2–4 players, everyone starts with 4 cards and the map’s own train supply (30 on the Western Europe board, up to 48 on Asia) Keep at least 2 of your 3 starting destination tickets (link city A to city B) Each turn is ONE action: draw 2 cards, claim a route, or draw 3 new tickets The first player down to 2 trains triggers the final round; then points are counted

Draw from the 5 face-up cards or the blind deck — 2 per turn Taking a face-up Locomotive (wild) uses your whole turn, but it plays as any colour Claim a route by paying its length in one colour (gray accepts any colour) Locomotives fill in for missing colours; a claim places trains equal to the route length

Longer routes score much more: a 3-car route is 4 points, a 6-car route is 15, and the 8-car hauls on Europe and Asia are 21 — the most valuable claim in the game A completed destination ticket scores +its value; a failed one scores the same as − The single longest continuous railway earns its owner +10 GLOBETROTTER: +10 to whoever completed the most destination tickets — everyone tied at the top gets it Most points wins — hidden tickets keep the result a surprise to the end

Iron Rails

A connect-the-cities railway game (a route-claiming railway game): collect coloured train-car cards, spend matching sets to claim routes between towns, and secretly race to complete your destination tickets before the trains run out. 2–4 players + bots, free in your browser.

Western Europe

★ 4.7 / 5 — 88 ratings

Rules

2–4 players; everyone starts with 4 cards and the train supply the map sets — Western Europe 30, Europe and North America 45, Asia 48, Anatolia 34
Pick the board when you create the room: Western Europe (default, the simplest rules), Europe, North America, Asia or Anatolia — tunnels, ferries, stations and long tickets are per board
The advanced rules are per board: tunnels and ferries on Europe, Asia and Anatolia; stations on Europe and Anatolia ONLY; long tickets on Europe, North America and Asia
You draw 3 destination tickets at the start and keep at least 2 (they stay secret)
On your turn do ONE thing: draw 2 cards · claim 1 route · draw 3 new tickets · (on boards with stations) build a station
Draw cards from the 5 face-up market or the blind deck; a face-up Locomotive (wild) is your whole turn
Claim a route by spending a matching-colour set equal to its length, place your trains and score
Gray routes accept any colour; a Locomotive substitutes for any colour
Route points by length: 1→1, 2→2, 3→4, 4→7, 5→10, 6→15, 7→18, 8→21
When a player's trains drop to 2 or fewer, everyone takes one final turn
At the end tickets score ±their value, the longest continuous path scores +10, and GLOBETROTTER gives +10 to whoever completed the most tickets (everyone tied at the top gets it)

How to Play

2–4 players, everyone starts with 4 cards and the map’s own train supply (30 on the Western Europe board, up to 48 on Asia)
Keep at least 2 of your 3 starting destination tickets (link city A to city B)
Each turn is ONE action: draw 2 cards, claim a route, or draw 3 new tickets
The first player down to 2 trains triggers the final round; then points are counted

Cards & Routes

Draw from the 5 face-up cards or the blind deck — 2 per turn
Taking a face-up Locomotive (wild) uses your whole turn, but it plays as any colour
Claim a route by paying its length in one colour (gray accepts any colour)
Locomotives fill in for missing colours; a claim places trains equal to the route length

Scoring & Winning

Longer routes score much more: a 3-car route is 4 points, a 6-car route is 15, and the 8-car hauls on Europe and Asia are 21 — the most valuable claim in the game
A completed destination ticket scores +its value; a failed one scores the same as −
The single longest continuous railway earns its owner +10
GLOBETROTTER: +10 to whoever completed the most destination tickets — everyone tied at the top gets it
Most points wins — hidden tickets keep the result a surprise to the end

Online Train Route Game — Collect Cards, Claim Routes, Connect Cities

Iron Rails is a 2–4 player connect-the-cities railway game and a free, browser-based take on the railway route-claiming game: collect coloured train-car cards, spend matching sets to claim routes across a hand-drawn map, and build the network that links the cities on your secret destination tickets. No download — play instantly against bots or friends.

Every turn is a single clean decision: draw two cards to build your hand, claim a route to score and place trains, or draw new destination tickets for bigger goals. Short game, deep choices.

Destination Tickets: The Secret Race

Each destination ticket asks you to connect two cities by rail. Complete it and you score its value; leave it unfinished and you lose the same amount — so every ticket is a bet on the route you can actually build before the trains run out.

Because tickets are hidden, you never quite know what your rivals are chasing. A route you claim for yourself might also cut off the exact link an opponent needed — blocking is part of the game.

Easy to Learn, Hard to Master

The rules fit on a card: draw, claim, or take tickets. But choosing which routes to race for, when to draw locomotives, and which parallel line to grab first is where good players pull ahead.

When one player runs their trains down to two, everyone gets a final turn and the game ends. Then destination tickets and the longest continuous path are scored — and the lead can flip on the very last count.

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