Madrid Connection is a fast network-/portfolio-building train game with the objective of having the most valuable stock portfolio at the end of the game. Players must start new railroads, they may expand existing railroads and they are able to trade stocks in the railroads.
There are 6 colors of wooden locomotives, each color representing a railroad. Players are dealt random hands of 5-10 (depending on number of players) locomotives, which are essentially a stock portfolio; the rest of each color are placed in a pool. On your turn, you can start a railroad or increase the value of a single railroad by placing 1-5 locomotives from the remaining pool of that company or you can trade one locomotive in your portfolio for one or two locomotives from the remaining pool in a railroad.
The game board is a map of Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra, with cities worth anywhere from 1-4 points. Connecting to a city adds to a company's value. The game provides a bonus for crossing national borders. The game holds 3-6 players for about 30 minutes.
The game ends when 5 railroads are devoid of cubes or when a railroad has built into Lisboa. Players' scores are determined by the value of each railroad at the end of the game, multiplied by the number of stocks the player has for that railroad.
Madrid Connection uses the components found in Queen Games’ Paris Connection game. The Madrid Connection game comes with 2 11x17 maps of Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar & Andorra that require trimming and the rules necessary to play Madrid Connection. You must own Paris Connection to play this game. It is possible to play Madrid Connection using the original Winsome SNCF game, but it is not convenient.