Thoughts of Chairman Mike

Yesterday I went along to the launch party of Railways of the World: The Card Game. As may be expected from the title, it has strong ties to the Railways of the World series of games (RotW, Europe, England & Wales, Western US), but borrows some mechanisms from Ticket to Ride (BGG entry) as well. I also have more interest in this title, as it was co-designed by my good friend Steve Ellis, owner of Rainy Day Games, a local gaming store in the Portland area. Oddly enough we played Railways of Europe just this last Tuesday, with me winning by a single point over JD in a rather epic game, so the main mechanisms were very much in my head.

RotW:TCG comes with 110 cards representing track, stations, and engine capability, a bunch of standard Euro cubes for goods to be delivered, plastic trains for each of the 4 players, a central starting hub, and a score board. A player’s turn allows an action from 5 possible options, then the drawing of cards to hand. The 5 actions are:

• Build a link – play a station and a number of track cards with a value equal to or greater than the station value; a link must extend from the central hub or an existing station; if the latter, it must match the color track on the edge of the existing station; the track and the station being played must match colors. You score points for the track value, so it can be worthwhile to play extra track, beyond the minimum. One fewer cubes than the station value, drawn from the bag, are placed on the station.
• Deliver a cube – move a cube from one station to another; the first link must be owned by the current player; the number of links may not be more than the current number of engine cards in play by the current player; the color of the cube must match the station being delivered to; you cannot move a cube through a station matching the cube color; the current player scores 1 for each link moved through, and other players score 1 for each of their links used.
• Play an engine card – play an engine card from hand to expand the number of links a cube may be delivered through; optionally, the player may also take the ‘Deliver a cube’ action, as above
• Discard a card – this allows the player to draw a card to replace it, or draw a cube from the bag to replenish a station.
• Pass – the player takes no action

The final part of the turn is to draw cards. There are 3 face up cards, and the player may draw 2 cards from the discard, face-up or face-down piles, or any combination. However, if an engine card is taken from the face-up display then that is the only card that may be taken in the turn. There is a hand limit of 13 cards.

All pretty simple really. The card drawing is straight out of Ticket to Ride, and the actions are pretty close to the RotW mechanisms. The only real challenge is remembering that the colors have to match when building links.

Scoring at game end is gained for the number of engine cards played, control of the stations (player with highest number of owned track cards connected to a station scores the station value, with friendly ties), and bonuses for sets of cubes delivered.

I played only part of one game, but enough to like what I was seeing. I really enjoy the RotW/Age of Steam/Steam lay track/deliver goods style of games, so this is right up my alley. I’m told that it plays in around 30-45 minutes, and is for 2-4 players. Interestingly, the designer said he prefers it for 2-3 players, but two of the players in my game said they preferred it with 3-4 players. I’ll have to try both. The cards and pieces are clean and functional, a very pleasant graphical design. One thing I did note, however, is that it can take up a considerable amount of space, so a decent sized table is recommended.

The only downside is that it’s from Eagle/FRED/Funagain, so you will not be surprised to learn that the price is set at a rather steep $38.00. Given the small, and rather cheap feeling, cards, cheap plastic trains, and simple cubes, and that it’s a 30-45 minute game, a price point nearer $30 would have been a better choice. Ah well, RDG were offering a launch price of  $30, so that made it palatable. Even though I liked it, and know the designer, I would have baulked at paying the full $38.

Those in my gaming circle can expect to see it on a gaming table in the very near future!

One of my traditions is that I host an all-day gaming session between Christmas and New Year, and this year was no different. One of the targets was to play the new Railways of the World, the updated version of Railroad Tycoon, which I first played at Doug and Mimi’s a few years ago. This time around it was with Doug, Mimi, JD and Greg, and Wes.

Railways of the world

A few of us started in the northeast, but all but me changed focus to other areas, and I was the only one delivering cubes. Although I built the fewest links in the game, I was delivering like billie-o, scoring a lot of points, and ended the clear winner, despite a late rush as JD went for the Western Link. In the end I didn’t score any points for my Rail Baron card (I drew the ones that gave me 2 points for each link into Mobile, and extra points for the Western Link.), as I stayed in the NE.

I’d offer a comparison with RT, but, to be quite honest, it’s so long since I played RT that I’m not sure I could spot the differences now. The board is certainly smaller, to my recollection anyway, and I believe the cards have been settled a bit. (The deck in the original had some very powerful cards.) You now draw two Rail Baron cards at the start, choosing one to keep,and they have been balanced a bit.

I certainly liked the game. I liked the original, the Steam/Age of Steam parent, and generally enjoy train-style delivery games, so I fully expected to have a favorable view. I’d like to try this again, and I’m hoping to get to the Rails of Europe and Railways of England and Wales at some point. Especially the latter, as it introduces shares and stock trading, and can be compared to Steam Barons (expansion to Steam) and the 18xx games, which I really like.

After that JD, Doug, Wes, Jonathan and myself played Power Grid: Factory Manager, The new game from Friedeman Friese. Although this uses the Power Grid name, it really doesn’t have  a lot in common with that game, although the graphics are very similar in style. Doug was the only one who had played before, and they’d played it totally wrong, so it took a while to get into the swing.

By the time we’d finished we were all enjoying it, a definite thumbs up. Interesting mechanisms, and we were never sure who was really winning (Doug won in the end.) I really want to get this one back to the table soon. And often.

By this time the snow had started, and was getting quite heavy, and lying. Dave had already bugged out, and Wes, KC, Doug and Mimi headed off, leaving Greg, JD and Jonathan for one more, and I asked for Small World. I’ve always been a fan of Vinci, and the one play at Chris’ left me liking the newer version, but being very unsure of the graphics, which hindered rather than helped the game play.

Anyway, I plumped for a copy, plus the expansions, and I’m glad I did. As Greg says, it’s Vinci, just in a tighter package, playing in an hour instead of 2. Yes, the graphics are poorly thought out in places (it can be really hard to tell the differences between the races when they’re in decline), the storage solution sucks (a tray for the race tokens where you can’t tell which is which), and the usual Days of Wonder box insert that is useless for including the expansions. However, I do like the game. I just suck at it.

And that was the end of the day. By that time the roads were really getting bad, and I was thinking that perhaps that last game was a bad idea. I got a call from KC a couple hours later to say that they were just getting off I5 – a 30 minute journey (at most) had taken almost 3 hours.

I got to take 3 games off the Burndown List, which was great, and the games we played were fabby. Undoubtedly the biggest disappointment in the day was that a few people were unable to make it, for various reasons. You were all missed. Roll on next year!