Railroad Board Games

[Orange46]

Recently I have had the pleasure to play two newer railroad board games: Ticket to Ride and Railroad Tycoon.

TtR is probably more well known and was created by Alan Moon, formerly of Avalon Hill and The General magazine. The game has been successful, I presume, since there are a number of variants of the game being sold. As with a lot of current multiplayer strategy board games, there are no dice in this game and the only luck involved is with the drawing of cards. The original game has a number a major US and Canadian cities with single or double rail links between these cities. Each turn each player can do one of several actions, with the most common action being to draw one or usually 2 colored cards. You keep collecting these cards until you have enough cards of the proper color to fill in one of the rail links. The links between cities are from 1 to 6 spaces long, and you need to have that number of cards in the color of the rail link you are building. So, when you have 4 red cards, you can build a 4 space link between two cities that require red cards, and you do this instead of drawing cards. At the end of the game, you get victory points based on the number and length of each link you own, with a 1 link connection being worth 1 VP, 2 links 2 VP, 3 links 4 VP and I think about 15 VPs for a 6 link connection. You also get to draw cards which award you bonus VPs for connecting 2 specific cities with your own rail lines. And you lose the same number of VPs if you fail to do so. But, when you draw those cards you get to choose which one(s) to keep. If you like building track, the game is a lot of fun and with a lot of players, it gets tough trying to complete the bnus routes as the limited routes get taken. Ticket should take less than 3 hours to play.

RT is less well known, and I thought I saw a thread somewhere here about someone wanting to know about the game. Since I only played a half of a game, and that was yesterday, I don't really even know all of the rules for this game, but it was fun. The map is basically a hex map east of the Mississippi with some Canada and no Miami. Each city has a number and a color and gets that number of random colored cargo counters placed on it at start. Then some cards are placed face up and an auction starts to see who wants to go first. Although you start with no money and a John Bull card, you can at any time issue stock and get $5K. The person going first can either pick up one of the cards and use or keep it as appropriate for the card, or build up to 4 sections of track, or do something else noted later. Track can cost from $2K to as much as $8K per section, depending on terrain, so you will need to issue stock to build track. Each turn consists of 3 months, with each player doing one action each month. After each 3 months, players get paid based on where they stand on the VP track, and then pay a $1K dividend for each share of stock that they have sold; one additional card is placed face up on the table; and then there is a new auction for who goes first. Track is built by placing a track piece in a hex. At the end of each quarter (3 months), all track that does not connect 2 cities is removed (some cities are more than 4 hexes away from any other city and you can only build 4 track pieces per month, or 12 per turn if you build track every month). Once you have connected 2 cities, you can deliver one freight counter instead of building track. This is where color counts. If the cargo is Blue, it can only be delivered to a Blue city. If delivered, you move up one space on the VP track, and that means more money at the end of each turn (well, that's not exactly true, but...) With only a John Bull card, you can only deliver cargo to the next station on the line and you can never move cargo - just deliver it, then get the VP and the cargo gets removed from the map. To deliver 2 stations away, you need to buy the next engine card, 3 stations requires the engine with a 3, 4 an even bigger engine, etc. Each delivered cargo gets 1 VP per station the cargo travels thru, with the VP going to the owner of the track taken, so, you will share some VPs with your opponents. The face up cards that you get to use add an interesting twist to the game. Some are: (1st person to buy a 3 engine gets bonus VPs), (build a hotel for free in Atlanta and get 1 VP for each cargo delivered there, no matter which player delivered the cargo), take 2 actions immediately this month instead of 1, get 10 points for completing the connection from NY to Chicago (that won the game for me). We played Tycoon for at least 3 hours, but did not finish. But, we were also slow, as only 1 player had ever played the game before and that was one time.

[Blackhawk]

I never had the opportunity to play Railroad Tycoon the Board game. The game was made by Eagle Games, which went bankrupt a few years ago. Rather than focus on quality games, they decided to go towards quantity and even ventured into poorly made computer games, so it was not a surprise they failed. Consequently, it'll likely be difficult to actually buy a copy of RT The Board Game although the "sequel" to the game Railways of the World may still be available. I have played Napoleon in Europe and Age of Imperialism by Eagle games and they were pretty good games. Napoleon in Europe was better, although more complicated than Age of Imperialism, however these games were produced in the earlier days of the company. I think Railroad Tycoon was made during the middle period of the company's existence, so I can't comment on whether it was made as well as the earlier games or not. Eagle Games also produced Sid Meier's Civilization's The Board game.

[Wolverine@MSU]

The only RR board game I ever played was one called "Across the Continent". It was a game my Dad had as a kid and was at my grandparents house, so we played it when we went to visit. As I recall, you picked a few "Destination" cards at random from a deck, and then had to move your train across pre-defined routes based on a dice roll. Each of the "Destination" cards gave some info about the city, so it was a chance to learn something in the process. I don't remember for sure, but I think you could arrange your destinations in an itinerary so you didn't have to criss-cross back and forth "Across the Continent". I think you had to start on one coast or the other and end up on the opposite coast somewhere. It was a lot of fun, and made going to visit the grandparents a real treat. They had lots of other games from my Dad's youth like "Battle at Sea", where two naval convoys move in arcs across from each other in opposite directions, with different ships coming into firing range at diffferent points along the arc, and anothe one called "Camelot", which I think was a lot like "Stratego", but with knights, pages, and kings. This was all during the '60s, and the games were from the '40s, so I suspect that only the older folks among us would event have a chance of knowing these games.

[Orange46]

I saw Railways of the World in a game store yesterday, and also by the same person is Age of Steam (hey that's a RT3 scenario from this site) and Steam, which came out last year. They look to be similar in concept.

[Canadian Viking]

I have both games and enjoy them. When you buy Ticket to Ride you also get a password so you can play online. While online games lack the personal interaction of face-to-face, you can play a game faster that way - 30 minutes or less for a 4 player game. It is a simple game so easy to teach non-gamers. While it has a railroad THEME, you don't really do railroad actions.

I played the board version of Railroad Tycoon a couple years ago and loved it. It has been replaced by Railways of the World, which is the same game with a few minor improvements. I put it on my gift ideas list and two of my kids gave it to me for Christmas a year ago. While it is more complicated than Ticket to Ride, it is not difficult to learn. As Orange46 said, it is a real railroad game - you build track, upgrade locomtives, deliver goods, compete for connections between cities, etc. Great game! It's a big hit with railfans. I have several friends who are not railfans but like board games, and they enjoy it, too. If you like both railroads and board games, this one is a must have.

[Orange46]

While no one seems to be making new PC based railroad games, the board gamers are on the express track. Two days ago I played the western expansion for railroad tycoon with 5 other players and it was really neat. The original map goes to just beyond the Mississippi while the western map continues on to the Pacific. There are also expansion maps for Europe, England and Mexico. All of the expansions go under the name Railways of the World, which is the name of the remake of the original RRT board game. There's probably more maps out there.

Then, using slightly different rules, there are 2 other series - Age of Steam and its expansions and Steam and its expansions. Ticket to Ride also has many expansions, but it plays very differently.

This link is a lively discussion of the merits of RRT, AoS and S. http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/626835/ ... -of/page/1

[Orange46]

And the express is still building up steam.

Recently issued (late 2010) (and just purchased by me) Settlers of America: Trail to Rails. It is a Caton series game, but with railroads, settlers who found cities, and goods to deliver by train. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6723 ... s-to-rails

Coming in May, 1830: Railways and Robber Barons (2nd Edition). This base game for the popular, but never played by me, series of 18xx games, is being reissued after a long hiatus. Currently, 1830 games go for well over a $100, but the reissue with some small changes will list at $70. It was also a PC game. From what I have read, this game looks more like RT1, et al, than any other board game, as 1830 is a stock market game that involves bankrupting your opponents. But, you do get to build track and run a RR to help you in your domination quest. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/421/ ... ber-barons

Finally, some users at the Geek have combined two RT boardgame maps (base game eastern map, western expansion map) to come up with what looks like a really neat game of Transcontinental rails. They have introduced an improvement of a concept needed for our beloved RT - either having settlers found new cities, or have new towns spring up whereever a station is built (that's how Atlanta and Huntington got started, and many cities in the west). Of course, the cities in the board game are actually existing cities on the western board, but the cities are lifeless until a settler is delivered to it by rail). You need a big table for this one.

If anyone is ever in the Chicago area, let me know and you can see (actually, I would rather you play) one of these games. Isn't it time you get back to your midwestern roots, Hawk! Too bad we just had a big tax hike. It's getting expensive to live here. I just read that its now a good time to buy (as opposed to rent) in the Atlanta area.

[Hawk]

I just read that its now a good time to buy (as opposed to rent) in the Atlanta area.

Of course it's a good time to buy, with all the foreclosures on the market.
We're trying to sell, and that really sucks.

[Orange46]

Railroad boardgaming continues on the express track. New expansions for the board game Steam have been published and an official expansion pack using the East and Western maps currently available for Railways of the World is in development. My love affair with Railways of the World continues and it just increases my angst over the lack of a Railroad Tycoon 4. Civ V 's expansion Gods & Kings is due out this month and Sim City is due a new release next year that should be more like Sim City 3000. Does any one know what it would cost to develop RT4?

A quick and light railroad game that has been around for a while is called Trans America. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2842/transamerica. It is generally played either while waiting for others to show up or at the end of a Euro game session when there is under an hour left.

[Blackhawk]

I'm not sure what it would cost for RT4, wikipedia says games in 2000 cost 1-3million to make and now in 2010 may cost around 5-10million. However, Malfador Games, which makes the Space Empires series, is/was mainly a 1 man shop. Since much of the work was done by just 1 guy it took several years for him to develop the games and the graphics were pretty dated. I'm not sure I know of any other small developing companies like that anymore as the days of a lone programmer are gone.


As for railroad board games, I forgot about this thread. A few months ago I did play the game Settlers of America: Trails to Rails. It's not entirely a railroad game, but you do need to build a railroad to connect cities to ship your goods. It's mainly a game of expansion and collecting resources, which are then used to build railroad pieces. Once you get the hang of it, it's a nice little game.

[Orange46]

At those prices, I guess it would take more than us to get someone to invest in RT4. I know boardgames are a lot cheaper. Saturday I played a non railroad board game developed locally by one person and I have played another that was financed thru gamers contributing money to the game - the names were acknowledged in the back of the rule book. But it needed only $48,378. See second link.

From a Geek post: Watch for our Kickstarter campaign for Eminent Domain to start up in about a week - this will be the only opportunity to pre-order the game, which will not only help ensure that we get funding to print the game and pay the artist, but it could save you a few bucks as well!

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68425/eminent-domain
http://playtmg.com/pages/how-to-make-board-game

[Orange46]

Well, I actually sent money to Kickstarter a month or more ago for new maps for Railroad Tycoon (Railways of the World) and hopefully they will come out in July. The maps were not only fully funded, but received a lot more than what was needed. The first new map is for Canada and should be connectable to the Eastern and Western maps for North America, and the second is for Great Britain (mostly a reprint of the England and Wales map, but a Scottish city is being added - none existed before, so now they can call it Great Britain). http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/167 ... xpands-and

Sadly, the amount spent for the Kickstarter project is well under what would be needed for a true RT4.

[Blackhawk]

I recently noticed that Chris Taylor, the designer behind Total Annihilation, and later the founder of Gas Powder Games and creator of Supreme Commander, had his own kickstarter campaign for money for a new game. He raised half of what he was looking for and cancelled the campaign with a few days left to go as he decided he would look for funding elsewhere. Ultimately he sold what was left of his company to a Russian company called Wargaming.

Considering he had some very revolutionary and successful games it is interesting to see how his own company essentially went broke and needed to be bailed out. They must have invested in some poor performing games.

Anyway, the point I was going to make on this post was that Chris Taylor's kickstarter was for about 1 million. Which is much more than this kickstarter campaign for a board game above.

[Orange46]

$1 million is an amount that I feared would be needed and would be hard to get in $25-$100 increments.

[Blackhawk]

Continuing along the idea of kickstarter and making a game, I recently also came across an article about Planetary Annihilation. It's made by an independent company and a group of developers from random games in the past. They went on kickstarter and raised 2.2 million while asking for 900k. Obviously a demand for your product and good publicity helps matters in raising money. It seems the majority of the projects on kickstarter that raised over 1 million last year were games.

http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/the-year-of-the-game

So not only would at least a million likely need to be found, but quality developers would need to be found. Who knows what the old RT2 and RT3 guys are even up to these days.