Hachi Train

About this board game

Hachi Train is a card game for 3–5 players that takes about 20 minutes, set during a mid-20th-century coal crisis. As the third president of an American railroad company, you must sell off your vehicle inventory and avoid being the last player with cards in hand.

When cards are dealt, you may not rearrange them. The starting player leads a single card or a set of cards with the same value, but multiple cards can be played together only when they are adjacent in your hand. This makes the order of your cards an important part of every play.

Once cards are on the table, each play must beat the current play with the same number of cards at a higher value, or with a larger set. For example, a pair can beat a single five, while a pair of sixes can beat a pair of threes. A four-card set can beat a three-card set, creating opportunities to change the flow of the round.

• Overplay: Beat the cards on the table, then pick them up and add them anywhere in your hand.
• Pass: If you cannot or do not want to play, draw a card from the facedown pile.
• Dual-value cards: A drawn card such as 1/2 or 5/6 can be played as either value.

When all but one player passes, the table is cleared, and the last player to play leads again. Once all but one player has emptied their hand, the remaining player loses one of two lives. After four rounds, or when someone loses all their lives, the player or players with the most lives remaining share victory.

With its fixed hand order, reclaiming mechanic, and limited lives, Hachi Train turns every decision to play or pass into a fight to stay in business.