Thurn and Taxis

To set up Thurn and Taxis, first shuffle all the city cards and place six face-up next to the board, with the remaining cards forming a draw deck. Next, arrange the carriage cards in ascending order (3, 4, 5, 6, 7) at the top of the board, with a stack of each carriage type available for players. Place the bonus tokens on their designated spaces on the board, ensuring the highest value tokens are on top. Each player receives their set of postal offices and starts with no carriage card.

The objective of Thurn and Taxis is to accumulate the most victory points. Players earn victory points by successfully building postal routes, establishing postal offices in cities, and collecting bonus tokens for completing regions or achieving certain route lengths. Strategic route planning and efficient use of special powers are key to maximizing your score.

On your turn, you must first draw a city card. You can choose to draw one of the six face-up cards or take the top card from the draw deck. After drawing, you must play one city card from your hand to extend your current postal route. The first card played starts a new route. Subsequent cards must be played adjacent to either end of your existing route, connecting to a city that is geographically linked on the board. If you cannot play a card, you 'bust,' discard your current route, and start a new one with a single card.

After playing a city card, you have the option to score your current route. When scoring, you can choose to place a postal office in every city of one specific color within your route, or place one postal office in each city of a different color in your route. You also collect bonus tokens for completing regions (by placing a postal office in every city of a specific color within that region) or for achieving routes of certain lengths (3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 cities). Additionally, you can upgrade your carriage by taking the next available carriage card that matches or exceeds the length of your current route.

The game concludes when one player either places all of their postal offices on the board or collects the 7-carriage card. Once this trigger occurs, the current round is completed so that all players have an equal number of turns. Final scoring then takes place. Players earn victory points for their placed postal offices, any collected bonus tokens, and the value of their highest carriage card. Any unplaced postal offices at the end of the game will deduct one victory point each. The player with the highest total victory points wins.