Game: Frachtexpress

Thread: Re: Question on movement: counting railroad ties

cannoneer — 2007-10-20T22:44:47+00:00

thanks. Makes sense; I was thinking we were having too easy of a time moving around the board.

On point 2, I guess I see that happening a lot in the multi-player game, but we were playing with 2 and basically using a lot of the same track, so it didn't seem like a good idea.

Thank you for the reply.

Thread: Re: Question on movement: counting railroad ties

Werbaer — 2007-10-20T22:34:32+00:00

cannoneer wrote:
So, does that mean that to leave the station and hit the first railroad tie, it takes one, plus one for each successive railroad tie, and one to move from the last tie to the destination station?
Yes. So it's 4 for your exaple (3 ties, and 1 to enter the station)

Also, and this is not really a rules question, but why would you EVER play one of the "switch" tiles down on the board? It's just setting yourself up to possibly lose cars from your train.
To set up other players to lose cars. And to make them go somewhere they don't want to go, or prevent them to play a useful tile on that spot.

Thread: Question on movement: counting railroad ties

cannoneer — 2007-10-20T22:26:05+00:00

Just played this game for the first time today. The (translated) rules state that the player moves his car 1 railroad tie symbol for each number in the value of the railroad car on the car played.

So, does that mean that to leave the station and hit the first railroad tie, it takes one, plus one for each successive railroad tie, and one to move from the last tie to the destination station? For example, in the rulebook on the page with the movement example (under "5. Fahren mit der Lok") to go from Station A to Station B would cost 3 points of movement, or 4? We played 3, but it seemed very easy to move around the tracks, so I'm thinking maybe we were counting one short, and it should cost 4 to move around a quarter turn from station to station.

Also, and this is not really a rules question, but why would you EVER play one of the "switch" tiles down on the board? It's just setting yourself up to possibly lose cars from your train.

Overall we had fun with the game and are looking forward to trying it again.

Thread: Re: Still available?

SteveK2 — 2007-05-25T09:16:52+00:00

It's in stock at www.playme.de and www.adam-spielt.de

Thread: Still available?

Pennicillina — 2007-05-25T07:22:15+00:00

Hi I'd like to know if this game is still available and where.

Thanks

Image

Ceryon — 2007-02-27T22:27:34+00:00

Players small rules

Image

Ceryon — 2007-02-27T22:24:37+00:00

Which way?

Image

Ceryon — 2007-02-27T22:18:05+00:00

Game in play

Image

jcurtis55 — 2006-01-29T02:47:02+00:00

Back of Box

Image

jcurtis55 — 2006-01-29T02:46:36+00:00

Box Cover

Image

jcurtis55 — 2006-01-29T02:40:09+00:00

Station and advanced play cards

Image

Coffeebike — 2006-01-26T16:58:25+00:00

Fracht Express -- what you get in the box.

Thread: Re: Comparison of Frachtexpress with Hell Rail 3

Bill Martinson — 2006-01-03T15:37:55+00:00

Whoops ... I also need to check my math! The new cars actually go on top of the old ones, and the disconnect icon is on the left. So, the icon is not really misplaced; it all works correctly, but you do have to cover up your play summary. (I guess this has never been a problem for us as the summary is in German and thus not used at our table.)

Thread: Re: Comparison of Frachtexpress with Hell Rail 3

Bill Martinson — 2006-01-03T15:33:57+00:00

I have FrachtExpress and the icons are placed correctly. I think you need to re-check your math on this one. If the cards are placed left to right, with new cards sliding underneath the old ones, then the right side is the proper place for the disconnect icon ... so all is well.

Thread: Comparison of Frachtexpress with Hell Rail 3

Coffeebike — 2006-01-02T17:59:04+00:00

Purpose
I'd like to start a thread that compares and contrasts Frachtexpress with HellRail3.

I have HellRail3 and ordered Frachtexpress (haven't received it yet). So I'll add to this later...

Visual Design
I like HellRail3 and think it worth buying, but I specifically ordered Frachtexpress because the numbers on the cards are significantly larger, the couple/uncouple symbols are more intuitive, and they are more colorful (tan and green, baseball diamond colors!). Also the dimensions of the cards of Frachtexpress are a bit larger. These visual factors are significant to me. My tentative feeling about the blander theme is that it both helps and hurts the game. But despite the outrageous and gusty theme of Hellrails, most of the cards (dominated by whiteness) are visually blander then Frachtexpress. I don't know if the colored edges of Frachtexpress will show signs of wear that wouldn't show in Hellrails cards.

Crossing Cards
As I understand it from the rules posted here, Frachtexpress has 5 more cards then HellRail3. These are Crossing cards. They are, in part, like cards with the "check" token from HellRail3. While these cards are fewer in number then the tiny cardboard Crossing tokens (8), I suppose they might come into the game a little faster and easier.

]]> I believe the red locomotive token is on a Crossing card in this photo.

The crossing card has two additional rules. You can't overlay it with another card, and locomotives can't turn direction on a crossing.

The addition of 5 more cards, which increass the total from 45 (in Hellrails3) to 50 will affect gameplay too. I suppose this makes it a little longer at the end when loaded trains are moving, in conflict with the Crossing cards that test those loaded trains.

Icon Misplacement
I think Frachtexpress repeats the card design error of Hellrail3. According to the rules of Hellrail3, you're supposed to put the loaded cars under your engine card, so that the engine card overlaps it and the car image lines up with the locomotive image. This is also supposed to automatically leave the destination icon visible, and would, if that icon had been assigned the left position. However, the pick-up icon stands in the left position. So, if you followed the directions, it would leave the pick-up icon visible, which is now useless information, and cover up the drop-off icon. (Unless you wanted to load the car so that the locomotive icon is pulling the cards backwards, from left to right; for me that spoils the pleasure of the side-image of the train.) So the next most reasonable thing to do is to place the loaded car on top of your engine card and align the train images that way. This will reveal the destination icon of that card even as you lay on subsequent car cards, but covers up the player aid information on the locomotive card.

If you enlarge the photo above, and look at the player's trains (card sets) on the left and right side of the image, you will see what I'm trying to describe. I suppose this is only a big deal for new players. But it's a shame that Frachexpress repeated the error of this combination of clever visual mechanics.

That's it for now...

Thread: Re: are tiles dedicated?

nextinline — 2005-08-12T17:05:39+00:00

I agree that this is a tough little game. I've said before that I'm old and my mind is failing so that's my excuse. If you're just learning the game and are having difficulty I'd suggest leaving out the 5 Crossings tiles until you have a few successful runs through the 6 Actions.

Thread: Re: are tiles dedicated?

nextinline — 2005-08-12T16:55:39+00:00

Mary was kind enough to answer another question which I'll place below:

I also wondered if once the cars were 'attached' to the locomotive they could be taken as a distance card (or other) instead w/o consequence. I think the consequence is kind of built in - in that the points for that route are destroyed. Or a better route may come along later that you'd have better luck with...

and her answer:
This is a tough little game but a lot of fun. Each card can only be used for one thing. If you choose to hook it to your locomotive, it stays hooked. And you have to play cards for everything except unhooking. To move you have to play a card from your hand, remembering that you can't have more cars hooked up than the number shown on the die of the card played. This is what I always forget to check!

Thread: Re: are tiles dedicated?

sodaklady — 2005-08-12T15:55:11+00:00

1)The tracks connected to a station do not have to have the station letter on them--that's just a coincidence.

You're right that each part of a card is independant from the rest, just ignore all the other information (except the die, when it applies).

2)The distance cards only move you, don't worry about the station letters.

Thread: are tiles dedicated?

nextinline — 2005-08-12T00:07:36+00:00

I am really liking this game but I know for a fact that the first two times I played it I got the rules wrong.

1) I can't find anything in the translated rules that tells how laying track tiles is governed. The picture in the german rule booklet shows that the stations are surrounded by track tiles which match, in either a connected or disconnected way, the letter of that station. Is this required?

Although the face of the tiles have a LOT of information on them my impression was that when a tile was used for one purpose that it was dedicated to that one purpose and that other information contained on the card would not apply. So when a tile was laid for Track then only the rules pertaining to the layout of the track would apply. When a tile was played and attached to the locomotive card as a railroad car then the track pictured on that card meant nothing except that this car had been picked up and is enroute to be delivered, or when it was played for gaining the locomotive distance along the track then the images of the stations and tracks on the tile meant nothing because they didn't apply in this situation.
* An exception would be that the number of pips on the die would either match or be greater than the number of cars attached to the locomotive card.

2) The cards which are played to gain distance on the tracks and which are then discarded... Do these also need to match the pickup or dropoff station letters or are they dedicated (with the exception of * above) to function only as distance cards?

Image

Aldaron — 2005-02-01T14:04:26+00:00

Comparison with Hell Rail (3rd ed.)

Image

Aldaron — 2005-02-01T14:04:26+00:00

Thread: Re:User Review

sodaklady — 2005-01-06T17:44:30+00:00

wcordewiner (#75396),
When I got this game, I didn't notice how many players it accomodated and the rules didn't mention it so we just set it up and played. I haven't played with more than 2, but I can't see where there would be any problems. With more, the board would fill up faster and there would be more competition.

I hope you enjoy it!

Thread: Re:User Review

wcordewiner — 2005-01-06T11:52:07+00:00

sodaklady (#46412),

you play with 2 players although the game entry states 3-4. For 2 players, do you have different rules/setup?

Thx, Wouter

PS: Thanks to you, this game just made my wishlist.

Thread: Re:Question about Draw new cards-action and end of game effect

sodaklady — 2004-09-06T22:46:25+00:00

Nitzrebb (#52954),
I've only played this with 2 players so I'm not sure how fast it would play with 3 or 4. I think it took us between 30-45 minutes to play, and that's with a lot of time spent planning our moves.

In my experience, the game is pretty self-balancing, meaning that if you have a hand full of cards and see that the draw/discard piles are low, you generally try to play several cards to make as many points as you can. This replenishes the cards. If you're ending the game with everyone having a hand full of cards, I think you're missing out on a lot of points.

Thread: Question about Draw new cards-action and end of game effect

Nitzrebb — 2004-09-06T10:26:05+00:00

We played yesterday our first 2 games of Frachtexpress. The first game went rather strange: after less than 30 minutes of play, we already ran out of action cards in the supply deck and discard pile, which lead to an immediate ending of the game. As this was our first game, it clearly was a result of all of us being too carefull to spend their cards, not knowing what the effect/impact might be. The second game went better in the sense that more cards were being played, resulting in an increase of playingtime and the game developed in a more interesting way. Still, there was the feeling that too many cards were being drawn and in the hands of the different players (one player had at one moment 11 cards in his hands which is one out of 5 cards in the game!), with a constant risk that the game would come too a quick ending.

We have now been thinking of adding an extra rule which would limit the number of cards a player can have at all time in his hands to 5 or 6 cards. This way, we will not run too early in the end of game situation but still leave the possibility for a player to aim at a forced end of game situation if he wishes to go for a quick win. However, this will then be more difficult to achieve because of the max number of cards in his hands at all times.
Maybe this rule would also need a volunteerly discard rule to be added.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? How have you solved this?

I am interested to hear your opinion.
Christophe

Thread: User Review

sodaklady — 2004-07-25T22:19:17+00:00

FrachtExpress is a card game about laying track and moving freight cars from Station to Station.

The Basic Game (which is the only way I've played it so far) is played with 50 Distance Cards and 10 Station Cards. There is also a Locomotive card and a wooden locomotive token for each player in his color.

The Distance Cards

The Distance Cards have several symbols on them as well as track which is shown in a varity of combinations. The symbols are 1)a freight car with a number between 2 and 9, 2)a die face with between 1-5 pips showing, 3)a circle with a disconnected line in it and a letter signifying a Station, and 4)a circle with a connected line in it and a letter signifying a Station.

1)The number in the freight car is used to show the number of spaces you can move your locomotive along the track ties. It's also the points you score when this car is delivered to it's proper Station.

2)The die shows the number of cards you can draw when you discard this card. It is also used when you move or go through a crossing; if the number of pips is more than the number of cars you have attached to your Locomotive Card, you cannot use that card to move or go through the crossing.

3)The disconnected line shows which Station this car needs to be delivered to.

4)The connected line shows the Station where you must be to connect this car.

The Play

The Stations can be laid out in the pattern shown in the rules or you can lay them in a random order as long as they connect to each other diagonally. Then each player receives 3 cards for their hand. On your turn you draw 1 card and then may take as many Actions as you wish, in any order or combination, except for Action 6.

1)Add to the Rail System. Lay a card edge to edge next to any Station or previously played card.
2)Change the Rail System. Place a card on top of a previously played card, keeping the same connections.
3)Pick up a freight car. When you are on the Station with the same letter as the one in the circle with the connected line, you place this card on your Locomotive card. Now you have to deliver it.
4)Deliver a Railroad car. When you reach the Station with the same letter as the circle with a disconnected line, take the card from you Locomotive card, turn it over and place it under the Locomotive card.
5)Move your Locomotive token. Discard the card and move your locomotive the number of ties that it shows in the freight car symbol.
6)Draw new cards. Discard a card and draw the number of cards shown on the pips on the die. This ends your turn.

Play then passes to the next player clockwise.
The game ends immediately when a player must draw a card and both the supply deck and the discard pile are empty. Total the points on your disconnected cars, the player with the highest total wins. A tie is broken by comparing the total value of the cars attached to the locomotive cards.

There is a lot to think about as you try to make the best use of your cards, especially if you have more than 4 cards in your hand, so play can be slow. We played 2-player games and it took about 40 minutes when we knew what we were doing. I don't think it would take longer with 3 because you'd be planning your moves during other players' turns.

We really liked this game because we enjoy trying to optimize the resources we have. It has a puzzle quality to it that suits some people and drives others crazy but I think it's a nice way to spend an hour on a quiet afternoon. Though there was not much player interaction (messing with other person's plans), I think with 3 or 4 players there would be plenty of ways to confound your opponents.

If you like hand management, and a quiet, thoughtful game, I'd recommend giving this one a try.

Image

sodaklady — 2004-07-23T14:12:27+00:00

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-12-09T21:00:08+00:00

FRACHTEXPRESS
*Dave, Sam
The first game to hit the table was FrachtExpress. This is a new release from the recent Essen fair in Germany, and it's basically a reworking of the award winning Hell Rail game, currently published by Mayfair. I received my copy and found that even though the author of the game is from Michigan, there are no English rules for the game anywhere on the net. I spent several hours trying to sort the rules out using an online translator, and we tried it tonight, in part to see how well I had figured out the rules.

Turns out I did a pretty good job with the rules to the Basic game. In the Advanced game all 10 station cards have a special effect, which is ignored in the basic game. Since I hadn't figured out all the powers yet, we played the basic game tonight.

The game is pretty interesting, as each card you have has multiple uses and you are continually faced with the difficult decision of how to best make use of your cards. In the game you are picking up and delivering railroad cars to different stations, indicated by letters. You are also using the same cards to build a rail network between the stations, as the playing area starts out with just the station cards and no rail lines down. Finally, each card has an action number, and one of the uses of the action number is to move
your train along the tracks to the different stations. It seems like every card you get can be used for 2 or 3 or more different purposes, and judging the best way to manage the cards is a lot of fun. I also
enjoy the pick up and delivery mechanic here, it sort of reminds me of Auf Achse, one of my favorite games. We got bogged down near the end, as it seemed like the game should end but couldn't, but that's
something we'll know better next time and I don't think it will be an issue. It may be related to playing with just two players instead of 3, which is the recommended number to play with on the box. The other thing I think would change with more players is congestion on the tracks, as more people are trying to move on the limited rail lines. Initial rating=7. I like the game, and am looking forward to finishing the advanced rules translation and trying it with more players.