Introduction

I play games with a lot of different groups of people. In almost all groups, I'm the one responsible for supplying and explaining the games. Because of this I have to think carefully which games I bring to which groups. These considerations for, in this case, Railroad Tycoon will be the heart of this review. Hopefully this will give you some insight in whether Railroad Tycoon is suitable for your specific group.

Information

Railroad Tycoon (RRT) is a 2-6 player game which inherits its name from the famous Sid Meier and its gameplay from the Age of Steam series. The players, as Railroad Barons, vie for logistical and financial supremacy in the eastern part of the US. The players start without money, but can issue shares to get funds. Share provide a one-time $5000,- but cost $1000,- per turn in dividend as well. Creating links by connecting cities, the Barons can deliver goods from point A to B. Goods score points, and points determine income, although with diminishing returns. The game ends when a pre-determined amount of cities have been emptied of all goods.

The rules are no bigger than a couple of pages and very easy to grasp. Combined with marginal setup time and playing time of around two hours, RRT is a nice and fast game to play.

The components of RRT are very nice. The-board-is-huge. It doesn't fit on our dinner table, so we have to store everything on the board itself. Strangely enough that never is a problem because there's plenty of room. That in turn raises the question why in the name of all that's holy the board had the be so big in the first place?! ... but I digress. The goods are plain coloured wooden cubes, and each player has a stash of plastic trains to signify ownership of a link. The shares and cards are made of plastified cardboard, which is quite nice. Unfortunately the paper money is a bit ... plain-ish.

The game has an expansion out which I haven't picked up yet. Glenn Drover, the co-designer of RRT, designed the expansion but licensing didn't allow for keeping the RRT title.

What will "they" think of Railroad Tycoon?
Note that the stars indicate preference/attitude and not quantity, i.e. 1 star for playing time for a eurogamer means a dislike for duration for this game (i.e. too long). More stars equals more positive on a given subject. Of course caveat emptor and YMMV, because this classification is highly subjective. This means that these ratings are based on my opinion and experiences and may not correspond with others. Please leave some constructive feedback and I'll adjust the ratings accordingly.

1) Euro-gamers
overall
learning curve
playing time
strategy & tactics
luck
participation & downtime
fun-factor
look & feel
chance to hit the table

2) War-gamers
overall
learning curve
playing time
strategy & tactics
luck
participation & downtime
fun-factor
look & feel
chance to hit the table

3) Ameritrashers
overall
learning curve
playing time
strategy & tactics
luck
participation & downtime
fun-factor
look & feel
chance to hit the table

4) Non-gamers
overall
learning curve
playing time
strategy & tactics
luck
participation & downtime
fun-factor
look & feel
chance to hit the table

My $0.02 on Railroad Tycoon

RRT is one of my weak spots. I love it, and I'll never pass up on a game to play. Without resorting to superlatives I'd like to state unambiguously that RRT, for me, is the easiest game to explain and teach in my entire collection. Bold statement, but true nevertheless. The few rules you have to explain are depicted on the board as well! Turn structure, possible actions, building costs, and GO! Even the playing time stays well within 3 hours for a 6 player game with new non-gamers. The game plays well, the game scales well, and it's just plain fun. Building track is fun, issuing shares and investing wisely is challenging. Most of all, linking near your opponent to bug him/her or to "steal" some goods or to profit from his/her deliveries is the best.

Now, all praise and glory aside, why did I rate it only an 8 you might ask? Well even though the game is few flaws for its ilk, there are some downsides. First the aforementioned honey-we-need-a-bigger-kitchen-table-no-wait-we-need-a-bigger-kitchen-as-well-board is just too large. A third of it's surface, maybe more, is never even used. Furthermore, the north eastern part must never be dominated by one player or it'll become a landslide victory for that player. The game also lacks some strategic depth that other similar games like Age of Steam can provide.

That said, RRT is a game that will hit the table often, even for non-gamers, and yes even for non-rail-lovers. The max 6 players is also nice because most games cap at 5.