Small World is a fantasy game with a light sense of humor presented in its character art. Basically, you play a series of races attempting to control the most territory that you can with the race until it is nearing extinction or spread too thin to continue. At that point, you swap out for a new race, and continue on.

The game employs a simplistic combat system, and attempts to shift the focus of the game to the strategy element of determining when to push it and when to fold.  It’s gameplay is easy to learn, but the strategy can be difficult to fully see. Enjoy the video, then check out the written review if you are still interested in the game.

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Gameplay

Gameplay in Small World is rather simple. A series of 6 race banners, and special power pieces will be combined to give you a unique type of race. Each race will have an ability and that will combine with the special power to give you two unique things that you will be able to do as you use the combo. As you go through the game, you will be drafting these combos in such a way that if you don’t want to take the first choice, you “buy” your way up the ladder until you find a combo you do like. With each combo you skip, you give up one of your victory points to that combo.

Eventually, when a combo is skipped enough, it will begin to look a lot more attractive. On down the road, you might be willing to take a less attractive race/power combo in order to gain victory points equal to the number of players that previously chose to skip over it. 

Once you make your selection, you will pick out the tokens from the box that match your race. You will combine the number on the power token with the number on the race banner, and that will give you the total number of troops you receive. This mechanic is mostly a balancing factor. Some powers or races may be really attractive, but the number of troops you get will balance things out a bit.

Once you have your troops, you will enter the “world” by conquering an area that is either adjacent to the edge of the board, or adjacent to a water area that is adjacent to the edge. From here out, you expand out from that space, taking as many adjacent areas as you have the troops to take. Once you spread yourself so far that you can’t spread any further, or take too much battle damage, you will want to place your race in decline and pick another race.

Let’s discuss combat damage first. This is the area where the game becomes a bit predictable. To move into an area and take it over, you must use two of your troops, plus one extra for each piece of cardboard already in the area. That cardboard can be an enemy token,  a neutral token that the game starts with, a mountain, or any other piece in the game that you would place in an area. If you meet the required number, you take the area over. 

When you take over an area, all of an enemy’s tokens are temporarily removed from the board. The first piece removed goes back to the box and usually can’t be brought back out. Anything above that first piece goes back to it’s player, who may re-deploy them once your turn concludes. In this sense, the game is very much a game of attrition. Each battle a player losses is one less token they have to play with. So you want to keep your areas defended. However, by doing that, you can’t spread to new areas, which ensures that you will get less victory points at the end of each of your rounds.

Ultimately, players can take just about any area they want. In doing so, they won’t risk any of their troops. However, if you spend 6 of your troops to take an enemy stronghold, that is that much less power you can spread taking other areas. Not only that, but when you take an area with multiple enemy tokens present, they only permanently lose one of those. When you take a weakly defended area of your enemies, then it takes a lot less of your troops, and they still lose that one troop. As a result, a lot of the simplicity of the combat is offset by the strategy of knowing the best ways to use your troops.

But one additional layer of strategy comes into play as you start looking at your turns and seeing that your troops are running out of potential for expansion. You get one victory point for each piece of land you control at the end of your turn. So, if you lose the ability to take that land on your turns, you lose the ability to continue progressing toward victory.

This is where entering into decline comes into play. Once you realise that your race is starting to feel inadequate, you will need to consider decline. When you go into decline, you flip all of your tokens over to their greyed out sides, and lose most (if not all) of your powers. If you had any races in decline before this, you take them off the board, then tally your points for the round. Declined races still generate victory points, but can’t do anything else. In addition, when you go into decline, that is all you can do on your turn.

On the your turn after you go into decline, you get to pick a new race to bring into play. At that point, you are generating victory points based on both your active race and your decline race. This sometimes leads you to ditching a race that you were just beginning to enjoy. However, it often makes good strategic sense.

As you earn victory points throughout the game, you keep them hidden. Once everyone has had a set number of turns, the points are tallied, and the game is over. For me, I often felt that the games were too short when we played them. The idea of switching out races was the draw to the game, and the bit of strategy that I enjoyed most. But it turns out that it was something that you only got to do 3-4 times in a game. I would have enjoyed that a lot more, had the game continued on. 

Other than the issue with the length of the game, there isn’t much I have to complain about for gameplay. Yes, combat is predictable. However, between splitting your forces to face multiple enemies, figuring out the prime time to go into decline, and figuring out the best ways to both benefit you and hurt your enemies, I thought there was more than enough to keep the planners busy. 

Components

Days of Wonder has some of the best component standards in the industry. All of their art is well done, even if the style in the particular case can be off-putting to some. Still, they theme their games very well, and it shines on the pieces themselves. 

I love a company that puts a lot of thought into how to store your game components, and that’s what Days of Wonder does in every game I’ve purchased from them. In this case, there is a place for everything, and a chart to show you where those places are.

However, things aren’t perfect on this front. While everything has it’s place, that doesn’t mean that it works out great. The pieces slide around in the tray, get stuck in annoying ways, and otherwise disrupt my OCD like crazy. The victory tokens have a generic side, and then a side display one of four different values. In principle, this is nice. In actuality, its a pain in the butt. Getting them in and out of the box is annoying enough. But when you add in the fact that you have to take the time to flip each coin to its value side at the end of the game in order to determine which stack of coins goes to which slot…it gets to be too much really fast. This is of course assuming that you are particular about organizing your games. A smarter and less picky person would probably just toss them in any way they could. After all, each slot in the box isn’t specially sized to fit the stacks of tokens. 

Ultimately, the biggest component issue that actually effects gameplay is the decline side of race tokens. Playing the game is great with these tokens. You have the flavorful art and gorgeous colors on display, and all is good. But the moment you go into decline, things become annoying. Because all of the tokens are greyed out on the decline side, it becomes a chore to sort out which decline tokens are yours, and which ones aren’t. When you play with multiple people, its a real effort to not mis-count decline tokens or look over tokens you assume aren’t yours. The pictures of the races are all there, but without the colors, it makes it extremely difficult to make out the differences. I would have personally preferred the decline side to have kept the art exactly the same, but added a big red “X” over the picture instead. You know they are in decline, but you can still make out pictures easier.

Rules

The game has a hefty amount of rules, but it isn’t too bad. As mentioned before, combat is pretty simple. However, that isn’t to say that there aren’t a couple things that new players could get hung up on. There are a couple different situations where you need to re-deploy troops (Beginning of turn, end of turn, and after being removed via combat). There are different rules for the different situations. All of them are pretty easy. But because of their similarities, new players may have an issue or two keeping the differences straight.

The majority of the issues will come from the race/power combo rules. Each player will have a reference sheet to explain the rules of each token. This is a nice touch, but often trims some of the rules to the point that you will need to look them up in the full manual. A slightly smaller font would have allowed all of the rules to make it onto the massive reference sheet, and not left any room for questions. 

The other problem with the race/power combos comes from the fact that each one has it’s own separate rules. This isn’t a problem if you play the game a lot and remember which race does what. However, new players will have to look up each and every power in order to make their choices. The 6 race/power combos on the board, that means you need to look up 12 separate rules before you are comfortable making a choice. That can really slow the first few games a player plays down. 

Overall

The game is a light and yet deceptively deep game. The strategy lies in areas you generally don’t see in games. Its essentially a combat game with very light focus on the combat. This means that a lot of people will get the intricacies of the system, and some people will be disappointed at what it is not. 

Overall, the game is a great addition to my collection. It doesn’t quite convey an addiction to my group that other games have, but I have no doubt that it is still a great game in it’s own way. Even based on a ten year old game in Vinci, the game still has a unique mechanic that I haven’t seen before in the way you treat your races. 

Not everyone is going to love the game, but I think a lot of people will have a strong sense of enjoyment from it. Knowing what it is going into it will help to maximize your potential for enjoyment. 

Pros and Cons

+/- Simple and Predictable combat system
+ Easy rules
- A ton of tokens that don’t always like to get along with its travel compartments
+ Lots of colorful art
- Cheesy fantasy theme
+ Multiple levels of strategy
- Mind boggling decisions on “in decline” artwork and the reference sheets

You can purchase this game at Thoughthammer:

Randy – Editor, Show host, & Written Review
Russell – Show Host
Ray – Recoding Studio, Lights, Sound, & Camera

Also, thanks to Thoughthammer for making this possible, and to Beatnik Turtle for the intro music “Beat People Up (Remix)“!

Dominion has a light fantasy theme to it. The idea is that you are the heir to a small portion of land. You feel the need to expand it, and you do that by vying for the surrounding land. However, this theme is only loosely attached. Mostly it’s there for the purpose of attractive card art, and the ability to name cards something that makes sense thematically. In this case, your victory points carry the names of “Duchy”, “Estate”, and “Province”.

One of the reasons I wanted to cover this particular game is because it’s defined as a “gateway game”. If you are looking for a game that takes very little time to learn and to teach to others, look no further than Dominion. But the ease of play does not come at the expense of depth. Quite the contrary, each game can be a very different experience. That’s the reason I recommend this game for those of you that have 2-4 players wanting to get into something simple, yet fun.

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Gameplay

Dominion is an incredibly simple game to play. I like to say that if you can count, then you can play Dominion. But while the game is simple to play, it takes a certain grasp of the game in order to get the details of the “strategy”. I use the word strategy lightly, because in reality, the only real strategy comes from finding a deck build that works for you, and then doing any adjustments based on what the other players in the game may be throwing at you. However, that deck building mechanic is enough to ensure that new players will find it tough to beat veteran players. So, I suggest that people playing the game for the first time, find players of a similar skill level to start the game with. The other option is to play with someone that knows the game, but is willing to explain some of the ideas behind his/her deck as they go along.

The idea behind the game is to “draft” a deck for yourself by buying cards with whatever money you have available by the end of your turn. In each turn, you will have five cards. You start with one action, and one buy. By purchasing (and then playing) new kingdom cards, you will be able to increase the number of actions you can play in a turn, increase the number of buys you can make, and increase the number of coins you may use during the buy phase. In addition, you can purchase new coin cards, which only serve the purpose of making your deck more valuable for the purpose of future purchases. All of this leads to the ultimate goal of being able to afford enough victory points that by the end of each game, you have more victory points in your deck than all of your opponents.

That’s the basic idea of the game anyway. It’s the details of the equation that make everything turn out so well, and become so addictive. Each game with have 10 kingdom cards in addition to the cards the effect your victory points, and the coin cards. Those kingdom cards make the heart of the game. In my opinion, the game is best played when you use a random assortment of the 25 possible choices of kingdom cards in order to choose the 10 that will wind up in play. It’s difficult to put into writing how much of an impact this can have on the level of fun that players can have.

With the random factor, each game will have a completely different feel to it. Some games will have a lot of interaction between the different players. It may become a game of balancing defenses with the attack cards that other players pick up. Or, you may be missing attacks and/or defences altogether. In some games, players will be able to flip through their entire deck each turn, making the most of what they have. Still, in other games, you will find it hard to play more than 2 or 3 cards on your turn. Fate steps in and decides how your game will play. But ultimately, you decide what is fun for your particular group. You can make the choice to play with what your dealt, or pluck certain choices from the pile.

The game seems rather counter-intuitive in certain areas. The best deck will sometimes be the smallest deck, not the one with the coolest action cards in it. In this regard, a few people may have problems with the way things go. It may not be as fun to play that way for certain players, but they will do it anyway, as it’s their best chance for victory. Another common problem is that people may find that the interaction between players will have highs and lows as you play through different kingdom combinations. Certainly, the game is not perfect.

However, in almost every situation I’ve seen, people find the game to be very addictive and fun. So much so, in fact, that they not only want to play several times in a row, but they also often want to purchase their own copy afterward. Possibly the best thing about the game is that it works just as well with a group of two as it does with four players. And presumably when the expansion comes out, you will have the same experience with even more players. Games that scale that well are hard to find, and Dominion stands out as a gem in that regard.

Not everyone is going to love the game, but I’d wager that a good number of people probably will. You owe it to yourself to try this game out.

Rules

Once you know the basics of the game, you will rarely ever have to look at the rule book again. That’s a good thing in my opinion, because it is without a doubt one of the ugliest rule books you will ever see. Apparently someone had Easter colors on the mind when they set to designing the book, because it uses almost entirely pastel colors. But, with that said, the rule book is more like a rule pamphlet. It only contains a few pages, and some of those pages are a description of the theme and/or specific cards.

This really is a simple game. The only problems you may have involve working out exactly how each card works in the game, especially with cards that can be combined with other cards. However, the design of the game lends itself to simple concepts that just about anyone should be able to learn.

Components

This is a card game. Make no mistake about that fact. If you go into the purchase realizing that, then you shouldn’t have any problems when you see what the rather large box contains. 500 cards are all waiting for you when you open the box. They are meant to be opened, and then sorted into the included sorting compartment. Many people with large game collections will have a problem with the amount of shelf space such a simple game takes up. However, I found the box to be a godsend for organization. The OCD in me loves the fact that I can make a diagram of my box to find everything I need with very little extra work. It really makes the setup and break down time a snap.

The other potential issue that people may have with the game comes from the risk of wear and tear on the cards. Because the game will have you almost constantly shuffling for 30+ minutes, the cards will begin showing that after a few plays. People that love keeping their games in absolute pristine condition will have a major issue with this. The solutions are to purchase sleeves for each card (WARNING: Cards are not standard playing card size), to come up with an alternative to the card method, or to just deal with it.

Overall

I think that ultimately this game will fall in line somewhere after  my favorite games that contain a lot more strategy. However, the play time, easy difficulty level, and variety will keep me interested in this game for quite sometime. It already looks like there is going to be a lot of support for the game in the form of further expansions. A few new interesting card ideas could really mix things up a bit. In addition, with a larger card variety to choose from, you won’t see the same strategies used time and time again.

I believe that this is a game everyone should at least give a try if they have the opportunity. This is a game that I wouldn’t even have to play frequently in order to see the value in. It makes a great pull out and play game for guests. Teach them how to play, and then they will quickly catch on and develop their own methods. Gateway games have a tendency of being a little more shallow in some areas than the deeper games. But in this case, I don’t find myself getting bored with the game, or wishing I was playing something else.

Pros and Cons

+ Easy to learn
+ Quick to play
+ Lots of Variety
- Strategy becomes obvious
+/- Game box is large, only contains cards
+ Box is made to sort cards in
- Cards get beat up unless you protect them

You can purchase this game at Thoughthammer:

Randy – Editor, Show host, & Written Review
Russell – Show Host
Ray – Recoding Studio, Lights, Sound, & Camera

Also, thanks to Thoughthammer for making this possible, and to Beatnik Turtle for the intro music “Beat People Up (Remix)“!

The next five or more games that we cover will be right up the alley of Geekshow subscribers in our opinion. So I hope you take the time to watch a couple of these if they strike your fancy.

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for now, download or go to Youtube.

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Last Night on Earth is a zombie apocalypse game released by an upstart company, Flying Frog Productions in 2007. Jason Hill designed the game. As of the date of this review, Flying Frog Productions only has 2 games currently out. Last Night on Earth, and A Touch of Evil. The two games are quite similar in their “evil” themes, and the quality of both games seems to be quite high. Also, Flying Frog games are now notorious for packing soundtracks in with their board games. It’s important to note though, that most people consider the Last Night on Earth (To be called LNoE from here out) soundtrack to be rather bad.

Gameplay

LNoE is a two-sided game. One side will play controlling the zombies, and one side will play controlling the human characters. The zombie side is played by either 1 or 2 players (2 players in the case of a 4 or 6 player version of the game). The human side always contains 4 characters, and those 4 characters can be controlled by up to 4 players. Right off the bat, I have to mention that in my experience, the best games occur when there is only one player playing the zombies. When you have two players playing the zombies, there are a lot of questions that your group may have that will send you seeking out answers, many of which will require unofficial answers. It really takes you out of the game. So I highly suggest making your first few play throughs  happen with only one zombie player, and then deciding from there whether or not you want to try allowing a second zombie player.

Overall, the basic mechanics of the game are very simple. The Zombie player draws cards to make a hand size of 4 cards, he rolls to see if he can spawn new zombies at the end of his turn (Roll 2 D6, if the total you roll exceeds the number of zombies on the board, you will be able to spawn new zombies at the end of your turn. Thus, the less zombies you have on the board, the greater the chances of bringing in new zombies), then the zombie player moves each zombie one space, resolves combat where need be, and finally spawns new zombies if he succeeded in his ability to spawn new zombies earlier in the turn. To spawn the new zombies, the player rolls a D6, and places that many zombies as evenly as possible in the zombie pits on the board. Play then passes to the human players.

Each human player may take their turns however they wish. You can switch your turn orders to benefit you the most. The basic idea of a human’s turn is that the will first get the opportunity to move (Roll a D6, move that many spaces). After they roll their movement, they may instead give up their move in order to search for an item or an event card. In order to do this, the character must be in a building, give up their move, and then draw a card from the human deck. If it’s an event card, it goes to the player’s hand, and may be played on any character in the game. If it is an item card, it goes to the character who drew the card. A character may have up to 4 items, 2 of which may be weapons. After this step, characters have the option to use a ranged weapon (If they have one). Finally, they resolve combat with all zombies that are in their current space at the end of their turn.

This is the basic steps to the game, and is actually rather simple to learn. Players will generally have the basic rules and steps of the game down in one game. And if you have that down, you are well on your way to understanding the game. However, there is a lot more to the game that will change how you think about it. First, each character has special abilities, which often change the rules of the game. For instance, Jake Cartwright gets to draw two cards from the human deck when he searches, rather than one. Then he must choose one to keep. Secondly, there will be many rules that will only occasionally arise. Like when you get gasoline, you may need to know how to use it, and what it is good for. Third, each scenario will have a different objective that will add more complexity. Collect items, protect a location, or possibly collect items and take them somewhere. In all of those cases, you will need to add additional rules to the game.

Even with the added rules, the game never gets too bogged down with manual reading. However, it is an issue that you will need to be aware of, and be prepared for. It is something that I imagine a few people will have issues with. The other complaint in this regard is that several of the rules in the books are not completely clear as written. Sometimes, you may need to seek answers, and for that I suggest the Unofficial FAQ available of LNoE’s Boardgamegeek page. Even then, things won’t always be clear.  So just be prepared to make some judgments, and not allow the game to break down into debates.

As for the gameplay itself, I highly approve of what is there. The game plays rather fast, so that you can get several plays in during a 3+ hour game night. In addition, there feels like there is a lot of heft to the game as far as strategy goes. Yes, sometimes the game will break down into the luck of the card draws, especially with certain scenarios. However, quite often, players can do a good job of maneuvering, knowing when to focus on certain goals, and as a result the game gets rather strategic. I tend to prefer playing as the humans in 3+ player games, just for the social aspect of that. However, I actually enjoy playing as both sides in this game. That’s not always the case in games like this where the sides play completely different.

Combat is a system that I think works really well. It’s easier for humans to “win” at combat, since they almost always roll more dice. However, since zombies win on ties, and always deal damage when they win (Which is not the case for humans, who have to not only win, but also roll doubles in order to deal damage). the zombies are a lot more dangerous. Overall, I find the combat in the game to be quite exciting. There is a lot of risk for both sides. More importantly, there is a lot of methods that you can use to your advantage, no matter which side you are on. When do you use your combat cards? How far do you push things? Do you use the strength in numbers? Or do you try to push heightened individuals for combat? This all makes things very interesting, and always keeps things fresh, in my opinion.

Rules

I already covered a lot of the issues that the rules face in the gameplay section, just because it effects gameplay so much. The basic game is very simple. As you add more rules, you add a bit more complexity, but the worst thing about the additional rules are the questions that come with them. The LNoE manual is pretty hefty, and you will find yourself flipping through it quite often, unless you eat, breathe, and sleep this game. Still, for the most part, it is pretty well organized, and won’t be a huge burden for players.

Components

The components to LNoE is one of the really strong points for the game. It would have been nice if the figures were painted, but even as they are, they are pretty nice. Also, the cd soundtrack that comes with the game is pretty lackluster. But given that it’s the first time I’ve seen something like that done in a game, I can’t complain too much. However, with that said, I can’t come up with too many other drawbacks for the components.

The pros of the components far outweigh the cons, in my opinion. The top of that list has to be the beautiful “art” of the game. I use the term art loosely, because the art is actually a series of in-theme photo shoots with actual actors and actresses. However, it works so well, that I often find myself forgetting that these people are real. All of the character cards, event and item cards, shots in the manual, etc are actual pictures from photography sessions. All the work from the art has really paid dividends for setting up the theme.

I haven’t mentioned this lately, but the theme for the game is actually more to do with Zombie movies rather than zombies in general. A lot of the cards, scenarios, and characters are intentionally cheesy, because that’s the theme that they are going for. And they pull it off wonderfully. It really feels like you are playing through a zombie “B Movie”. And I mean that in a positive way. Even if you don’t enjoy that style of movie, as long as you can have a good time laughing at that style, you are going to feel right at home with this game.

That theme is what makes the art really stick to this game. Normally, you might complain about the characters fitting such extreme stereotypes, but since that was the obvious intention in the design, it all works out perfectly. Whoever initially came up with that idea deserves a pat on the back, in my opinion.

The other components that come with the game are also pretty high quality. The pieces that make up the board are pretty well done. I only have one slight annoyance in that regard, and that’s the fact that the colors are sometimes a little more faded  than other times. And again with the cards, I really like what they do for the game, but they also have a small annoyance for me. The style of lamination that they use for the cards sometimes makes them stick together. It can make it a bit difficult to shuffle/draw/etc, especially when you first buy the game. But overall, these issues don’t effect the gameplay much at all, so I can’t fault them too much for that.

Overall

I also have to mention at this point that I really enjoyed the Growing Hunger expansion. Most of my favorite characters come from that set. I’m not a big fan of the new red zombies with yet more fiddly rules, but I can tolerate them. The additional map pieces also add in some additional variety. But to be honest, it’s the characters and the additional cards that do it for me in this case.

LNoE has been one of my groups most played games for going on 2 years now. It’s not the type of game you can play all the time, but it’s something that you can always come back to. Add in the fact that it’s easy to squeeze in a  game at the end of the game night, and it all adds up to many, many plays over time.

My overall opinion of the game rises and falls, depending on how each game plays out. Sometimes, LNoE rises into my top 5 games, and sometimes it’s something I’m not interested in playing for a while. However, a majority of the time, I still find myself placing the game in my top 10 favorite games. So, I have to recommend everyone check things out, and see if it’s something you could find yourself having fun with. Watch the video review, and if it intrigues you, definitely consider giving it a buy.

Pros and Cons

+ Strategic gameplay
- The rules sometimes get a bit fiddly
+ Combat often feels fresh and fluid
+ The art is beautiful
- Games often rely a little too much on luck
+ Components are of high quality
+ Make your own scenarios
+/- Zombie movie feel

You can purchase this game at Thoughthammer:

Randy – Editor, Show host, & Written Review
Russell – Show Host
Ray – Recoding Studio, Lights, Sound, & Camera

Also, thanks to Thoughthammer for making this possible, and to Beatnik Turtle for the intro music “Beat People Up (Remix)“!

Download:  iPod/Low Bandwidth Format | 720p HD Format
View on Youtube. Subscribe and leave comments, please!

Railroad Tycoon was released in 2005. In 2008, a new expansion was released for it. The name “Railroad Tycoon” was based on the computer game of the same name. As a result, manufacturing copies of the game required paying a licensing fee. So when it came time to make an expansion game, they decided it was in their best interest financially to remove the Railroad Tycoon name. Instead, they named the expansion, “Rails of Europe“. In addition, they removed every mention of Tycoons in the game. Even the “Mission” cards you collect at the beginning of the game are called “Baron Cards” rather than “Tycoon Cards”.

It is important to mention that this game is an expansion. It can’t be played without the components from the first game. So you will have to either buy Railroad Tycoon, the forthcoming Railways of the World, or do some printing in order to come up with the components you need to play. But with that in mind, let’s discuss what makes this game better than Railroad Tycoon. Keep in mind, that I’m assuming you’ve already read my Railroad Tycoon review, and/or watched the video.

Gameplay

The fact is, this game plays like Railroad Tycoon in just about every way. The game mechanics are virtually identical. Only a couple additions and subtractions from the base game exist. However, those changes along with the different board (Europe vs The US) create a much more tight gameplay experience.

My favorite gameplay change from Railroad Tycoon involve the Major Lines. These were used in RRT in order to reward you for completing connections between two far off cities. For instance, New York to Chicago would net you a lot of bonus points. However, in RRT, you had to wait for those specific cards to come up. Then it would be a mad dash to see if anyone could get there. It was a neat mechanic, for sure. It created a lot of rushes for particular destinations.

With Rails of Europe, they changed the way Major Lines work. From the start of the game, all of them are available for completion. So you will always be working with an eye toward completing these connections. It’s a subtle change, but it has an interesting effect on gameplay. Instead of creating late game rushes, you have to keep an eye on your opponents the whole game.

However, a majority of the gameplay differences come from the board design itself. The major “problem” for Railroad Tycoon, when it came to gameplay, was that everything was so spread out. In a game with few players, it would wind up with there being too much open space for a really interactive game. So the games often ended up being awarded to players that could break off and manage to remain un-harassed by their fellow players. There was also the problem of a lot of wasted space that didn’t really provide much usefulness in the game. In our games, there were literally cities that we had never built to after dozens of plays.

With Rails of Europe, the layout of the board is brutal. The two biggest cities, Paris and Berlin, are in the center of the map. If you want a decent chance at winning the game, you are probably going to have to build through those cities. There are a healthy number of cubes waiting to be delivered there, and a large number of major line connections involve that area. This alone changes the game dynamic. Instead of the US map encouraging players to stay away from the west as much as possible, this map encourages players to start their scrums in the center of the map, and work out in whichever direction benefits you the most. Instead of having 5-8 cities go untouched in a game, we now usually only have 1-2 cities (Athens, and Copenhagen, usually) that go untouched for multiple games.

The mechanics of the game encourage you to build to places you may normally not build. Nearly every corner of the board is made accessible and possible because of the points the appropriate Major Lines will give you. Add in the Service Bounties, which give players points for being the first person to deliver a cube to a certain city, and just about every major area of the board with be built to in most games.

There is at least one issue I’ve had with the new mechanics of the game, however. Capital Charter is a new type of card making it’s way into the game this time around. The card awards you for your opponents building into or out of Paris and Berlin. However, the card takes an action to acquire, and is heavily restricted in it’s use. For one, only track built after you receive the card gives you bonus points. Secondly, you only get 1 point for each route out of the city per player. So if you are playing with the maximum number of players, and you get the card on the first turn of the game, you can probably get the maximum 4 points. However, if you get the card later in the game, you are looking at 1-2 points, maximum. It’s probable that you may not get any points from the card as well. We’ve taken the cards out of our rotation, just because they are usually lame ducks that take up space that much cooler cards could occupy. I personally feel that the game took a step forward by making the Major Lines stay around constantly. However, it took a step back because of the Capital Charters using a similar method as the original Major Lines.

Overall though, the gameplay is fantastic in the expansion. A definite improvement to Railroad Tycoon. One that has made sure that we haven’t touch RRT since Rails of Europe hit the table. However, if you are looking for an experience for 5 or 6 players, you may actually be better suited to the Railroad Tycoon experience. The extra space can make for a better experience in larger games.

Rules

I felt that that the rules for Railroad Tycoon were incredibly simple. Rails of Europe adds virtually nothing new in that regard. The instruction manual is a couple pages long. Most of that is giving you the new victory point conditions (You now need less empty city markers than before), and outlining the couple new cards they have added to the game. Otherwise, the rules remain incredibly simple.

The one complaint I have in this area, is that the game seems to ignore the fact that 2 player games aren’t just possible, they are insanely fun. Since it ignores that, they don’t bother to include the victory conditions for a two player game. But given the way the game scales for higher players, simple math will tell you what you need. Hint: 9 cities should do the trick.

Components

For the most part, the expansion uses Railroad Tycoon’s pieces. This is another good opportunity to point out that the game doesn’t come with the pieces you will need to play the game. Buy Railroad Tycoon, Railways of the World, or make your own somehow.

However, what the game does have is the new board, and a few new cards. The cards are nothing special. They are the same as always. However, I have to give the developers credit for the board design. Railroad Tycoon got this aspect of the game wrong in a couple ways. The board warping and the bad color matching could actually effect your games. However, this board is fantastic. It doesn’t seem to even have the potential for warping because of how it folds. The colors are very vibrant and attractive. The one complaint I’ve heard on this matter is that the board has such a glossy sheen to it, that it reflects light too easily. This doesn’t personally bother me, but that is something to be aware of.

Overall

Rails of Europe is a game that we will be coming back to frequently. It  does tend to last about 2 hours, so you need a healthy chunk of time available in order to get the full enjoyment of it out. However, the overall experience is as solid as I’ve seen. It will probably be one of my favorite games for a long time to come. It has a lot of re-playability, just because things tend to shake out differently every time. Also, it isn’t the type of game where you can usually run off with the lead, or be completely knocked out of the game. There are some instances where that has happened in our games, but not many. Overall, the game is forgiving.

You should have an easy time teaching this game to new players. Chances are, they will be up for playing again after you get the initial game out of the way. Everyone I have played the game with has had a great experience. The came can get brutal at times as you rush for Major Lines, bid to prevent a player from taking a certain action, and come out of nowhere to claim extra points. However, it is the type of game where you can do that while having a conversation, laughing, and generally having a good time.

You can purchase this game at Thoughthammer:

Randy – Editor, Show host, & Written Review
Russell – Show Host
Ray – Recoding Studio, Lights, Sound, & Camera

Also, thanks to Thoughthammer for making this possible, and to Beatnik Turtle for the intro music “Beat People Up (Remix)“!

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In the Board Gaming community, railroad games are a very popular breed. They may not have the sales figures of the big name games, but they have a cult following amongst a large portion of the board game community. So, when I was first getting heavy into the board gaming scene, I wanted to try out a game from the coveted “genre” of games.

The Board Gaming community is a lot like a dog breeding community in that they hate game comparisons. You will often be ridiculed for comparing the mechanics to one game to the mechanics of another. So saying something like, “This game feels like Risk, except for…” is a bad thing to do with hardcore gamers. So, when you start looking for a train game to try out, you’re going to get a lot of responses about how you can’t compare the train games since they are all so different. Honestly, I agree with that in many regards. Age of Steam and Railroad Tycoon are similar games (They share a developer). Meanwhile, neither game is even remotely similar to Ticket to Ride (Those of your with an Xbox 360 could give the Live version of TTR a trial run). So, when I was deciding which game to play first, I had to look for something familiar.

The Namesake

Railroad Tycoon is a board game based on a Sid Meier Train Sim video game. I had tried out the video game before. I’m the type of person that enjoys sim games, depending on the mood I’m in. So for a good month or two, I was very enamored by the game. Occasionally, I will pick it up again, and try it out. It’s pretty fun building your network of track, trains, and stations. So, when looking for a train board game, I stuck with the name I knew. Railroad Tycoon: The Board Game is not Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon. They are worlds apart in how they play, and where the focus lies. Below is my written review of the board game, so that you can see what it actually is.

Up until Railroad Tycoon, my game collection was made almost exclusively of Fantasy Flight games. I respect Fantasy Flight for their constant commitment to excellence in their design, components, and customer service. So this was not a bad thing for me at all. However, Railroad Tycoon was a shocking departure from my standard fare. The components were still solid, but the whole package didn’t feel quite as mass produced as a Fantasy Flight game would feel. This could be seen as both a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. However, there were enough things that were right with the package, that it has since become one of my most played games.

Gameplay

Railroad Tycoon is a simple game to learn, but complex in how it plays. The only real amount of luck that takes place in the game comes from the initial draw of goods cubes to the board, and the order in which cards come into play. The remainder of the game really revolves around each player’s ability to develop a strategy that  takes several things into consideration. Developing this strategy, adapting to what your opponents do on their turns, and learning when to open the wallet are the keys to winning the game.

A Huge map of the eastern US

When the game board is set out, a number of cubes will be placed on the various cities of the game. These cubes will be one of several colors. Blue, Purple, Black, Yellow, or Red. The object of the game, in the nutshell, is to move the cubes to a city that matches the cube’s color. A black cube needs to arrive at a black city, a red cube needs to go to one of the rare red cities, etc. The amount of distance that a cube travels will depend on the score that you receive for the movement. For example, if you move a cube from one city to the next, that’s one point. But if you move it along one link, and then to a second link, that counts for 2 points, assuming both links were on your own track.

So the ideal situation is for you to build a long enough track that you can get cubes from their origination city to their destination city without needing to use your opponent’s track. To do so, you will be jockeying for positions in and out of each city. If all the available slots in/out of the city are taken, you will be cut off from creating more. However, this constant struggle to get the prime locations on the board is not all you have to worry about. In addition, you need to worry about upgrading your train to a higher level in order to be able to deliver the goods cubes over a long distance. If a cube needs to travel 2 links of distance, then you need a level 2 train. 3 links needs a level 3 train, etc.

You start with a random Tycoon Card goal.

Add in your Tycoon card’s goal (Issue the least number of shares, Have the most money, etc) and the strategy gets deeper. The order in which cards come up will further increase the amount of strategy you need to have. Because Cards come up prior to the auction, every player will have the opportunity to get the card first. But if that’s something you want to do, you will have to spend money to get that chance.

1 Share gets you $5k

Like any good business game, spending money is a big part of the game. In this case, you don’t actually have any cash to start the game. Everything you do requires you to issues shares. For every share of stock you issue, you get $5,000 to spend however you please. The problem is, once that share is issued, you can never buy it back.  This is a tough thing to deal with, because you will often finding yourself just short of the cash you need to do something. You can issue that share, but for the rest of the game, you will have to pay dividends on that share. Dividends mean that you lose out on the money that you would otherwise collect at the end of each round. For each share you have, your income is $1,000 less.

By the end of the game, you hope that you’ve balanced your spending habits correctly. If you haven’t, then you find yourself far outside of the winner’s circle. Ultimately, that balance of spending money and making money is what makes the game difficult. Do you upgrade to that level 4 train now in order to deliver the 4 link cube deliveries? What if it requires you to issue a share or two to do it? It’s a game of give and take. And the players you are competing against rarely make it easier on you.

Rules

One of the things that makes the gameplay stick out so much is the relative depth compared to the amount of rules. The strategy may not be as deep as a game with 37 pages. But in this case, it only requires learning 10 pages of rules. And because the rules are so simple, you can learn the game in a couple tries, and then you can teach other players in less than 10 minutes time. The amount of options and strategy available to players is significant as compared to the effort it takes to learn the game.

The me, this is what makes the game so addictive. I will often find myself taking a break from games. I may not play a particular game during a gap of 2 months. But in the case of Railroad Tycoon, whenever I come back to play again, I always remember the rules as if I had just played yesterday. You may forget some of your strategy, but chances are, you won’t need to keep picking up the manual to refresh yourself on the rules. If you do, it’s simple issues like knowing how cities have to empty out to end the game for the number of players you have playing.

It’s nice to know that you don’t always have to have a heavy system in order to have a lot of depth to a game. This game does a great job at proving that point.

Most of the issues I have with the rules of Railroad Tycoon were solved in the expansion, Rails of Europe. Often, debates can arise over what sort of terrain you are building your track over. Is there enough brown here to make it a hill? Are you crossing the river, or running along it? For the most part, those issues were solved for the expansion. The other issues I had just needed a house rule or two to fix for our group. For instance, we play with a rule that states that once a player begins building track between two cities, they reserve the entrance/exit in both locations. We felt that the game was competitive enough that we didn’t need to encourage it along by allowing the blocking of players’ track.

Components

These display the current level of your train, and the cost to upgrade

The components in Railroad Tycoon are far from the best I’ve seen. However, they are also far from the worst. Overall, the word solid describes the pieces that come in the box well. The wooden cubes, the plastic trains, the money, stocks, and train cards all do the job very well. In fact, if that was all there was to the game, this would be a nearly perfect game in my view.

However, you have to take the rest of the game into account as well. That mostly pertains to the board itself. It measures at a staggering 36″x45″. That’s large enough that most standard tables would be lucky enough to fit it alone. Not to mention all the stuff that players need to play with. So before getting the game, players need to take their available gaming space into consideration. Unfortunately though, the biggest problems with the board come from the quality, and not the size.

Railroad Tycoon is notorious for its board warping issues. This is an annoying problem for someone like me that cares so much for the appearance of the game. But in this case, it also effects the gameplay a bit. Because the board is split up into three sections, it’s important that those section sit flush together. But they don’t. Instead, one section will hover a good 1/2″ over the piece it needs to be hanging out with. The result is that some areas of the board are difficult to place track on.

The other big issue is that the board has an overall washed out look to it. But this is particularly a problem when dealing with the purple and blue cities. Instead of having purple and blue, you really get purple and violet. This becomes an issue with gameplay not only because you have to be extra carefuly with your deliveries, but also because you have to watch your opponents to make sure they don’t make similar mistakes. Eventually, you will be able to play without thinking about it so much. But it’s a shame that the problem exists to begin with.

Overall

I can’t imagine having not played this game. Mind you, in most cases when we played the game, we played with only two or three players, which is considered the least amount of fun. However, for us, it has still worked out very well. These days, we rarely touch the game because there is a new shiny expansion that fixes a great number of the original game’s problems. But I still love the original, and would recommend it to just about anyone. At the very least, everyone should give the game a play through. It could turn out that something upsets you to the point where you can’t enjoy it. Perhaps the balance with a small number of players, or the train theme. But this is one game worth taking the risk with.

It is worth mentioning that a lot of the issues I have with the game are supposedly fixed in the international editions of the game (Though there is the slightly annoying issue of certain components being in another language). Also, when the game is re-printed/re-branded, these problems will almost certainly be absent from the new version. But honestly, knowing what I know about the game now, I don’t think the issues would keep me away from the game as it is.

You can purchase this game at Thoughthammer:

Randy – Editor, Show host, & Written Review
Russell – Show Host
Ray – Recoding Studio, Lights, Sound, & Camera

Also, thanks to Thoughthammer for making this possible, and to Beatnik Turtle for the intro music “Beat People Up (Remix)“!

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