
| Network | £3 canal £5 rail £15 ×2 rail |
any | Place a link adjacent to your network. Canal era: 1 canal, no coal. Rail era: 1 or 2 rails, and each rail burns 1 coal, checked after it is placed. |
| Develop | 1–2 iron | any | Bin the lowest tile(s) on your player mat to reach the better ones underneath. One iron per tile removed. The cheapest way to reach level 2+. |
| Sell | free | any | Flip as many of your connected cotton mills as you like — one card covers all of them in a single action. |
| Loan | −1/2/3 income levels | any | Take £10 / £20 / £30. Never repaid. Banned in the last 4 rounds of the Rail Era, and cannot drop you below income level −10. |
Each one flips by a different trigger. Knowing which ones flip without you spending an action is most of the early game.
The scoring backbone — level 1 is £12 for 5 VP and 5 income. Useless until it is connected to a port or a market icon.
Cheap, and it flips on anyone's sale, including an opponent's. Also carries the market icon your cotton and coal need.
Big income (4 at level 1, for £5). Its coal is taken by whoever is connected and closest — free for them, income for you.
£5 for 3 VP and 3 income at level 1, and anyone anywhere may take its iron. Opponents' Develop actions flip it for you.
Huge VP, huge cost, and locked behind Develop actions. A Rail Era project, not a Canal Era one.
Level-1 figures above are from the player mat in the current game; every tile prints its own cost, VP, income and cube count.
This asymmetry is the single most useful rule in the game, and the one new players most often miss.
“To consume iron, an Industry tile does not need a connection to a source of iron.” Take it free from any unflipped iron works on the board, owned by anyone, closest or not.
No iron works left? Buy from the Iron Market, cheapest space first; £5 flat if the market is empty.
Coal must come from the closest connected unflipped mine (free). No connection to a mine? Buy from the Coal Market — but only if you are connected to a market icon, printed on every port tile and on some board-edge locations.
Empty market: £5 per cube, still needing that connection.
One Sell action flips every eligible mill you own. Choose per mill:
The mill must be connected to an unflipped port — yours or an opponent's. The port flips and its owner takes the income, then your mill flips too.
Using someone else's port is often still correct. Paying them a few income spaces beats spending two actions building your own.
Needs a connection to a market icon, not a port tile specifically. Flip the top market tile, slide the marker down the track, and take the income shown beside the marker's new position.
The track degrades as everyone sells. When the marker hits X, the sell action stops dead — and that mill does not flip.
| Step | What scores | When |
|---|---|---|
| Links | 1 VP for each VP icon printed in the towns adjacent to each of your links. Links are removed as they score. | Both eras |
| Flipped tiles | The VP in the bottom-left corner of each of your flipped industry tiles. Unflipped tiles score nothing. | Both eras |
| Cash | 1 VP per £10 left in your player area. | Rail only |
Ties break on income first, then money left. Income itself is never worth VP.
Three inland cotton towns, no port city, and a duplicate. Nothing is in your network yet, so a location card is your key to the whole board.
First choice — a level-1 Iron Works (£5), if any of those towns offers an iron space. It needs no connection to be useful to anyone, so opponents' Develop actions drain and flip it for you: 3 VP and +3 income with no further action from you, and you are first player, so you claim the niche.
Fallback — a level-1 Coal Mine (£5). +4 income when it empties. Weaker this era, since canal links burn no coal and demand is thinner.
Otherwise — a Cotton Mill (£12) in Blackburn, accepting that your next two or three actions are canals heading for a port or a market icon.
Spend a Rochdale card if Rochdale is a legal spot — you hold two, and the spare still fuels any non-build action.