Chris Hawks
United States
Apple Valley
Minnesota
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I recently reintroduced myself to Express, and found it to be a surprisingly-enjoyable rummy game. The rulebook, however, is not the clearest, and as such I have a couple of rules questions.
1) The rulebook mentions that when train cards are added to a train already on the table, they're "usually added to one side". I've completely ignored this, in favor of playing cards strictly to the end of the train, since that makes the most sense given the cost/benefit design of cabooses and wilds. If one could play cars at the front of a train (after the loco, of course) that would make cabooses and wilds much more powerful, and the Express bonus for having your passenger cars in the right order much easier to attain! Maybe it's locos that they're referring to...?
2) The rules mention that if a Disaster results in a solitary loco, the loco is returned to its owner's hand. But no explanation is given for how this is handled in partnership play, where by the rules partners play all of their trains together. My solution is to have the abandoned loco go to the hand of the partner whose turn comes next. And because it seems to me that a Disaster is resolved after the turn in which it was discarded, that would mean that if I play a disaster that results in a lone loco, that loco goes to my partner's hand, because he will take his next turn before I do.
3) On the subject of playing Disasters to end a turn: The rules specifically say that when a player discards a Disaster to "go out", the Disaster does not take effect. But what if the resolution of a Disaster causes me to go out? (Example: the cards in my hand all play, and all of my trains score, except for one. I play all of my playable cards and end my turn by discarding the Wreck card, destroying my non-scoring train and meeting the "go out" requirements.) I'd argue that I do not, in fact, go out, because of the rule mentioned. But I could see this one go either way.
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Christian Killoran
United States
Denver
Colorado
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Those are interesting questions, here's my take:
1) Yes, cards are played only at the end of a train. Curious wording, maybe some players build trains vertically?
2) That's how we do it, makes the most sense. In my games this is a rare issue anyway.
3) Our interpretation is that the discard of a player going out cannot do anything to anybody, regardless of the type of card. Therefore you can't wreck your own incomplete train on the same turn you go out.
Good gaming!
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Chris Hawks
United States
Apple Valley
Minnesota
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The exact wording for the rule mentioned in #1:
Quote: Cars are added to the train at one end of the meld (usually the right end), and the order may not be rearranged.
Bizarre, no?
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Anthony Cholag
United States
Ferndale
Michigan
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For the discard of a Wreck card, it states that if you "choose" to discard the wreck, you can make it have no effect, BUT if you play it as a wreck, it still counts as your discard (as it does throughout the rest of the game) and that would constitute a proper "going out".
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