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A re-issue of David V. H. Peters' SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français). Originally released by Winsome Games as part of its 2010 Essen Set, SNCF was subsequently licensed by Queen Games and rereleased as Paris Connection in 2011, then again as SNCF: France & Germany in 2024. This is a fast network-/portfolio-building game with a train theme, with the objective of having the most valuable stock portfolio at the end of the game. Players can own and trade stocks as well as influence the value of each company.
There are 6 colors of wooden locomotives, each color representing a company. Players are dealt random hands of 5-10 (depending on number of players) locomotives, which are essentially a stock portfolio; the rest of each color are placed in a pool. On your turn, you can either increase the value of a single company by placing 1-5 locomotives from the remaining pool of that company, or you can trade one locomotive in your portfolio for one or two locomotives from the remaining pool in a company.
The game board is a map of France, with cities worth anywhere from 1-4 points, and rural hexes worth 0. Connecting to a city adds to a company's value.
The game ends when Marseille is reached by a company, or when there is only one company with locomotives remaining in the pool. Players' scores are determined by the value of each company at the end multiplied by the number of locomotives the player has for each color.
SNCF expansions may be used with this game.
- Engaging mix of strategic stock management and route-building
- Hidden portfolios create tension and deduction
- Two-map variant increases replayability
- Relatively quick setup for a dense economic strategy game
- Can be complex and rules-dense for new players
- Market can be unforgiving if mismanaged; penalties for excess stock
- Purple stock may be weak and congested early on
- Railroad expansion funded through a stock market mechanic; players build rail lines and trade stocks
- France (Paris region) map; Germany map on the reverse side
- Tutorial with demonstration/playthrough
- SNCF: France
- SNCF: Germany variant
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- End-game scoring and triggers — Game ends if five of six railroad boxes are empty or if Marseille is connected; final scoring tallies cube values by stock.
- End-of-game scoring by stock values — When scoring, each cube is worth points equal to its current stock value; excess cubes incur penalties.
- Hidden information and deduction — Each player's stock holdings are hidden; players infer holdings by table state and gaps.
- Route-building / track placement — On a turn, players place 1-5 cubes to extend rail lines; rural hexes can hold two cubes; adjacency rules affect legality.
- Starting player and tie-breaks — Starting locomotive token designates the first player and tie-breaks go to the person furthest clockwise from the start.
- Stock market integration — Players buy and sell stock cubes and have portfolios behind screens; stock values rise with connectivity and end scoring depends on those values.
- Turn actions and portfolio management — Each turn you may build or sell one stock to buy one or two other stocks; managing maximum cube count affects scoring.
- variable map — On the Germany map, there is an option to start a new railroad off-map and different end-game conditions centered on purple cities.
- Variant map: Germany — On the Germany map, there is an option to start a new railroad off-map and different end-game conditions centered on purple cities.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the maximum number of Cubes that we score in a four player game that's 15
- we are super invested in Green at this point
- if five out of these six boxes are completely empty