Jakto Hi'tidi
United States
oklahoma city
Oklahoma
Utinni!
Utinni!
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When I first saw this game it immediately hit the radar. I've always liked the Carcassonne tile laying series, and the pick up and deliver of train games. This game looked to combine both aspects along with network building in a nice little gateway level package. Does it succeed? The short answer is yes.
Rules summary:
I'll be discussing the 2010 Valley Games edition. Let's have a brief look at how the game plays. I won't delve into the minutia of rules detail, but just discuss the basic choices for now.
A player wins by either being the first to reach 13 points, or having the most points when the tile deck is exhausted. Points are scored for completing circuits and delivering goods. One point is awarded to the player who completes a looped circuit between two or more towns. Only seven of these are available, so first come first served. Goods are worth two points each must be delivered to a different town than their origin with the same demand color as the good cube delivered. Bonus points are also awarded for delievring a variety of colored goods.
On each player's turn they may play one of three choices:
1. Play a tile
2. Move their train
3. Play a Town tile
1. Play a tile: Choose from a hand of three tiles for placement. Track segments must form a contiguous network, tracing a path back to a town. Draw another tile after placement. Played tiles also provide "steam" resources
valued at 1-2 steam to move your trains.
2. Move train: Players expend "Steam" to move trains along tracks. General cost is 1 steam per segment or 2 steam for hills and passing other trains. When using curved segments, trains must roll the derailment die (d6) when speed exceeds 2. The result must be greater than train speed minus 2 for success.
3. Play a town tile. Towns must connect to another town via track segments two or more segments away. Two towns are face up at all times with 2 random goods cubes displayed. Players may choose either of these or the top face down town on the stack to place. If choosing the face down town, it will also receive two random goods. When the last town is played, each player receives five coal (black wood cubes) that they can expend on their turns to generate more steam for their trains. We did not play to the point that we needed the coal. I presume the coal is there to help speed along the end game by focusing it on goods delivery.
Analysis:
These options do a pretty good job of self balancing each other. One cannot simply run about delivering goods for points. The network of track and towns must be built first. Also players need to build up steam to move their trains. Similarly, you cannot simply build track and expect to win, even if you are completing circuits. There are only seven points available from this point stream. You'll also be forfeiting steam as you cannot store more than six steam.
You are playing a balancing act throughout the game between spending turns building and accumulating steam, and spending turns moving and delivering goods. The crunch choices come with speeding through corners and completing circuits. Since you don't know what is in other players' hands, you could easily be setting someone else up for the circuit points by your choices. Also do you play slow and conservative, taking the corners fast or slow? There doesn't seem to be an "always" choice in these situations. You determine your threshold for risk and when to push it. Maybe you need to race five segments around a corner for the possible win or to pick up a good before an opponent. You would have to roll higher than 5-2=3 to make the corner! If you fail a derailment roll, you lose your move AND lose the steam you would have spent had you moved. This makes for a bit of a difficult choice at times. I do like that about the game.
There are also a few track tiles that offer some interesting special features. Some of the tiles can be laid over existing track. These are clearly marked with a symbol showing this ability. These allow you some more interesting choices. You can use them to open up a new route for yourself. You can complete a circuit with them for instant points, or for the most fun use them to change the route right in front of an opponent. 
There are also several Water Tower tiles. They work like straight track segments per normal rules, but you also have the option of spending a turn on the tile with your train, and acquiring 4 steam. This can be a pretty big boon and shouldn't be overlooked.
Components:
Let's talk a little about the production value of the game. The tiles are nicely textured and thick enough for easy handling and durability. I did not directly compare tiles, but I believe these are also larger than Carcassonne standard tiles.
The artwork is computer generated and very "clean" with no particular artisitic flavor or personality. They still look nice enough all laid out at end game.
The wood bits are all painted matte colors. No glossy meeples here. The cubes are pretty standard fare. The goods cubes are larger than average, probably 10mm or so and easy to handle and draw from the included drawstring bag.
The train bits are large and chunky about 10mm thick and probably 35mm long. They are painted atypical game colors orange, purple, white, and gray. The trains in my set were a little disappointing, as they were rather rough hewn compared to similar bits from other companies. To be more specific they had some splintering. Also, actual cut surfaces, though painted were still rather rough. I do not know if there was a production issue, or wood selection at the factory might have played a role. Evenso, you only really notice this when they are in hand. On the board they look just fine and servicable. I do like the unusal choice of orange and purple for colors, but would have liked more differentiation between the white and gray colors as they are close enough in shade to possibly be confusing.
The box is a typical bookshelf size. It's not too large for a shelf, but it is far too large for what is inside. The insert is channeled to store the punched tiles without them flying all over the box. However, I think I would have preferred a smaller box without all the space for them to fly about in. In fact, I pulled the insert and rearranged the tiles into two smaller rows instead of one long row. It was little disspointing to see that everything fit nicely in about 1/3 the space of the box. It has an attractive game box, so I do not know if they were planning on future expansions that would need the space. Of course the instruction would have had to be printed in a different size, but that would have been simple.
Overall Impression:
This is a nice gateway level game with a rails theme. It has tile laying ala Carcassonne, and pick up and deliver like Age of Steam. It plays very quickly probably 45 minutes will be a long game. There is luck in tile distribution, die rolls for derailment, and town and goods placement. Still the better player is going to win this game more often than not. This doesn't bother me, but I know many will want to know it is there. The hand of 3 tiles helps mitigate some of the possiblity of a "bad" hand, though all the tiles seem useful. Even if they don't help you build your route, you receive steam resources even when throwing a monkey wrench into an opponent's track.
As to the retail price of $50, I'm not sure where that comes from. I do not know the size of the print run as I know that can have a large impact. I suppose the Valley Games edition could be quite a small run. Price to value ratio isn't one of the better I've seen in the hobby games industry. I think had they retailed this in the $30 or even $25 range, this could have hit a great many more shelves than I predict it will. That is unfortunate because the game does have place in the hobby.
I am still happy with my purchase, however. It will give me a train game I can play with a variety of people, and not one just for the optimization crowd. I've yet to try it with non-gamer family, but I think the play will be intuitive and quick enough that it will be a hit.
I happen to like the tile laying, route building, and pick up and deliver with a little bit of a race feel to it. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes light to medium weight games with some or all of the mechanics mentioned. If you're on the fence, it might be one to try before you buy. I find myself to have more and more opportunity for family gaming, so this seems to fit the bill.
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Phil Sauer
United States
Willow Street
Pennsylvania
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Great_Mazinga wrote: As to the retail price of $50, I'm not sure where that comes from.
This title was printed in Germany for the Essen Game Fair and brought overseas to North America. This would explain the cost (printing in Germany and transportation costs are high these days). The cardstock used for the tiles are what I would personally call "Carcassone quality." It was nicely done, and the box actually has a title for that matter.
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Bruce Murphy
Australia
Pyrmont
NSW
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Oh the Luxury. Back when I were a lad, we had to make our _own_ titles for the game box. (See files section)
B>
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Phil Sauer
United States
Willow Street
Pennsylvania
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thepackrat wrote: Oh the Luxury. Back when I were a lad, we had to make our _own_ titles for the game box. (See files section)
B>
Try telling that to young people today, and they won't believe you!
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Bruce Murphy
Australia
Pyrmont
NSW
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aaxiom wrote: thepackrat wrote: Oh the Luxury. Back when I were a lad, we had to make our _own_ titles for the game box. (See files section)
B> Try telling that to young people today, and they won't believe you!
ooo-aaargh. We had to stick our own titles on the box, uphill, both ways, barefoot in the snow, and when we were done, JKLM would beat us to death with a broken bottle. And we liked it.
B>
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Scott B
United States
San Diego
California
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Any idea how this would play as a 2p?
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Max Michael
United States
Indianapolis
Indiana
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In a two player game it's easier to track what your only opponent is doing. Among other things, deliveries are often a bit longer as you take that perfect city with the exact cubes your opponent needs on it and place it behind some hills and curves rather than allowing them to place it in a more convenient location.
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Jakto Hi'tidi
United States
oklahoma city
Oklahoma
Utinni!
Utinni!
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Phil, thanks for adding some light to the costs that might be behind the game. I also hadn't considered size of the print run. It might be rather small compared to Carcassonne and variants. I just thought Carc would be a good benchmark for types and quantities of components. However numbers printed is likely one of the other primary cost drivers. That being said, I'm very glad to have this game. I see it as a welcomed and permanent addition to the collection.
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Bruce Murphy
Australia
Pyrmont
NSW
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Great_Mazinga wrote: Phil, thanks for adding some light to the costs that might be behind the game. I also hadn't considered size of the print run. It might be rather small compared to Carcassonne and variants. I just thought Carc would be a good benchmark for types and quantities of components. However numbers printed is likely one of the other primary cost drivers. That being said, I'm very glad to have this game. I see it as a welcomed and permanent addition to the collection.
Carc has sold over a million copies I think the numbers were. Slightly different scales
B>
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Phil Sauer
United States
Willow Street
Pennsylvania
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Please remember, I was referring to the quality of the card stock used in the game... it's the same stuff, that's all. Myles, I'm glad you found my comments helpful.
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Andy Andersen
United States
Newark
Delaware
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Very good review. It may be a bit too simple, but it is a train game!
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Deb Wentworth
United States
Minneapolis
Minnesota
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I bought the game, and the expansion, but while I like it in general, I have yet to find anyone who likes the rules for trains going into curves - either the original version or the expansion version.
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