Iron Rails Map Guide: All 5 Boards | Playgridia
In Iron Rails the map is not scenery: every board ships its own rule set. The map you choose in the room decides how many rounds the game lasts, how precious Locomotives are, and whether gambling pays at all. All five boards are drawn from real geography — cities are placed by their true longitude and latitude.
Western Europe — the default starter board
26 cities · 54 routes · 30 trains each · no advanced rules. Drawn specifically so a first-timer doesn't meet 49 cities and every advanced rule at once. The geography and coastlines are the same as the Europe board, but the frame tightens to Lisbon–Warsaw and Edinburgh–Rome: with half the cities, every disc, label and rail draws about 40% larger at the same screen size. No tunnels, ferries, stations or long tickets; a game runs ~25 rounds and the winner typically closes on 63-66 points. Play your first three matches here.
Europe — the flagship
49 cities · 96 routes · 45 trains · tunnels + ferries + stations + long tickets. It runs from the Atlantic to the Caucasus and from Nordkapp to the Levant, with a deliberately rich eastern wing: İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Adana, Trabzon, Erzurum, Moscow, Petersburg, Rostov, Sevastopol. The long tunnels and the Black Sea ferries live in exactly that corner — so playing east means learning to hold Locomotives. The right board if you want the complete rule set at once.
America — the purist route game
36 cities · 100 routes · 45 trains · no tunnels/ferries/stations, long tickets on. The most honest board: instead of gambling mechanics you get brutal 5- and 6-car transcontinental hauls. The 10- and 15-point tiers decide the game, so banking cards and claiming one huge stretch is close to the only strategy. With 100 routes it is also the densest network of the five.
Asia — the biggest board, a Locomotive economy
44 cities · 80 routes · 48 trains · tunnels + ferries + long tickets. The Himalaya and the Pamir knot force nearly every north-south link through a tunnel, and the entire Pacific rim (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka) is reachable only by ferry. Because ferries demand a minimum of Locomotives, here Locomotives are the real currency — opening the island lines without banking wilds first is how you stall.
Anatolia — ours alone, tight and vicious
38 cities · 74 routes · 34 trains · tunnels + ferries + stations. Türkiye at the centre, ringed by the Balkans, the Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Levant and Egypt. Every inland link is a tunnel and every sea crossing a ferry — which is exactly why stations are switched on: being walled out of Anatolia's single east-west spine would otherwise be fatal. It has the smallest train supply (34), so it punishes a wasted turn harder than any other board.
Which one should I pick?
- First time playing: Western Europe. It is already the default — you don't have to choose anything.
- Want the full rule set: Europe.
- Don't want luck mechanics: America — no tunnel gamble, pure planning.
- Want a long, technical match: Asia.
- Want a knife fight in a small space: Anatolia.
You pick the map on the room screen before the game starts. Across 300 simulated games on the four full maps at 2/3/4 players there were zero deadlocks; matches ran 30-42 rounds and winners finished in the 85-108 range.
For the rules see the how-to-play guide; to win, the tactics. Board chosen? Play Iron Rails free.
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