Game Night at David’s: Railroad Tycoon

Tuesday, September 26th

David was one of the other Meetup group members that made it to TBGT. At the con, one of the games we both played in was Amun-Re, which David subsequently bought, and was putting on the table. I knew I’d be ready to play again, and rode to the event with Chris, who was hoping to run Railroad Tycoon, knowing that I’d be happy with either game. The gaming out here is pretty spread out, and it’s really nice to have someone to ride with and talk to on all these half-hour treks.

We got to David’s a little early, and had a nice time just chatting about games, Meetup, and life in general. The rest of the evening’s attendees trickled in, eventually putting us at ten participants. People looked at the two games on offer, and Amun-Re filled up quickly, so I found myself sitting down to my second new (to me) Martin Wallace rail game, in as many days. Players for our game were Chris, Ben, myself, Nate, and Jan.

Railroad Tycoon looks really cool, with all the nice bits. As closely as it’s related to Age of Steam, it should certainly be high on my list right now, given the current scarcity of AoS, and my relatively high desire to own it. However, RT has what, to me, is one major drawback: the titanic board. I really find it unwieldy and prohibitive, and I just don’t see wanting to spread it out all that often.

So, since RT hasn’t been in the blog before… It’s a rail game, showing the Eastern half of the USA. It’s very similar to AoS, if you hadn’t gathered that. Players bid for turn order, and, each turn, run through three rounds of actions, in which each player gets to choose one of six actions. Players sell shares, which they have to pay interest on, to make money, which they use to build track. Once they have track built, they can make money from shipping goods, which can make them profitable. One big difference with RT from AoS is that you can take shares at absolutely any time. Another is the presence of a couple different sets of cards, that add an additional element of chance to the game.

Chris ran through the rules, then ran through them again, as Nate showed up late. Somehow, in the process, a couple of the players, who’d never played AoS, were somehow not made aware that shares would be subtracted from their scores at the end of the game. This, of course, made a big difference in game play, as it didn’t come up until I mentioned it about halfway through the game. It also turned out that Chris was playing some of the cards (this was the first time he’d used them) the wrong way, which also had had a huge impact on the game. As much as these discrepancies affected the outcome, it was still a good learning game, and a fun one (at least for me) at that.

I learned a lot about RT in the opening couple turns. The guy to my right won the auction to go first, and took an action card. I built, on a space in the middle/North of the board, where I could deliver three goods between two cities. This was not even the best place to build, as the road to Baltimore was much more profitable. However, I had a Tycoon card that wanted me to build out of Chicago, so I thought I should stay close. Jan didn’t miss the Baltimore connection, though it took her until, I think, the second turn, to realize how great the Baltimore Hotel card would be for her, which was something I didn’t realize until about the same time, when Chris used the first hotel and we figured out what a big impact they could have on the early game. She snatched the hotel, and proceeded to get up to making about $12 in a couple of turns, while only having taken out a couple shares.

Nate and Ben were going wild on shares, and Chris and Ben were barking right at Jan’s heels. I was trying to be pretty conservative with my money, and Nate and I were bringing up the rear the whole game. I had a big plan for my network, which was unfortunately disrupted by Ben when he first built through one of the routes I wanted, and then inserted a new city of a very unfortunate color right on my route. I was suddenly left with a few less cubes to deliver for a few less points than I expected, and I was wishing I’d headed East. Nobody really contested Jan for the North East, or Chris for the South East.

Despite Jan’s huge early lead, and Nate and Ben’s relative lack of a chance, we boldly played on. To cut a long story shorter, some interesting stuff ended, and we triggered the game end. Jan won, Chris followed a ways back in second, I was one space behind him, and then Ben and Nate brought up the rear.

I enjoyed the game, but I need to read the rules. I look forward to playing it again someday, hopefully with more experienced individuals. Right now, I’ll continue to keep my eyes open for Age of Steam.

The other table finished, and started Winner’s Circle. However, it was late, and I couldn’t afford a second extra-late night in a row, so we headed off home, full of game talk.

GG, GL
JW