Railroad Tycoon (board game)

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Railroad Tycoon: The Board Game
Game data
author Martin Wallace , Glenn Drover
graphic Kurt Miller , Paul Niemeyer ,
David Oram ,
publishing company Eagle-Gryphon Games ,
Winsome Games ,
Edge Entertainment
Publishing year 2005
Art Board game
Teammates 1 to 6
Duration 240 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Awards

Railroad Tycoon: Das Brettspiel (English original title: Railroad Tycoon: The Boardgame ; renamed Railways of the World in a new edition since 2009 ) is a board and strategy game by the American game authors Martin Wallace and Glenn Drover . The game is from 2005 and is for two to six players, ages ten and up. It is published in English, German and other languages ​​by the game publishers Eagle-Gryphon Games , Winsome Games and Edge Entertainment . The board game is based on the computer game Railroad Tycoon by Sid Meier and is at the same time a playfully simplified version of the board game Age of Steam from 2002 (also by Martin Wallace).

Game and equipment

Railroad Tycoon is set in the east of the USA in 1830. In the game, the players take on the role of one of six different railroad barons and the aim is to connect cities as lucratively as possible by laying rails and then transporting goods on them.

The game includes the typical Railroad Tycoon elements known from the computer version, such as the events and the railroad management. Players buy rails, research new longer-range locomotives , build new cities, issue stock certificates and pay dividends . The bid auction on the starting places is important, because these guarantee access to the important company cards. The game is played in three phases, which belong to a round. The game ends as soon as a player has placed a certain number of markers on the board. The player with the most money wins.

In addition to the instructions, the game material consists of:

  • 3-part game board 114 cm × 94 cm board, the East USA
  • 1 wooden train for the starting player
  • 125 wooden cubes (25 pieces each red, yellow, blue, black, purple)
  • 24 plastic brown miniatures (6 each water towers, sand towers, level crossing signs, hotels)
  • 150 plastic locomotives (25 each red, yellow, green, blue, black, purple)
  • 2 western connection tiles
  • 12 city founder tiles (3 each yellow, blue, black, purple)
  • 217 track tiles
  • 10 tycoon cards
  • 24 locomotive cards (6 each level 1/2, level 3/4, level 5/6, level 7/8)
  • 37 railway operating cards
  • 54 share cards (30 × 1 share, 18 × 5 shares, 6 × 10 shares)
  • 140 dollar bills (60 × 1000, 30 × 5000, 50 × 10000)
  • 1 rulebook
  • 1 cloth bag

Style of play

Preparations

At the beginning of the game each player gets a faction drawn, in addition to the faction, another action plan is drawn. The faction and action plans differ from one another, so that there are always new and different variants of factions.

The playing field is set up before the game. In each city, as many goods cubes are randomly drawn from the cloth bags and placed on the city as the number on the game board indicates. All cards, stocks and bills are sorted. The operation cards with an “S” are the starting cards and are laid out face up. In addition, double the number of cards is laid out as players are playing. Each player randomly receives one of the tycoon cards with the respective player objective, the fulfillment of which earns additional victory points. The players receive all locomotives of one color, and each player receives a 1 locomotive card. One of the locomotives of each player is placed at the beginning of the victory point track. Starting player in the first round becomes the youngest player.

Course of the game

The game is played in several rounds and each round has several phases. The order of play is determined by means of an auction. Players can issue stocks to get cash. Each player receives $ 5,000 per share from the bank. At the end of the day, stocks count as minus points, and players have to pay out $ 1,000 in dividends per round for each stock, this is deducted from income.

The following actions are available in the game:

  1. Starting Player Auction: The last starting player starts the auction with a minimum bid of $ 1,000. Subsequent players must either raise in minimum increments of $ 1,000 or pass. Depending on the version of the rule, only the starting player is determined and played in clockwise direction, or every placement in the order of play is determined.
  2. Player actions: The player selects six possible actions for an action: track construction, town planning, freight transport, taking a company card, improving locomotives, building the western connection
  3. Income and dividends: Each player receives as much money as the income track on the victory point track. A dividend of $ 1,000 per share is deducted from income. Lines that have not yet been completed are removed again.

Playing

The game ends when a certain number of cities are reached without goods dice. The player with the most money wins.

Issues and evaluation

reviews
Meta page rating
BoardGameGeek 7.7 out of 10 points
Superfred 7 out of 10 points
Hal9000 5.2 out of 6 reader rating
Play offensive 6 out of 6 reader rating

Railroad Tycoon was published in 2005 by the American publisher Eagle-Gryphon Games as Railroad Tycoon: The Boardgame and is the board game adaptation of the classic computer game Railroad Tycoon by Sid Meier . In the same year it appeared internationally in several translations, including German together with Winsome Games. The game was developed by game authors Martin Wallace and Glenn Drover . Martin Wallace used the game Age of Steam he developed in 2002 as the basis for this. The game material is very extensive and, above all, the size of the game board is very large at 115 × 95 cm. In 2009 the game was renamed Railways of the World and appeared as a new edition.

In 2006, Railroad Tycoon was nominated for the Juego del Año and made it into the final selection. It was also chosen for the International Gamers Awards as the best multi-player game and for the Golden Geek Best as "Gamer's Board Game" and "Best Family Board Game" nominated. For a long time, the game was one of the most popular games in the BoardGameGeek game database , where it received almost 10,000 reviews.

Building on Railroad Tycoon , the game Railways of the World: The Card Game was released in 2010 and Railway Express in 2013 .

Extensions

Several expansions with new game boards and additional rules have been released for the game.

  • Railways of England and Wales (2009)
  • Railways of Europe (2008, first published as Rails of Europe)
  • Railways of Great Britain (2013, revision of Railways of England and Wales)
  • Railways of North America (2013)
  • Railways of Western US (2010)
  • Railways of Mexico (2010, also included in Railways of the World)
  • Railways through Time (2010)
  • The Railways of the World Event Deck (2011)
  • Railways of Nippon (2018)

supporting documents

  1. ^ Versions of Railroad Tycoon in the board game database BoardGameGeek ; accessed on April 9, 2018.

Web links