In 1881 a British railway entrepreneur, Sir Edward Watkin, and a French contractor Alexandre Lavalley, formed Anglo-French Submarine Railway Company and dug a 1893m tunnel under the Channel from Shakespeare Cliff in Dover, and a 1669m tunnel from Sangatte in France, before the project was abandoned the following year amid security concerns.

This Snowdonia expansion imagines what would have happened next - with one player taking the part of the English builders, and another taking the part of the French, and each armed with their own boring machine, the players must build, dig and lay track from St. Pancras to Paris, being sure to deal with any crises that crop up along the way.


Click to view route map

Track layout

Stations in detail

St. Pancras

Possibly one of the finest railway stations in the world - St. Pancras was built in 1868 as the terminus of the Midland Railway. Raised above street level to allow the trains to travel over the Regent's Canal to the North (at neighbouring Kings Cross the tracks are at street level as the trains go under the canal), with an undercroft whose structural dimensions are based on the size of a barrel of beer, today St. Pancras also serves as the terminus for Eurostar services to the continent.

Player count : ALL
Build spaces : 4
Surveyor pts : 0

3 stone - 10 points
3 stone - 10 points
2 stone - 7 points
1 steel bar - 10 points

Dover

One of the busiest ports in England, at the location where the Channel is at its narrowest, Dover today is not, technically, part of the Channel Tunnel route, as the actual route starts from near Folkestone, to the south west.

Player count : ALL
Build spaces : 4
Surveyor pts : 0

4 stone - 15 points
3 stone - 11 points
3 steel bars - 30 points

Shakespeare Cliff

The location where the the proposed tunnel started, a station does actually exist here, having been used over the years by coal miners, the military, and those building the current Channel Tunnel. Since the opening of the latter, however, it has fallen into disuse.

Player count : ALL
Build spaces : 4
Surveyor pts :

3 stone - 10 points
2 stone - 7 points
2 steel bars - 20 points

Middle

The very first proposals for the Channel Tunnel envisaged a man-made island on a sandbank mid-Channel, with an airshaft, a port, and a place to change one's horses. More prosaically, the actually tunnel has a large crossover where trains can switch from one tunnel to the other.

Player count : ALL
Build spaces : 4
Surveyor pts : -21

6 rubble (excavation) - 6 points
3 stone - 11 points
2 stone - 8 points
2 steel bars - 20 points

Sangatte

The French counterpart to Shakespeare Cliffe, Sangatte is where the tunnel emerges on the French side of the Channel, and in the present day is the location of the tunnel's French cooling station.

Player count : ALL
Build spaces : 4
Surveyor pts : 0

3 stone - 10 points
2 stone - 7 points
2 steel bars - 20 points

Calais

A major French port, and the destination of the vast majority of ferry traffic from Dover, Calais is a key transport hub in northern France and the counterpart to Dover.

Player count : all
Build spaces : 4
Surveyor pts : 0

4 stone - 15 points
3 stone - 11 points
3 steel bars - 30 points

Gare du Nord

One of Paris's six railway termini, Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in Europe with around 214 million travellers a year. Build in 1846, since the opening of the Channel Tunnel it has served as the main French end of the route.

Player count : all
Build spaces : 4
Surveyor pts : 0

3 stone - 10 points
3 stone - 10 points
2 stone - 7 points
1 steel bar - 10 points

Scenario trains

Trains in detail

Captain Thomas English's Boring Machine (English)

One of two identical trains, which are the only trains available in The Channel Tunnel 1881 Scenario, this train must be bought like any other train - once purchased the owner has access to Action D (use the Boring Machine to excavate, which is done at double the rate - 4 cubes per Worker - than using Action B to excavate). When the two trains meet, the scenario ends.

Captain Thomas English's Boring Machine (French)

One of two identical trains, which are the only trains available in The Channel Tunnel 1881 Scenario, this train must be bought like any other train - once purchased the owner has access to Action D (use the Boring Machine to excavate, which is done at double the rate - 4 cubes per Worker - than using Action B to excavate). When the two trains meet, the scenario ends.

Scenario contract cards

Contract cards in detail

Contract no. 1

Contract terms
Move 5 of your ownership markers from completed excavation and/or non-excavation building sites.

Bonus effect
If you use the Boring Machine to excavate you do so at three times the normal rate (remove 6 pieces of rubble instead of of 2).

Type : Building bonus
Effect location : D
Points : 15

Contract no. 2

Contract terms
Move 4 of your ownership markers from completed excavation and/or non-excavation building sites.

Bonus effect
If you use the Boring Machine to excavate you do so at three times the normal rate (remove 6 pieces of rubble instead of of 2).

Type : Building bonus
Effect location : d
Points : 10

Contract no. 4

Contract terms
Move 2 of your ownership markers from completed excavation and/or non-excavation building sites and move 2 of your ownership markers from completed Track cards.

Bonus effect
You may return one of your ownership markers from the Crisis area to your supply.

Type : Building and Track bonus
Effect location : G
Points : 17

Contract no. 8

Contract terms
Move 8 rubble pieces from your personal supply.

Bonus effect
After all other Crisis Actions have been taken, you may take a Crisis Action as if you had placed a Labourer there this round.

Type : Excavation bonus
Effect location : G
Points : 11

Scenario action spaces