Overview

Empire Builder is a crayon rail game about building railroads, running trains, and making money across the United States. Players use crayons to draw railroad tracks on a plastic-coated board, connecting cities and mileposts. They then run freight trains to pick up goods and deliver them to cities for cash payoffs using Demand cards. The first player to connect five major cities with their railroad network and accumulate $250 million wins.

Components

• 1 plastic-coated game board (map of the United States with mileposts and cities)
• Crayons (1 per player, different colors)
• Pawns (1 per player, matching crayon color)
• Demand cards
• Event cards (mixed into the Demand deck)
• Money (in millions of dollars)
• Load chips with sticker labels
• Loco cards
• Sorting tray

Setup

1. Clean the board if needed (dry paper napkin only).
2. Separate blank cards and Loco cards. Put blanks under the tray; Loco cards with the money.
3. Shuffle the deck. Each player draws a card; highest demand goes first. Reshuffle.
4. Deal 3 cards to each player. Return any Event cards to the dealer and draw replacements until each player has 3 Demand cards. Shuffle Event cards back into the deck.
5. Each player receives $40 million, a pawn, a crayon of matching color, and 1 Loco card.
6. Play 2 rounds of turns for initial track building (no train movement). After that, begin running trains.

Turn Structure

Each turn, a player may:

1. Build track (spend up to $20 million per turn connecting mileposts with your crayon).
2. Move train (move pawn up to your train’s speed in mileposts along your track).
3. Draw a card when you deliver a load or at certain other times.

Building and moving can both happen on the same turn.

Actions

Building Track

• Draw lines with your crayon from one milepost to an adjacent connected milepost.
• Maximum spending: $20 million per turn on track building.
• Building costs depend on the destination milepost:
  • Clear milepost: $1 million
  • Mountain milepost: $2 million
  • Small city: $3 million
  • Medium city: $3 million
  • Major city: $5 million
• Additional costs for crossing water:
  • River: $2 million extra
  • Ocean inlet: additional cost
• Only one track segment can exist between any two mileposts (once built, that segment is taken).
• More than one player can connect to the same milepost.
• Only 2 players can build into a small city; only 3 into a medium city. Major cities have no limit.
• You can always build from a major city milepost.
• Within major cities, you can travel between major city mileposts as if they were connected (free movement inside the city’s red area).

Running Your Train

• Your train starts as a basic freight: speed 9 mileposts per turn, carries up to 2 loads.
• Move your pawn along your own track, counting mileposts.
• You can pick up goods at cities that produce them (shown by good symbols on the board). Picking up is free and does not cost movement.
• Deliver goods to cities listed on your Demand cards for the payoff amount. Only one demand per card; discard after use.
• You may carry up to your train’s capacity in loads at a time.
• Draw a new card after discarding a Demand card.

Train Upgrades

• Fast Freight: Increased speed.
• Heavy Freight: Increased carrying capacity.
• Super Freight: Maximum speed and capacity.
• Upgrades are purchased with Loco cards and money.

Using Other Players’ Track

• You may run your train on another player’s track by paying $4 million per turn to each player whose track you use.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Win condition: Be the first player whose railroad connects five of the six major cities AND who has at least $250 million in cash.

Both conditions must be met simultaneously.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Event cards: Drawn instead of Demand cards. Worst are Flood cards, which destroy bridges (crossing points over rivers/inlets), requiring expensive rebuilding at $3+ million per bridge.
• You cannot spend more than $20 million on track in a single turn.
• Load availability is limited to the chips included in the game; no substitutes allowed.
• When you finish with Demand cards, replacements come from the deck (which includes Event cards).
• If you cannot build or deliver, you can drop all 3 Demand cards and draw 3 new ones (losing a turn).
• Two track segments maximum can be built from major city mileposts per turn.
• Building costs $1-3 million out of a major city (depending on the milepost type you’re building toward), but always $5 million to build into a major city.

Player Reference

Starting resources: $40 million, 3 Demand cards, 1 Loco card

Build limit: $20 million per turn

Train: Speed 9, capacity 2 loads (upgradeable)

Using others’ track: $4 million per turn per player

Win condition: 5 major cities connected + $250 million cash