A 2006 Spiel des Jahres winner about building postal routes across 18th-century Germany.
Which sounds like a terrible premise for a board game, and yet.
Build postal routes across the Holy Roman Empire to establish your network and earn the most prestigious coach.
Thurn und Taxis Game Overview
Quick Rules Summary
Players are building postal networks by laying city cards in a chain to form routes, then cashing those routes in to place houses, claim bonus tiles, and upgrade their coach.
Each turn has three steps.
First, draw a city card, either one of the six face-up on the board or blind from the draw pile.
Second, play a card from your hand to extend your current route, either left or right of the existing chain. Cities must be directly connected on the map and cannot repeat.
Third, optionally complete your route if it has at least three cards.
When you complete a route, you choose how to place your houses: either one house per region your route passes through, or one house in every city of a single region.
Longer routes unlock coach upgrades; you climb from a coach 3 up to coach 7 in sequence, each requiring a route of at least that many cards to claim.
Complete all cities in a region to claim its bonus tile.
Four postal officials add tactical options: the Postmaster lets you draw an extra card, the Bailiff refreshes the face-up market, the Coachman lets you play two cards in one turn, and the Wainwright lets you claim a coach upgrade even if your route falls two cards short.
How do you win?
The game ends when any player claims the coach 7 or places their last house.
Your highest coach card value, plus your bonus tile values, minus any unplaced houses left in your supply.
Most points at game end.
Main Mechanisms
Hand management, route building, area coverage, and set collection.
USP
I can imagine this being unique back in the day
Your coach card, bonus tiles, and unplaced houses all interact.
Theme
Historic postal service in Germany. It’s dry, but the map and the flavour give it more character than you’d expect.
Setup
Straightforward. Board in the middle, tiles sorted and stacked, city cards shuffled with six dealt face up.
Components & Artwork
It shows its age.
The board is functional but dated, the card design is plain, and nothing about the presentation would catch your eye across a game shop in 2026.
Ease of Teaching
Very easy. Three actions per turn, one route at a time, simple placement rules.
The regional bonus tiles and building placement need a brief explanation.
Similar Games
Ticket to Ride is the natural comparison with its map-based route building, card collection and coloured regions.
Thurn und Taxis Review
Positives
The combo satisfaction when a long route cashes out is rewarding.
Apparently, the scoring system was ahead of its time.
Negatives
The luck of the card draw can undermine a well-planned route.
It looks old.
Summary
A clever route builder that deserved its Spiel des Jahres and still holds up mechanically. If the art direction ever gets an update, this would be an easy recommendation.
Jesta ThaRogue