[net.games.board] Good Railroad Games

wjm@teddy.UUCP (12/12/85)

Rail Baron is a good game.  I have three other railroad games that are
interesting.

1829 -- A game of building a railroad network in England from Liverpool and
	Manchester to to the southern coast.  In the introductory and 
	intermediate versions of the game each player controls a single
	company trying to optimize its network.  In the advanced version
	the companies are still trying to optimize there networks, but
	the controlled by its director.  And much of the game deals with
	trying to win control of different companies.  This is one of my
	all time favorite games and by far my favorite railroad game.
	
	The board is made up of about 200 (I could by off by a lot) large
	hexes.  You build a network by adding and replacing tiles to 
	the board.  You then run the trains you have bought on the network.

Railway Rivals -- Another game of building a railroad network.  The map has
	much smaller hexes and you draw (with waterbased markers on clear
	contact paper) your network.  Then you run randomly generated runs
	on your network.  There are about 10 maps I know about and you can
	always make up your own networks.  The first and second players to
	complete a run get money.

Empire Builder -- Again you build up your network as in Railway Rivals, but
	here different cities have different products.  You draw cards that
	pay different amounts for runs.

						bill masek

jeff@hpcnoe.UUCP (12/18/85)

> Rail Baron is a good game.  I have three other railroad games that are
> interesting.

I think Empire Builder (Mayfair) is widely available.  I had problems
finding "1829" and "Railway Rivals."  Are they available in other cities
in the U.S.?  You can get 1829 through "Games" magazine, but it lists
for $35 for the Southern version and $39 for the Northern version.
These seem high for a game.  Are they reasonable?  Which version would
you recommend getting.  Are there expansion modules you need to get to
get a good game.  How much are the expansions?

-- Jeff Wu
   ..!ihnp4!hpfcla!j_wu

franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) (12/27/85)

In article <37800025@hpcnoe.UUCP> jeff@hpcnoe.UUCP writes:
>> Rail Baron is a good game.  I have three other railroad games that are
>> interesting.
>
>I think Empire Builder (Mayfair) is widely available.  I had problems 
>finding "1829" and "Railway Rivals."  Are they available in other cities
>in the U.S.?  You can get 1829 through "Games" magazine, but it lists
>for $35 for the Southern version and $39 for the Northern version.  
>These seem high for a game.  Are they reasonable?  Which version would
>you recommend getting.  Are there expansion modules you need to get to
>get a good game.  How much are the expansions?

Both 1829 and Railway Rivals are available from a store called Games People
Play in Cambridge, Massachussetts.  (I have no connection with the store,
other than having shopped there a lot.)  At one time, this was the only
U.S. outlet for 1829.  I don't know what the current availability of
either of these is elsewhere in the U.S.

The prices you quote for 1829 are about as good as you are likely to find
on this side of the Atlantic.  If the games were being manufactured here,
they would probably be cheaper.  Personally, I have found them to be well
worth the price.

The Southern version is the original one, and probably somewhat better.
The other is for when you want a change of pace.  There are expansion
modules, and they do add something to the game, but the difference is
not all that much.  The original game is very good without them.

With Railway Rivals, there are no expansion modules, just alternate playing
boards.  You will want more than one of these; any one map gets tiresome
if played exclusively.

Frank Adams                           ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108