Canal Mania cover
2006BGG rank #3,267

Canal Mania

by Steve Kendall, Phil Kendall · Ragnar Brothers

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Players2–5
Time90m
ComplexityMedium-Light
Age12+

About the game

What is Canal Mania?

Canal Mania is a game about the great canal-building era of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that captures the feel of the period and gives players plenty of decision making in their attempts to complete some of the most famous British canals. Players will engage brilliant engineers such as James Brindley and Thomas Telford in their efforts to create canals linking emerging manufacturing centers, thereby providing the waterways that supplied the goods generated by the Industrial Revolution. The goal of this game is to have more victory points than your opponents. You gain victory points by building canals (with 0-3 victory point for each hex and 2-8 victory points for the contract) and moving goods through canals (1 for each town you visit, including the first one). Each turn has 3 phases. In each Phase you can chose one action: First Phase: - Take a contract from parliament - Exchange engineers - Discard the five face up building cards Second Phase: - Pick up three face up build cards - Build tiles Third Phase: - Move one good token Any Phase Alternative: - Draw one card from the top of the build deck

How it plays

Mechanics

ContractsEnd Game BonusesHand ManagementHexagon GridIncomeMulti-Use CardsNetwork and Route BuildingOnce-Per-Game AbilitiesOpen DraftingOwnershipPick-up and DeliverTile PlacementTurn Order: Stat-BasedVariable Set-up

On the shelf

Categories

EconomicTransportation

Questions players ask

Questions to bring to BoardGameBrain

  • How do setup and the first turn work in Canal Mania?
  • When does scoring happen and what ends the game?
  • How should the table resolve an unusual timing or rules interaction?