SNCF: France & Germany

About this board game

SNCF: France & Germany is a fast network- and portfolio-building game for 3–6 players that plays in about 30 minutes. Players manage locomotive stocks, influence company values, and connect cities across a map of France to create the most valuable portfolio.

Six colors of wooden locomotives represent six different companies. Each player receives a random hand of 5–10 locomotives, depending on the number of players, while the remaining locomotives form the pool. On a turn, a player chooses between increasing a company’s value or trading within their portfolio.

• Increase value: Place 1–5 locomotives from a single company’s pool onto the board.
• Trade stocks: Exchange one locomotive in your portfolio for one or two locomotives from a company’s remaining pool.
• Build networks: Connecting to cities adds value to the relevant company.

The board features cities worth 1–4 points and rural hexes worth 0 points. As companies expand across the map, their values can rise, creating opportunities to shape the market while collecting the colors that support your own holdings.

The game ends when a company reaches Marseille or when only one company still has locomotives in the pool. Each player then multiplies the final value of every company by the number of locomotives of that color in their portfolio. The player with the highest total wins.

Originally released by Winsome Games in 2010, SNCF: France & Germany is a reissue of John Bohrer’s SNCF, following the licensed release Paris Connection. SNCF expansions may also be used with this edition.