Train Games (non-computer)?

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F

fizzball

Train Attendant
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
77
I mentioned these in my intro, and was wondering if anyone else was a fan. There are conventions of just train games, one recently in Denver. Anyone else play these?

18xx games - running railroads (usually historical companies) and manipulating stock a la the robber-baron days. Typically long games, running from 2-6 hours.

TransAmerica - Very simple connect-your-cities game. Done in 20 minutes; great for kids.

Empire Builder and other crayon games using the same system. You build your route, drawing on the wipe-off board with a crayon. There are games using this system for Australia, UK, Europe, China, Russia (using an interesting pre/post Soviet mechanic), India, Japan, the Moon, and an original fantasy realm. can take 1-6 hours depending on the number of players and familiarity with the geography.

Ticket to Ride and its expansions and variants. Not a bad little family game, but derided by hardcore train gamers as a rummy-like hand management game built around a popular theme. Apparently available on XBox 360.

Railroad Tycoon. Based on the venerable Sid Meier computer game. I've not played. The board is freakin' huge; put those extra leaves in the table.

There are more, but that's enough for now.
 
One I remember was Railroader. (which I just found online). From 1963, so it pre-dates me by quite a few years - I think my parents were given it by someone as "your son's into trains!"

I expect it's somewhere in my parents attic still, but I remember a train-themed board game which had little plastic sections of track and little plastic trains trains that went on those tracks. From a very vague recollection of it (it's been years!) you could lay your track by plugging the track sections into holes in the board, and then your 'train' could move along that. IIRC it was a race between the players, and there were various things you could do to impede the performance of others, or speed your own.
 
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You forgot one of the best: Rail Baron from Avalon HillThe map is a 3 piece board depicting the Continental US with 28 railroads depicted on the map following their historical routes.

To play Rail Baron, you move your token (train) along the RRs of your choice toward a destination city which you have been assigned. Upon arriving, you collect a payment, and may make a purchase. You can purchase one RR, or upgrade your train's locomotive (to a faster model).

If your train moves along a RR owned by an opponent, you must pay that person a track use fee. Therefore, the main challenge of the game is to purchase RRs that 1) connect into a network that gives you access to most of the important destination cities, and 2) prevent your opponents from doing likewise. To win, you must accumulate $200,000 then return to your home (starting) city. During play, when you purchase a RR, you are given the deed to that property, similar to Monopoly.

RB has been likened to Monopoly plus Pirate and Traveler, and there are some similarities: purchasing properties, trying to get certain groups, monopolizing an area, collecting money from opponents, etc. However, the game has more depth than Monopoly: finding the best route for your train can be a challenge; you must choose what to purchase next (not just the property you happened to land upon); there are many different winning strategies (good network, lock out opponents, etc.). RB is also far less dependent of random factors (luck) than is Monopoly.

(liberal use of cut & paste used for the above info from the Illustrated History of Rail Baron)
 
I use to have Rivers Roads & Rails which was puzzle-ish with train tracks.

I had another game which was some sort of Train Builder game where you had a bunch of train cards & you worked on building up various trains by laying the cards out. You also had cards that allowed you to steal other peoples trains & do other damage, as well as repair trains. I rarely ever played the game by the rules as a kid, I more just had fun making trains with it. I want to say the game was called "Railroad"

peter

Edit: just found it on google, it's called "Express - The Railroad Card Game"

http://www.amazon.com/MayFair-Games-4098985-Mayfair-Express/dp/B000021Y5B
 
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tnrkitect said:
You forgot one of the best: Rail Baron from Avalon HillThe map is a 3 piece board depicting the Continental US with 28 railroads depicted on the map following their historical routes.

To play Rail Baron, you move your token (train) along the RRs of your choice toward a destination city which you have been assigned. Upon arriving, you collect a payment, and may make a purchase. You can purchase one RR, or upgrade your train's locomotive (to a faster model).

If your train moves along a RR owned by an opponent, you must pay that person a track use fee. Therefore, the main challenge of the game is to purchase RRs that 1) connect into a network that gives you access to most of the important destination cities, and 2) prevent your opponents from doing likewise. To win, you must accumulate $200,000 then return to your home (starting) city. During play, when you purchase a RR, you are given the deed to that property, similar to Monopoly.

RB has been likened to Monopoly plus Pirate and Traveler, and there are some similarities: purchasing properties, trying to get certain groups, monopolizing an area, collecting money from opponents, etc. However, the game has more depth than Monopoly: finding the best route for your train can be a challenge; you must choose what to purchase next (not just the property you happened to land upon); there are many different winning strategies (good network, lock out opponents, etc.). RB is also far less dependent of random factors (luck) than is Monopoly.

(liberal use of cut & paste used for the above info from the Illustrated History of Rail Baron)
Click to expand...
My GF actually got me this game for my birthday last year; it's no longer published, but it can be found pretty readily online or in more specialized game stores. I'd agree with the likening it to monopoly, and while the rules can use some modifications, it's fun to play, and especially with a lot of players, you'll get people who monopolize certain areas and make fun little mergers. My favorite was a game where I picked up Seaboard, ACL, N & W, and Southern and had a de facto control of the south. I would say that this game is in part strategy, i.e. which railroads to buy when, but also a fair bit luck, depending on how many rolls it takes you to complete a trip it can make you money or you could stand to lose money if you keep rolling snake eyes.

I think the biggest plus to this is the size of the board, and the scope of the railroads they put on there, as they have all the classics, and a few shorter lines to fill in the gaps...when I first got the game I spread out the board and compared it to the most recent Amtrak timetable to trace out which routes between major cities were still in existence.
 
DC Train Enthusiast said:
tnrkitect said:
You forgot one of the best: Rail Baron from Avalon HillThe map is a 3 piece board depicting the Continental US with 28 railroads depicted on the map following their historical routes.

To play Rail Baron, you move your token (train) along the RRs of your choice toward a destination city which you have been assigned. Upon arriving, you collect a payment, and may make a purchase. You can purchase one RR, or upgrade your train's locomotive (to a faster model).

If your train moves along a RR owned by an opponent, you must pay that person a track use fee. Therefore, the main challenge of the game is to purchase RRs that 1) connect into a network that gives you access to most of the important destination cities, and 2) prevent your opponents from doing likewise. To win, you must accumulate $200,000 then return to your home (starting) city. During play, when you purchase a RR, you are given the deed to that property, similar to Monopoly.

RB has been likened to Monopoly plus Pirate and Traveler, and there are some similarities: purchasing properties, trying to get certain groups, monopolizing an area, collecting money from opponents, etc. However, the game has more depth than Monopoly: finding the best route for your train can be a challenge; you must choose what to purchase next (not just the property you happened to land upon); there are many different winning strategies (good network, lock out opponents, etc.). RB is also far less dependent of random factors (luck) than is Monopoly.

(liberal use of cut & paste used for the above info from the Illustrated History of Rail Baron)
Click to expand...
My GF actually got me this game for my birthday last year; it's no longer published, but it can be found pretty readily online or in more specialized game stores. I'd agree with the likening it to monopoly, and while the rules can use some modifications, it's fun to play, and especially with a lot of players, you'll get people who monopolize certain areas and make fun little mergers. My favorite was a game where I picked up Seaboard, ACL, N & W, and Southern and had a de facto control of the south. I would say that this game is in part strategy, i.e. which railroads to buy when, but also a fair bit luck, depending on how many rolls it takes you to complete a trip it can make you money or you could stand to lose money if you keep rolling snake eyes.

I think the biggest plus to this is the size of the board, and the scope of the railroads they put on there, as they have all the classics, and a few shorter lines to fill in the gaps...when I first got the game I spread out the board and compared it to the most recent Amtrak timetable to trace out which routes between major cities were still in existence.
Click to expand...
I enjoy it immensely, and have even managed to get my wife hooked on it too! :lol:

Another way that it is like Monopoly, is how it can sometimes drag on for hours if not days, especially if the player's collections of railroads are evenly balanced.

For those that have this board game but are missing pieces, such as the deeds to the railroad or the destination and payoff chart, replacement money, or even just the rules, I highly recommend the Rail Baron Fanatics website. They offer all of the above and more, with a lot of it available as free PDF downloads.
 
I'm a HUGE fan of railroad boardgames. I like the 18xx series alot. Some of my favorites in that series would include...

18US....roughly simulates the railroad history of the entire country.

18EU....Continental europe from France to Austria, Italy to Germany

1846....midwest USA

1826....France

1870....Mississippi valley

Express - A card game that plays similar to Gin-Rummy

Silverton - Railroading in Utah, Colorado & New Mexico
 
Check out boardgamegeek.com for exhaustive information on all of the games mentioned here. Also, check out Steam (formerly Age of Steam) for another excellent train game, with tons of maps available to add variety to the game.
 
_On The Underground_. My favorite "short" (under 2 hours) rail-themed game. It's a game of constructing subway lines in London, and it has a brilliantly elegant method of modelling passenger route choice in a plausible way. (There is one representative passenger.)
 
Hey, so Rail Baron is getting a reprint! Rio Grande is putting it out under its original title, Boxcars. I didn't get to play it at GenCon, but the board looks lovely-- AND it's double-sided, with a Britain map & companies included.
 

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