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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best board game I've ever played!!!!, December 29, 2006
This review is from: Railroad Tycoon (Toy)
This game was highly recommended on several websites, and the owner of a game store that I frequent, upon discovering that I was interested in rail strategy games, while giving the thumbs-up to several railroad games that I had questioned him on, recommended Railroad Tycoon as `the game to get'. My son bought this game for me at Christmas, so this is "the game I got". AND WHAT A GAME IT IS!!!
The first thing that you are struck by when looking at `Railroad Tycoon' is the HUGE gameboard depicting the eastern half of the United States. You almost expect to find a blurb stating `Actual Size: Scale -1 mile + 1 mile' somewhere on there (OK, so I exaggerate a bit, but it is quite large).
The quality of the game components is also outstanding. The plastic miniatures are pretty cool (and sturdy), and the brightly colored wooden blocks representing `goods' are pretty indestructible. While cardboard counters would have sufficed, the wood and plastic pieces make it a lot easier on the eyes (especially those of us who are nearsighted). The cardboard track hexes are also quite sturdy. The massive gameboard allows for bigger hexagons (a really nice feature), and has a printed block that lists the actions that can be taken as part of a turn and the cost for building track over different kinds of terrain. And then there is the instruction manual, which contains a scant ten pages and is printed in color. It is clear, concise, and well organized. The only minor detail that was a bit of an annoyance was that the `blue' cities appear a bit on the purplish side on our gameboard, which wouldn't be a problem if there weren't also purple cities. So we just got used to the dark purple being `blue' - not a major issue.
The game itself is not difficult to learn. Usually, by the end of one or two turns you can get the hang of it. You start out with no money and have to issue shares of your railroad company in $5000 blocks. You draw a Tycoon card to play as one of several railroad magnates, each of which has his own objective. A few other action cards are displayed, cities are stocked with goods, and you're set to go. You use the money that you get to buy track, upgrade your train engine and urbanize towns, among other things. The idea is to create links between cities and deliver goods along those links. A turn consists of three phases: the auction phase, the action phase, and the income/dividends phase. The auction is to determine who the first player is for the turn, and the income/dividends is pretty routine. The action phase needs a little more examination.
The action phase consists of three rounds. Each player, in turn, performs one action per round, so in total there are three actions for each player per turn. An action is one of the following tasks: Build track; Upgrade your engine; choose a card; urbanize a town; deliver goods or; build a Western Link. Developing a strategy for which actions you do (and when to do them) is the deciding factor in succeeding. But don't think that the same strategy will work all the time. The cards that that are revealed and what goods appear in each city are variables that keep each game fresh. The game can usually be completed in about 2 hours. It ends when a predetermined number of `Empty towns' (dependent on the number of players) appear on the board. The winner is the person with the most victory points, which combines the action points you get during the game, any bonus points for completing the objective on your Tycoon card, and subtracting the number of shares you've taken.
You may say `Gee, that sounds a bit complicated...but is it any fun?" The answer is "YES! YES! YES!" This game is positively addictive. My son and I played back-to-back games (about 3-1/2 hours) on the first night and could've gone again if it wasn't close to midnight! We immediately began thinking of people that we could teach it to. Though we've only played the two-player version as of this time, I think the game appears that it would be even more fun with more players (the game accommodates up to six players), each having conflicting strategy and objectives.
My only regret it that I have only two thumbs to put up, because I'd give this game three thumbs up if I could!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun game with a few glitches, January 21, 2009
Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Railroad Tycoon (Toy)
The only version now available for this game is the "international" version. It looks like the manufacturer had left-over game parts in various languages and needed to get rid of them so they combined them together. Thankfully this doesn't hurt game play though.
Altogether the game is really fun, but my family is considering making alterations to the board so that its more evenly competitive across the map.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's BIG, but it's FUN!, October 16, 2008
Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Railroad Tycoon (Toy)
I try out a number of strategy games, but only buy a few. They're expensive, and I don't want to waste money on games we're not going to play. Railroad Tycoon is a keeper!
Another review does a good job describing the game, so I won't go into great detail. I will point out a couple of key items. First, the purpose of the game is to build a railroad empire in the eastern United States. Players build tracks, deliver goods, upgrade trains, and compete for the best routes and to deliver the most goods.
Pros of the Game
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1. Excellent educational game. There's plenty of geography and economics. Your kids will also learn about the dangers of debt, as you almost always have to borrow some amount of money to build. If you have too much debt, you will not win!
2. It's all strategy! I really dislike games that are decided by a lucky roll of the dice. There's no dice here. It's just you against your opponents, er, friends...
3. The game is different every time. Goods cubes are distributed at random to the various cities at the start of every game. This distribution changes the makeup of every game. Goal cards are also distributed anew at the start of each game, which also affects one's strategy.
4. It's fun!
Cons of the Game
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1. The board is HUGE!!! I don't have the dimensions, but I would guess in the neighborhood of 3' x 5'. It comes in 3 pieces. You need a big table if you want to be able to keep your money and pieces on the table along with the board.
2. The Eastern seaboard rules...most of the time. Most of the big cities are along the coast--New York City, Charlotte, Baltimore, etc... Occasionally, someone will win by focusing on the Midwest--Chicago, Cincy, Louisville, etc... This, however, is rare. The great volume of cubes on the coast biases strategy to that area and, in my opinion, is a limitation of the game.
3. In some games, we have exceeded the maximum score before the game actually ends and have to keep score on paper rather than along the edge of the game.
4. On the above note, score is kept by moving trains of each player's colors along the outside of the board. If you have more than 3 players, it's pretty crowded. Also, the board is invariably bumped, and these "scoring trains" get moved.
Recommendations
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1. Buy a large dining room table if you want to play the game!
2. We use those black, springy paper clip things to hold the 3 sections of the game board together. This prevents shifting and tracks from looking like an earthquake hit.
3. Get separate little baggies for each of the colors and keep the trains in them.
4. Strategy wise, you almost always want to control the Eastern seaboard.
5. Deliver goods as soon as possible! You get money by delivering goods. You build track and upgrade trains by having money. Do what is necessary to move your scoring train right away. I believe this is the most critical part of all.
6. Keep your debt reasonable. You never get to pay off your debt in this game, so it always takes away from your income, and it reduces your points at the end of the game, which can cause you to lose. I've never seen someone with really high debt win.
7. The goal cards can be helpful, but rarely make the difference. Don't sacrifice building track and moving goods to try and get the handful of points from a goal card.
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