Goal of the game

Earn the most money by investing in railway companies and expanding their networks across Ireland.

Game flow overview

Irish Gauge is played over a series of turns. On your turn, you choose and complete one action from four possible options (see below). The game ends when the last dividend cube is drawn from the bag.

Start of the game - initial auction

One share of each railroad company is auctioned, starting with Yellow. Taking turns clockwise, players bid on the Share up for auction. The minimum bid is the large printed value on the Share Certificate. Players may pass and if they do they may not re-enter bidding for that share. The winner becomes the starting bidder for the next share. Continue until one share of each company has been purchased; each player may end up with one share, or multiple, or none.

Available actions on your turn

1. Auction a share: Choose any available share and make an opening bid, which must be at least the large value printed on the share. Bidding continues as in the initial auction until the share is sold.

2. Build track: Place track in the hexes on the board. You may only build track for companies in which you own shares, and track must extend from existing matching track. You may spend up to 3 build points, where;

• unoccupied easy terrain (light green hex) costs 1
• occupied easy terrain (light green hex) costs 1.5
• difficult terrain (dark green hex) costs 2 (only one railway may occupy a difficult terrain hex)
• unoccupied urban hex costs 1
• occupied urban hex costs 1.5

Each time a Railway connects all three of the Major Cities, a special Dividend immediately occurs. Any player who owns a Share of that Railway splits £12.

3. Develop a Town to a City Choose a cube from the bag and place it on an urban hex, to convert it to a city. The town must be connected to a Railway in which you own at least one Share.

4. Call for dividends Draw 3 cubes at random from the bag. The drawn dividend cubes determine which cities pay dividends this turn. A City only pays if at least one of the 3 drawn Dividend cubes is the same colour as the Special Interest cube in the City. Payouts do not happen multiple times if multiple cubes of the same color are drawn. The dividend paid by each company is determined and paid: To generate income and payout to Shareholders, the Railway must:

• connect to a paying City and a Town, OR
• connect to two paying Cities.

If the Railway meets one or both of these requirements, the Railway generates income:

• Paying Cities each generate £4.
• Paying Towns each generate £2.

The total company dividend is split between the shareholders.