This year at GenCon I was looking for a game that I could play with my almost 3 year old and came across this one at the Troll & Toad booth.

The back of the box gave enough information for me to know that the mechanics wouldn't be too difficult for him and, being a great fan of both trains and animals, I knew that the theme would interest him.

Components:
The game comes with a variety of sturdy wooden animeeples of various breeds, sizes and colors along with their luggage. Some animals are quite large while others are very small like a mouse and a piglet. There's also a thick cardboard "train car" with both ends removed so that the pieces can be pushed through. The car is set on top of the game box with a tab that keeps it from sliding around too much. You also get an over-sized die with corresponding colors and a train symbol.

HABA produces some of the most durable components anywhere. They really understand the beating that a toddler can put a game through (my boy thinks game boxes are for standing on ). This game is no different.

Theme:
The players are trying to help the animals board the train with their luggage but there's limited space! As you load the animals in the front, some will inevitably fall out the back -- these have decided not to travel and want to stay home with you.

Gameplay:
Players take turns rolling the die and pushing a piece of the corresponding color onto the front of the train. If they roll the train symbol, they can choose any piece they want.

When a piece falls off the back of the train, you collect it in front of you if it's an animal. If it's luggage, it goes back into the push pile.

When a player collects 4 animals the game is over and the winner is the person with the fewest animals collected. The play time is about 10-15 minutes.

House Rule:
I didn't like the idea that a player loses on their turn -- especially when that player doesn't really understand the idea of winning and losing. Instead, once a player collects 4 animals, the game is over, everyone is declared the winner and we then unload the train to count how many animals we got to go on the trip.

As the boy gets savvier at games I can see us doing away with the die and each player choosing a color as their own. The goal would then be to get the most of your color on the train when the game is over. That would make for quite a bit more strategic thinking and prediction.

Experience:
My son understood the mechanics right away and we started rolling dice and loading animals. As soon as they started falling off the back though, he thought that was great fun and each turn for him would involve him pushing the animals in as far as they would go so that more would fall out. He'd then run around the table with delight and exclaim, "They fall off!" and collect up his booty. We repeated this for a little while and then put the game away.

Last night, I told him that the animals wanted to stay on the train so that they could have their train ride. He understood (train rides are special) and we began loading the train much more carefully. He was still quite excited when they fell off, but we finished up, unloaded the train and counted our animals. To my surprise he counted them up correctly (there were nine) but the fact that he pointed to several twice and skipped others tells me that it was probably chance at work and not the next Einstein.

Overall:
I got the game thinking that the little pieces and dexterous gameplay would give him an opportunity to work on his fine motor skills, colors and counting. Even more than that, I like that he has fun playing the game and can see this being one that can hold his attention for future plays. The game is more than mere chance. By considering the animals that are about to fall out and figuring out which animals can fit without pushing too much, players can make smart decisions about the best play. He won't get that for another year probably -- but we'll have fun sending the animals on train rides until then.