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Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion

Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion

Horrible Guild · 2025Expansion
1–430 min8+ yrs2.0/5 complexity7.4 BGG458CouplesFamily
short answer

How do you play Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion?

Your goal is to create a Desert surrounding your regular tiles, placing Desert Attractions of the different types (Oasis, Pyramid, Sphynx, and Obelisk), connecting them to your regular routes through Desert Stations, and placing Camels to bring people seeing the attractions and gain a few extra points as well.

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Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion box art
official art · Horrible Guild

Your goal is to create a Desert surrounding your regular tiles, placing Desert Attractions of the different types (Oasis, Pyramid, Sphynx, and Obelisk), connecting them to your regular routes through Desert Stations, and placing Camels to bring people seeing the attractions and gain a few extra points as well.

There's a special rule to follow when placing tiles in this expansion: When you place the first Desert tile of the game, it can be placed freely. All following tiles (either regular or Desert) must be placed so that at least 1 side is connected to a tile of the same kind.

Desert tiles feature regular Car and Traveler pin points, but they lack Train pin points. In their place, they feature Camel pin points. You can use a Train Placement token to place a Camel on such a pin point, instead of placing a Train pawn. Desert tiles also feature Desert Trails: these are special routes that can be connected to both Highways and Railways: when you do, you place a Desert Station on the joining point token to mark the connection. Desert Stations are important for the scoring of both Desert Attractions and Camels.

When you place a Camel, you score 1 point for each Desert Station it connects to. Additionally, at the end of the game you gain points for your sets of different Desert Attractions that are connected to at least 1 Desert Station: 1 point for a singl Attraction, 3 points for 2 different Attractions, 6 points for 3, and 10 points for full sets of 4 different Attractions (the same Attraction can't be part of different sets, of course, but the Attractions of a set don't need to be connected to the same Desert Station nor to each other).

Unsurprisingly, the Desert Expansion also comes with a few Objectives: for example, the Desert Market must be part of a route with at least 5 connected Desert Trail segments, while the Great Oasis must be surrounded by at least 4 Desert tiles... but it also counts as an Oasis Attraction!

—description from the publisher

🔬 game anatomy
Complexity2.0 / 5
BGG rating7.4 / 10
Vibe
CouplesFamily
Play time
30 min
Players
1–4
Recommended age
8+ yrs

from Trișache · verified

Frequently asked questions

Q1How much does Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion cost?
No store is currently tracking Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion. Check the Prices tab — you can set a price alert to be notified when it appears.
Q2Where can I buy Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion cheapest?
Check the Prices tab — howtoplay.ro aggregates offers from 7+ Romanian board-game stores and tracks price history.
Q3How do you play Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion?
Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion is a expansion for base-game game, for 1–4 players, taking ~30 minutes, featuring connections. Check the Rules tab for setup, gameplay, and scoring, or ask Trișache anything about Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion — our AI assistant built by howtoplay.ro and trained specifically on board game rulebooks.
Q4How many players does Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion support?
Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion is played by 1–4 players.
Q5How long does a game of Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion take?
A game of Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion takes about 30 minutes. (The first game doesn't count. It never counts.)
Q6What age is Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion for?
Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion is recommended from age 8.
Q7How complex is Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion?
Railroad Tiles: Desert Expansion has a BoardGameGeek complexity of 2.0 out of 5.
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