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Epic Railroad Building in North America
Discover a modern North American classic. Celebrate one of our most vital and enduring passions: railroads. Use your initial investment to build track. Then pick up commodities where they are grown, mined, or manufactured and deliver them to a lucrative place of demand. Complete a delivery and make the money you need to buy larger, faster trains, and expand your railroad empire. Win the game by building the most effective railroad empire!
The original and flagship of Mayfair's crayon-rails line allows players, using washable crayons, to draw their train routes over a map of North America. Players start with an initial sum of money which they use to build short lengths of track during their first couple of turns. For the rest of the game, players operate their trains over the track network drawn on the board to pick up and deliver loads to various cities, and then have the opportunity to add to their track network or improve their train. The game uses demand cards which list three demands, each of a commodity to be delivered to a specified city for a given payoff. Each player has three demand cards to provide opportunities for income.
Each turn consists of an operations phase and a building phase. During the operations phase, trains are moved to cities where commodities are picked up at no cost and moved to one of the cities on that player's demand cards. When the commodity is delivered, the player receives the payoff and trades that demand card for a new one. Event cards are mixed in the deck with the demand cards. When an event card is drawn the instructions are followed. During the building phase a player may pay to build more track or upgrade his train.
A player wins by being the first to connect his track network to six of the seven major cities on the board and acquire $250,000,000 in cash on hand.
- crams in a ton of good decisions
- comparatively short playtime
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Engine Builder — this engine builder crams in a ton of good decisions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this area control game is worth playing just for the really cool cube tower
- this game is both character driven and epic in scale an absolute masterclass in making a thematic war game
- loading up and shunting your ships through the panama canal is a genuinely fascinating puzzle to solve
- the wacky tower in the middle of the board is far more than just a novelty it's a clever part of the game
- really popular title but space based does it better
- great writing but a gameplay loop that can be punishingly unfair
- some games you get on a roll and do really well others you'll die every other turn
- a very generic area control game that doesn't do anything badly but it doesn't do anything that well
- a reasonably good sequel to the original descent with one major flaw it encourages the overlord player to kill the same player over and over and over again
- an excellent lightweight tower defense game with a really innovative way in how it's presented
- all players being hidden in a hidden movement game is a genius idea but anomaly gets old really quick
- the set collection game operates like a family tree and i think that's a genius idea
- a great game idea led down by some terrible writing
References (from this video)
- Industrial expansion and transport
- Railroad and logistics in North America
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Eight out of 10.
- It's not a bad game. It's not a great game. It's fine.
- This game's really bad.
References (from this video)
- epic scale; hours-long family play memories
- many variants and versions make it replayable
- long playtime; requires time commitment
- economic/efficiency puzzle
- historic rail empire-building in the United States
- large-scale, immersive planning
- Ticket to Ride (in pace of route-building)
- Crayon Rails series
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Pick-Up and Deliver — players plan and execute railway routes to deliver goods efficiently
- pick-up-and-deliver with route-building — players plan and execute railway routes to deliver goods efficiently
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the twist to this game is you don't get to score your trees unless you have more of the values of those trees in your hand than your opponent
- it's basically six little miniature games that you're playing
- one of those games where you're thinking two, three, four turns ahead
- it's a better version of Ticket to Ride
- the dice work, replacement; one of my favorite Felds
References (from this video)
- pure route-building and pickup/delivery feel
- crisp core gameplay with straightforward decisions
- components are dated by modern standards
- some players may want more thematic depth
- building a railroad empire, contracts, money management
- railroad expansion across North America
- classic rail-era simulation
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- crayon rail game — build railroad track and draw routes; pick up/deliver contracts
- mercy rule (optional) — allows a player with no money/contracts to redraw with bank support
- route planning and delivery — move trains along built tracks to fulfill contracts
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Balancing what actions you get on either side of the action space is kind of the whole fun of this.
- This is one of those weekend night games where this low overhead is quick to play, but it still has an interesting hook that keeps me coming back.
- There is no randomness in the game. Once the board is set up, all outcomes are on you and your decision.