Jorge Rodriguez
Spain
Madrid
Madrid
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Hi:
The other day my wife and I where in the mood for a RRT session but neither of us was willing to set up the Game. So I took out the game, got the Middle section of the Board only. Took out the Major Line, Delivery, and Hotel Cards that were irrelevant to the Board, set up all the goods ( +1 cube as in the 2 player rules) and started to Play.
I can tell you we had a great time. For one thing there were a lot of conflicts of interest with the links and goods because of the few cities on the Board (something that never happened when we played with the whole board). There where a lot of competition for the delivery of goods and at one point I saw that my wife was considering building the western Link so I immediately started to build links to Chicago . When she finished the link it was a cut throat competition to see who could get more goods form Chicago. We made 7 and 8 link deliveries. At the end she won but it was a very close end.
I recommend this Variant to those couples who like us fight over who will set up the game and end not playing because no one yields.
We where even able to play in our small TV room coffee table!!!!!
Advantages: 
Fewer Cities (but not too few), Western Links, Chicago , all the colours cities, More Conflict and SMALLER GAME TABLE!!!!!
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Steve M
United States
Lubbock
Texas
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Thanks for this variant--my fiance and I just tried it and it is a blast and actually pretty darn well balanced (2 of each color on the table). I highly recommend this variant--only question I had is the +1 cubes? Isn't it -1 cubes in the normal 2 player rules? Have you experimented with cube amounts at all?
Also, if you've played this variant a few times, any thoughts on the victory conditions? Have you been using the same ones?
edit: whoops, gotta always check how long ago the article was written.
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Jon Getty
United States
Goleta
California
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How do you play the partial hexes, which IIRC include Atlanta, Savannah, Chicago, and the south edge of the Appalachians? Are these spaces verboten?
My wife suggested allowing plays on those hexes, however cities that have their "number" chopped off get no starting cubes (there's no number, see?), but can receive deliveries, have hotels, major lines, etc.
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Jason Retallack
United States
Aurora
Colorado
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My wife and I played two games using the middle board variant. We found that this variant worked well. When playing only with 2 players we do not auction for starting player, but we may incorporate the auction because the operations cards become quite essential (especially the new industry card).
During the first game I built the Western Link much too early and was cash strapped the entire game. This led to a run-away game for my wife. The final score delta in the second game was only 2 points.
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Purple huh... I can tell this is a good game!
Netherlands
Eindhoven
Noord Brabant
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What victory conditions do I use?
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Purple huh... I can tell this is a good game!
Netherlands
Eindhoven
Noord Brabant
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I played the middle board game yesterday with the 'beginner' version rules. It works great! Ending Conditions was 8 empty cities. I did use the +1 rule but didn't really like that as it made luck more important. Will use original setup (so not -1) next time.
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Chris Jensen
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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I played the middle board variant with my Mom last night (without the +1 cube distribution)... It was great! There was some fierce competition for deliveries, the game ran for an appropriate amount of time (~100 minutes), and a good time was had by all.
From others who have tried it, did you allow deliveries to the half cities along the bottom of the map? We didn't and thought that it kept the board fairly tight. Thoughts?
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**PUNKLE JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"The next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing." --A. Alvarez
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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This is a very interesting idea, although I too am confused by the +1 cube for 2 players rather than -1. Is the +1 cube necessary due to the reduced number of cities?
I hope that the forthcoming Railways of Europe map will be smaller and more suitable for 2-4 players so that we can reserve the original map for our 4-6 player games.
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I look forward to trying this variant. The two player on the full US map is a decent and excellent game (and plays in less than an hour), but I suspect that this suggested variant would make the game tighter and more interactive.
I'd like clarification on two questions:
1. What is to be done with the cities that are only half on this part of the map?
2. Do you play with the full number of cubes, or do you still reduce cities with 2 or more cubes by one? (with Rails of Europe, the number of cubes is not reduced for two or three players, as confirmed here, so I expect the same would be the case when using the Middle Board variant, also being a tighter game with fewer players).
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Jeremy Avery
Canada
Kamloops
British Columbia
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Has no one weighed in on whether or not the "half-cities" are used?
I just picked this game up, and will be playing it mostly as a 2-player game. I intend to make use of this "middle board" variant, and want to experience the best way to do it.
So, half-cities: yes or no?
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familygaming wrote: Has no one weighed in on whether or not the "half-cities" are used?
It's not a definitive and final answer, but you will find some useful feedback on precisely this question in another thread here:
Amount of cubes and which cities to use with the middle board variant for two players?
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/346346
So that's a start, but it would be helpful to get some more responses from those who have tried this variant.
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The Fiend
United States
Avon Lake
Ohio
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I had read somewhere of a 2-player variant using just the middle board. My wife and I had already played using the entire board so I suggested we try this variant. Since the entire game was already set up I didn't have any partial cities and any that were in the middle portion got cubes put on them. Only the cities fully/partially on the middle section got cubes put on them.
I placed the stated amount of cubes on each city (in the normal 2-player I only reduce 4 and 5 cities by ONE good anyhow) and took out all cards that didn't pertain. We used 10 empty city markers.
The game lasted 40 minutes and she won 52-48. I thought it was much more fun than using the entire board (for 2 players) and we had more points of conflict. Another game was played and I won that one 55-50 so that score area seems to be the norm.
The only problem we had was Dover as it's cut off by a peninsula. I decided to put a cube on it but make it unplayable. This is so you don't waste an empty city marker on it or get confused with 11 instead of 10. Another possibility is building a Ferry space there for $8,000 (just use a normal track mountain section) and costing 2 moves to get across, i.e: a Level 1 train can't get there.
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brian
United States
Cedar Lake
Indiana
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We only used it if it had connections on the board and you could read the name. This left us with 2 of each color and 14 gray cities. So the two mostly full cities in the South were ignored.
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Michael J
United States
Folsom
California
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I like the game with 2 players in the middle. It's a decent alternative to the full game. I agree with the last player - the two cities at the bottom aren't used if you can't read the names. But overall, I don't think it matters. Whatever city configuration you choose, it is still a fairly fun game.
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