J H
United States
Chesterfield
Missouri
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Has anyone played this and has some thoughts on it? I know Zee Garcia mentioned it, but I wanted to hear more details on how it plays.
Thanks!
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Mathue Faulkner
United States
Austin
TX
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I need more plays before I form a solid opinion. I purchased it with the hope that it would be a nice gateway game that is a bit of a step up from Ticket to Ride, etc., and I'd say it fills that role just fine. It's definitely not one of my favorite games, but I never expected it to be. I don't particularly like the 3p rules, but I already created a thread on it.
I'm really surprised by the lack of comments, etc. on this one though...
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Jonathan Franklin
United States
Seattle
Washington
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It is not in very wide distribution yet. I'd expect tons of comments in the coming months (January).
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Tyler Olsen
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Haven't played it but want to.
Just saw this for the first time in my FLGS and thought it looked like a game to fill that 'next step train game' role.
I'll have to go back as soon as they have a demo copy.
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Randy Espinoza
United States
Chicago
Illinois
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Tom Vasel picked it up at Essen (probably the copy Zee played and mentioned on Twitter), I believe a video review is in the queue for this week. Keep an eye on Youtube.
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Stephen Glenn
United States
Virginia Beach
Virginia
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Zee Garcia would never lie.
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Zbeth Taylor
United States
Pennsylvania
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I just had my first play, and here are my initial thoughts. It's fiddly - the rail pieces need little more than a table jiggle to move, but they're no worse than the trains in Ticket to Ride. The rule book could be more precise, but it'll get you going. If you read closely and make a few intelligent assumptions, you should have few hiccups in play. The board in my game is cut crooked and doesn't lie flat, which makes getting the rail pieces in place a little tricky. All that said, I like it -it's a great middle step between TTR and the Empire Builder series.
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J H
United States
Chesterfield
Missouri
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Zbeth wrote: I just had my first play, and here are my initial thoughts. It's fiddly - the rail pieces need little more than a table jiggle to move, but they're no worse than the trains in Ticket to Ride. The rule book could be more precise, but it'll get you going. If you read closely and make a few intelligent assumptions, you should have few hiccups in play. The board in my game is cut crooked and doesn't lie flat, which makes getting the rail pieces in place a little tricky. All that said, I like it -it's a great middle step between TTR and the Empire Builder series.
Thanks for the reply. Exactly what I was looking for.
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Brandon Lovesee
United States
Idaho
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I really like this game. It's quick and fairly simple once you understand how delivering commodities works. The one problem I have with it that the track pieces are incredibly fiddly. A slight bump of the table and your routes are completely scrambled (especially if you have lots of routes in one area.) It's also a little tricky to get your trains on the tracks. However, this is a minor problem and I really enjoy the game. It's a step up from TTR and just below games like Empire Builder.
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Phil Hatfield
United States
Helena
Montana
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I got in my first play of it the other night.
My impression is that it's an entertaining game, but one that if you play by the rules (which we inadvertently did not do) it's going to be a very SHORT game, with no real reason to perform certain upgrades.
I played a 2 player game, and we played it where you could deliver the goods more than once, as long as you didn't go to a city that already had good delivered to it. According to the rules, I discovered, you're only supposed to deliver ONCE, then remove the goods from play. So the game, per the rules, is a quick pick up-and-deliver game, that can quickly devolve into a "build track as rapidly as possible" to get the most points and end the game.
My wife, who enjoys Ticket to Ride, and enjoys pick up-and-deliver games said she would not like the game if you could only do ONE delivery of any cargo just once in a game. So, we're house ruling that you can deliver more than once, as long as it's not to city you're already delivered any material to.
Other than that one little glitch, the game plays fairly smoothly, and there is a nice blend between deciding when to upgrade your train and how much to upgrade, as each upgrade removes some precious money that is used for determining victory.
Yes, the pieces are a bit fiddly, but not too bad. Yes, there really aren't enough check marks to use to effectively cross off all of your cities on your contracts, so there's a fair amount of cross-reference needed when approaching a city when your train is loaded with cargo.
But other than that, the game is enjoyable. A step up from TTR, with more depth and options to use. We'll definitely be playing again.
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Mathue Faulkner
United States
Austin
TX
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GrimacePCH wrote: I got in my first play of it the other night.
My impression is that it's an entertaining game, but one that if you play by the rules (which we inadvertently did not do) it's going to be a very SHORT game, with no real reason to perform certain upgrades.
I played a 2 player game, and we played it where you could deliver the goods more than once, as long as you didn't go to a city that already had good delivered to it. According to the rules, I discovered, you're only supposed to deliver ONCE, then remove the goods from play. So the game, per the rules, is a quick pick up-and-deliver game, that can quickly devolve into a "build track as rapidly as possible" to get the most points and end the game.
My wife, who enjoys Ticket to Ride, and enjoys pick up-and-deliver games said she would not like the game if you could only do ONE delivery of any cargo just once in a game. So, we're house ruling that you can deliver more than once, as long as it's not to city you're already delivered any material to.
Other than that one little glitch, the game plays fairly smoothly, and there is a nice blend between deciding when to upgrade your train and how much to upgrade, as each upgrade removes some precious money that is used for determining victory.
Yes, the pieces are a bit fiddly, but not too bad. Yes, there really aren't enough check marks to use to effectively cross off all of your cities on your contracts, so there's a fair amount of cross-reference needed when approaching a city when your train is loaded with cargo.
But other than that, the game is enjoyable. A step up from TTR, with more depth and options to use. We'll definitely be playing again.
Have you actually played the game with the correct rules?
The game doesn't play too quick, and it definitely doesn't devolve into a race to just build out track...
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Ralf Arnemann
Germany
Darmstadt
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We found it to be a very interesting mixture of railway game concepts. A bit "ticket to ride", a bit "Steam", and some new ideas.
The movement rules are a bit tricky and could have been explained better. We are still unsure if our interpretation is correct:
Skipping a city is allowed not only on the free movement before your proper action but as well after a regular movement turn.
And the "bonus movement" is a proper action, only usable if your train is not in a city (and a very lame action compared to the movement out of a city).
What we still struggle with is the end of game. The sudden death after a card has been drawn randomly is likely to ruin the biggest delivery of some players shortly before fulfillment - therefore the end score seems to be a bit arbitrary. We would have liked a clear forewarning letting you do one or two more actions - thus perhaps giving you the chance to at least achieve a lesser delivery.
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Jonathan Franklin
United States
Seattle
Washington
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The ability of the leader to speed the end of the game by plowing through the deck can be quite exciting/devastating.
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