Boardgames

Railroad Tiles: Canals Expansion

Add Venice-inspired canals, bridges, and gondolas as you balance long routes against costly open ends.

30
minutes

1 - 4
player(s)

Medium Light

Railroad Tiles: Canals Expansion board game cover

About this expansion

Railroad Tiles: Canals Expansion is a thematic expansion for 1–4 players, with games lasting about 30 minutes. It adds Venice-inspired canals, bridges, gondolas, Canal End tokens, pawns, objectives, and other expansion-specific components to the route-building experience.

Each expansion has its own bag of tiles. At the beginning of each round, Route tiles are revealed using a predetermined mix from the Core Box bag and the Expansion bag. The columns still contain the number of tiles shown by their square icons, so the total number of available tiles remains the same and the game length stays similar to core gameplay.

The mix of core and expansion tiles changes which routes are available and creates new challenges. In the Canals Expansion, your goal is to construct canals that are as long as possible while closing their open ends.

  • Build longer canals: Each canal scores 1 Prestige point for every canal tile it contains after the second tile. A five-tile canal is worth 3 points.
  • Close open ends: Each open canal end is worth -2 points at the end of the game. Connect an end to the Empty side of a tile to close it and place a Canal End token.
  • Construct bridges: Some canal tiles feature routes with open gaps. A bridge can be built when both ends of the open route connect to other tiles.
  • Score gondolas: Each gondola is worth 1 point, plus 1 additional point for every bridge in the same canal.

With its blend of route availability, canal planning, bridge construction, and gondola scoring, Railroad Tiles: Canals Expansion reshapes the flow of each game while preserving the familiar overall duration.