Irish Gauge — one of three titles in Winsome Games 2014 Essen Set — is played on a map of Ireland and is similar in style to many of the stock-based, cube-rail games released by Winsome Games since 2007.
On each player's turn, they can either place a share of one of five companies up for auction, build track (represented by cubes) in one of these five companies, upgrade a town to a city, or call for dividends. The dividends are paid out to shareholders of certain railroads based on how many cities/towns they connect to and how many shares of this company have been issued. The upgrade and dividend actions also affect game length and the likelihood of further dividends for each company. The game ends when a certain condition is met at the end of a player's turn, and the player with the highest sum of money and stock value at the end of this turn wins.
Irish Gauge is the first title in the Iron Rail series by Capstone Games.
- Rail transport
- Railway networks in Ireland
- Abstract
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- unknown — Two-page style rules mentioned
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I am really looking for feedback from people because this is something very new
- Cube rails games have kind of grabbed a hold of my brain in a really interesting way
- Trans-Siberian Railroad is a wacky game
- I am in the throes of infatuation with this new genre of gaming
- I would really appreciate you considering that
References (from this video)
- Lighter entry to heavy train games
- Good introduction to 18xx style games
- Plays efficiently
- Jeff hasn't played other games in the Rails series
- Possibly not the best of the series
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
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Quotes (from this video)
- Jeff and I rank with our hearts and not with our brains
- our list is if you don't like it Move Along
- we play as many games as we do in a year which is literally hundreds thousand
- our rankings are extremely fluid
- there's so many good freaking games out there
- oron hits The Sweet Spot of combo
- this Oracle Delia Oracle Del like what is this game
- if you love puzzles and sudoku or whatever you're probably gonna love it
- don't poo poo on tapestry it's freaking good
- three ring circus is going to continue to increase for me
References (from this video)
- Proper train game
- Host doesn't have many train games
- Train game
- Irish railway
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
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Quotes (from this video)
- I used to call this a shelf of shame that was a pretty common thing to call it back in the day and I don't never really liked that term because I don't feel shame that I haven't got to these games
- this is mostly work like this is just a backload of things I probably should get to
- people will still be looking for it
- it doesn't matter if the game is like 20 years old people will still be looking for it
- I've painted this one and I spent a lot of time doing it
- there's no point putting them on the channel I think both of them have been out of print for like a decade
- one of the worst kickstarters by one of the worst studios in board gaming history
- Golden Bell Studios did everything wrong you could possibly think of
- purely toxic company run by incredibly terrible people
- it would be kind of a joke that I'd be able to do a three minute video of feudum
- this game has a tutorial video online that's like 40 minutes long
- The Rose explanation video feels like a parody but it's actually how the game is played
- nothing personally to me puts me off playing a game that then sitting down unboxing it and having a craft assignment
- stop making me spend hours assembling your damn games
- this is an uncontrollable mess right now
- I'm a full-time dad and I'm really doing this in the evenings
- I have a finite space and also it just puts pressure and stress on me having a whole bunch of crap there that I know I'm not going to get to
- I'm going to do a big cull
- I will be published by this company but that doesn't mean I'm going to be slavishly devoted to every single game they put out
- I am a sucker for cute animal games like I really am
References (from this video)
- Good gameplay
- Cute trains
- Irish history
- Trains
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- moments during board games that formulate memories that you'll never forget
- there's just something for everyone
- it's all about the people
- the board gaming space has allowed me to just have so many incredible fun moments that i'll never forget
- it chose us via christy
- we're gonna have it at jeff's parents basement everybody's coming
- agricola sucks and everybody else seems to love it
- arnak is severely overrated
- i don't think gloomhaven should be number one on the list anymore
- humans are not good at rating things
- my nine is different than your nine
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
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Quotes (from this video)
- it's an experience
- it's incredibly mean in Cutthroat
- I would never stop playing it on BGA
- this is the best game one of the best games ever in my opinion
- it's crazy chaos I love this game
- it's not overly light racing game
- I love this game I wish so badly was on BGA
- it's an engine builder
References (from this video)
- solid Euro-weight; approachable in person vs async play
- beautiful cubey/art style
- async online can dull the experience; prefer in-person
- railway empire building
- rail network in Southern Africa region (South Africa map) and Iberian / Iberian Gauge variants
- historical/transportation theme
- Iberian Gauge
- I think of Sagani and Framework
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- rail network construction — lay rails with cubes to connect cities; manage dividends
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Don't tell me theme doesn't matter. Yes, it does.
- This is one of those games where drafting out different teams could be really cool.
- It's a banger.
References (from this video)
- clear economic engine
- straightforward stock/rail integration
- can be dense for newcomers
- rail network development with stock market dynamics
- Railway era, economic expansion
- historical/economic simulation
- Iberian Gauge
- Ride the Rails
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- stock market / dividends — Invest in shares and receive dividends from the rail company.
- track construction / leasing — Build/Lease rail rights to extend network and increase income.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I think this may be my favorite of the three iron rail series games that we've played
- Meadow is designed by Clemens Kalicki
- the loop is basically being able to take the same actions again during your turn
- Dimension this game had a lot a lot more attention to it than what i was expecting
- not innovative in the sense of what you're doing of collecting sets and turning them in but i do think adding in the co-op aspect of it