Game of Trains

Product Information

Actions include things like swapping cards in the lineup, moving cards in the lineup, forcing every player to discard a specific card in their lineup, or protecting a card from discard. Trains Map Pack 1 is a 2-sided expansion board with maps of Germany and Northeastern US, and these maps are much different from the Osaka and Tokyo maps included with the game.

Hexagonal plains present a frank but practical view of gameplay (even though the ‘Mountain’ areas clearly look more like forests) and the wooden cubes players place to establish dominance convey…railism…in some aspect. The railways of today are amazing things and bullet trains, freight trains and more keep entire countries running.If there are exchanged cards in the middle you don’t have to draw a card off the deck, you can pick one of the cards and use the ability on it. The expense of building is determined by the location: empty fields can be built on for free, while building on a mountain that already contains another player’s rails could cost enough to prohibit you from purchasing a new card on that turn (and force you to take an additional Waste). Whereas in Rack-O replaced cards become a discard pile that other players can draw from, in Game of Trains, replaced cards become actions that the other players can take. It packs a lot into a small box and has the dubious honour of being one of the few games that all three members of Polyhedron Collider own.

A market exists on the side of the board, selling off sexier trains, more opportunities to lay rails or even abilities that instantly gain you victory points. There are 16 piles of cards to arrange in a common area; 8 of these are static from game to game, while the other 8 are determined randomly through the use of an included randomizer deck. Both of these elements can really diminish the playability of your hand, so you really need to consider the cost of your actions.

Trains is AEG’s English-language release of the Japanese game of the same name which debuted at Essen 2012. It has some decisions to it, but there’s also a significant amount of luck that may frustrate players who value Strategy with a capital S. Draw a card from the face down train car pile and replace a car in their train line with the drawn card.

We love the artwork on all the cards as well as how the type of good on each train car ties to the special ability it offers. The common of pool of cards have a set of standard cards that are always in the game and another set of cards that are randomly drawn at setup.Protect can be placed under the leftmost, rightmost, or center card in your line to be unaffected by the Remove ability on that card.

Isle of Trains: All Aboard is a card-based engine building game where cards have multiple uses: You can use cards as locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, or buildings to improve the effectiveness and abilities of your train. It’s not the kind of game I’m always in the mood for–I prefer games with a little more meat on their bones–and I won’t often suggest it with my regular gaming groups, but it’s one I’m always willing to play because there are meaningful decisions in the game, the art is pleasant to look at, and I find the puzzle in the game a fun one to solve, especially since the whole game, start to finish, doesn’t take very long to play and doesn’t involve much rules-learning investment from the players.

Also, when laying down your ‘train routes’ on the board you are just using tiny colored wooden cubes. They mention that it leaves room for strategy and competitiveness, and is a great game for strategy. The fact that you can use the board with the cards you have to gain victory points is a much needed breath of fresh air when it comes to deckbuilding games. Rather than attacking monsters or erecting a smithy, you will be laying train tracks and building stations – actual wooden cubes on an actual board!