Lineholder: A Game Of Regional Rails 2026

Lineholder: A Game of Regional Rails is a compact rail game about operating routes, earning income, and acquiring railroad companies from a shifting shared market.

Each card in Lineholder is both a route destination and a railroad company. On a turn, a player either claims a route from the market or advances their train along an active route. When the route is completed, the player earns income based on their strongest railroad serving that region, collects a small distance bonus, and may then purchase one available railroad from the market.

The market is central to the game. Railroads become cheaper as they move through the row, but waiting too long may allow another player to block, buy, or discard the company you wanted. Longer routes can generate more income and hold a valuable card in place, while shorter routes return players to the market more quickly. The game ends after the deck is exhausted, and players score the printed value of their railroad portfolio plus half of their remaining cash.

Lineholder is inspired by older regional rail games, but compresses the experience into a shorter card-driven format with no route charts, no dice movement, and minimal upkeep. A solo mode against two simple market-driven bots is included.

—description from the designer