# Topic of the week: TRAINS **URL:** \ **Category:** Boardgames\ **Tags:** topic-of-the-week\ **Created:** [23 January 2024 16:21 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/topic-of-the-week-trains/5158 "2024-01-23T16:21:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![raged\_norm](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/raged_norm/32/21570_2.png) [@raged\_norm](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/raged_norm)\ **Post date:** [27 January 2024 00:27 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/topic-of-the-week-trains/5158/41 "2024-01-27T00:27:40Z")
I’m trying to find a copy now… ---
**Author:** ![lalunaverde](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/lalunaverde/32/28591_2.png) [@lalunaverde](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/lalunaverde)\ **Post date:** [29 January 2024 14:43 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/topic-of-the-week-trains/5158/42 "2024-01-29T14:43:15Z")
If there is one 18xx title that I like the most, perhaps it is **1860: Isle of Wight** (although **the Old Prince** is up there too) In the photo below was the first time I played with my copy (played it with Wyvern before, with his copy). We played with 3 players and all 3 of us had a great time. One never played 18xx but played boatloads of **Power Grid** so at least she understands some concepts. And this game I’ve found out that the other player was born in IOW so he’s a bit sentimental with the place and was glad to play it. ![20231209_170446](https://discussion.tekeli.li/uploads/default/original/3X/a/0/a0f14cd37e46df69aacd825ade9bd6611e971f0b.jpeg) 1825 branch (if you look in the graph) is perhaps my fave one. So far, I liked **1825** the least from these. Followed by **1862** , then **18GB** , and then **1860**. The lack of company liabilities means that they can be played at 2 players and they allow you to change companies so often like changing shirts. The next branch is classic **1830** branch. But the problem with this branch is that they are so similar to **1830** that I’d rather just play 1830 instead. I now see Wyvern’s POV with how restrictive **1882’s** tile laying is to the point that it’s not as fun as the others. **1889: Shikoku** remains a fave due to the fact that 4 Trains can become pseudo-permanents (or not!) based on how people play and their choices. And I thought that bit was very intriguing. The other fave from the 1830 branch was the **the Old Prince** where you start with a few companies and we are forced to be buddies, but gradually split off - the complete opposite of **1862: East Anglia**. There is a fight for the national company where you try to jettison your competitors out of the national company via the splitting mechanism, or maybe you think it’s a sinking ship and you do want a lifeboat! The train rush here isn’t exactly very fast or very slow, but it does not stop. You see, in most 18xx, players need to recognise their positions and figure out if they need to push the train rush or make it stop. Usually the player on pole position wants the rush to stop. In TOP, you keep going. You’re in pole position. Tough. You have to keep going. Also, their roster of private companies is perhaps the best in this branch. No looting allowed (except for one specific company) and they are intead used to build combos! Lehman’s branch I am not familiar. But I do love **1846** , so I am keen on the other ones: **1833NE** and **2038** **1837** branch is perhaps the least liked one from me. They tend to be games where you invest on your own company and run it well. I do have faves from here like **1817** , which is about betting (literally the reason why I dabbled with 18xx in the first place!). You think it does well? You buy shares. You think it’ll sink or under-perform? You buy shorts! 😈 (I always wear shorts outside of Winter season). Perhaps the most interesting stock market shenanigan game I know, yet it is a game that highly encourages to run your trains well. **1817** is how I envision 18xx before I start playing them. ---
**Author:** ![Brattyjedi](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/brattyjedi/32/1618_2.png) [@Brattyjedi](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/Brattyjedi)\ **Post date:** [29 January 2024 16:27 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/topic-of-the-week-trains/5158/43 "2024-01-29T16:27:49Z")
I posted last night in the recent games thread about my in-progress play through of **Ticket to Ride Legacy** so I definitely train on occasion. I like **Railroad Ink** and, as with most games I own and like, I don’t play it as much as I should. Otherwise I’m not really big on train games. I don’t really care for base TtR, original or Europe. I don’t hate it and think it’s good for introducing people to the hobby but I prefer either more complex or less complex/ more silly. Some of the maps that add more complexity are ok, but nothing that wows me. I do like some games that have trains in them (e.g. **Great Western Trail** and either **Brass** ), but that feels different. There are a couple guys at my monthly game group who are all trains, all the time. If a game has trains in it, they love it. I’ve played a lot with them and don’t mind playing their train games, but none have wowed me and become a favorite of mine. Some of the trains I’ve played this way: Iberian Gauge Snowdonia Chicago Express Railways of the World Paris Connection ---
**Author:** ![pillbox](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/pillbox/32/1031_2.png) [@pillbox](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/pillbox)\ **Post date:** [30 January 2024 18:05 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/topic-of-the-week-trains/5158/44 "2024-01-30T18:05:17Z")
> [@Acacia](#): > > - Do you Train? How hard? Yes. Roughly speaking: some. > [@Acacia](#): > > - Why so much Train in the industry? Trains are fascinating; they represent power, money, success, but also doom or eventual disaster. And yet, it can also represent, in abstract, a journey or a portal to endless possibilities. Imagine how many Hero’s Journeys start or end with a train arriving at a station. (incidentally, while working on this response, I got lost browsing through [TVTropes’ RailroadIndex](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RailroadIndex) and lost 3 or 4 years worth of productivity) From a gaming perspective, I’ve already somewhat covered the “hey boardgame designers/publishers, why trains?” but I think they can, if properly integrated with the mechanisms, provide pedagogical reinforcement; a way to keep the game and its mechanisms moving along in the correct direction (_on rails, perhaps!?_). A few examples to show what I mean: - **Ticket to Ride** : You have ticket cards. You can score those if you connect those cities (the rulebook uses “continuous path of routes”. The rulebook doesn’t spend a lot of time defining terms or showing diagrams, because a “train ticket” showing two cities is already evocative and looking at the board immediately starts connecting what people know about trains with the core game mechanisms. - **Colt Express** : you’re a criminal on a train trying to steal valuables. Why are there valuables on the train? Why can you climb onto the roof? Why do you shoot at each other? These are all common activities of traingoers in the 19th century, I think. Also, there are phases of the game where players play their cards face down… because it’s in a tunnel and you can’t see (because light sources were limited in the American west during this time and installing the sun inside the tunnel would have killed everyone) - **Rail Pass** : to pass a train from one person to the next, you do so, and I quote from the rulebook: > [@Acacia](#): > > - How would you proselytize someone who does not Train? Where is the magic? I’ve said before in this thread that train themes are just pasted on; and while what I just wrote above suggests otherwise… well, I don’t care. This is the TRAINS topic, not the Internal Consistency topic. You glue the theme over the mechanisms so that the bits of the paste-up that look like trains get glued onto the bits of the mechanisms that taste like trains, and the rest is just your normal, everyday game-designer-hand-waving. How would I recommend someone get started with train gaming? I think the first step would be to play a train game; and the second step would be to play a second train game. At that point, if you enjoyed steps 1 and or 2, you may proceed to steps 3-through-3000 at your leisure; if you did not enjoy steps 1 or 2, you’re wrong, go back to step 1 and try again. * * * As far as “hey, pillbox, what’s your favorite train game?”, that’s easy: It’s probably **1862** because it’s a solo-able 18xx game that could have been about threading needles in ancient Babylon for all I care; the historic train companies and the bit of the rules named after a particular British dude, meh; couldn’t care less. I want that crunchy economic puzzle layered on top of a hex-based route optimization puzzle all tied together with a explosive, exponential route-operation-with-increasingly-bigger-but-more-expensive-and-less-numerous _widgets_. “Okay, pillbox, how do you categorize your train games and just how big is it?” you ask, waggling your eyebrows. By “it”, I imagine you’re talking about my _enormous train game collection_ Removing BGG items that identify as “expansions”, GeekGroup says 104. The broad strokes: > **18xx (34)** > > 1800: Colorado (print-and-play) > 1817 > 1822: The Railways of Great Britain > 1822CA > 1822PNW > 1824: Austrian-Hungarian Railway (Second Edition) > 1830: Railways \* Robber Barons > 1837: Rail Building in the Austro-Hungarian Empire > 1840: Vienna Tramways > 1844/1854 > 1846: The Race for the Midwest > 1848: Australia > 1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight > 1861/1867 Railways of Russia/Canada > 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties > 1882: Assiniboia > 1883: Building Railroads in Northern Italy > 18Chesapeake > 18CZ > 18DO: Dortmund > 18GB: The Railways of Great Britain > 18Ireland > 18Lilliput > 18Mag: Hungarian Railway History > 18MEX > 18MS: The Railroads Come to Mississippi > 18NewEngland > 18NY > 18OE: On the Rails of the Orient Express > 18SJ: Railways in the Frozen North > 18West > 21Moon > Harzbahn 1873 > The Hiawathas > Shikoku 1889 (databasing error… no longer have this) > **Crayon Rails (19)** > > ## Empire Builder Series > > Australian Rails > British Rails (3 copies; 1 box edition to keep, 1 box.ed to sell, 1 tube edition to keep) > China Rails > Empire Builder (w/Mexico; 2 versions) > Empire Builder (without Mexico) > Empire Express > Eurorails > India Rails > Iron Dragon > Lunar Rails > Martian Rails > Nippon Rails > Russian Rails > > ## Others > > Dampfross > Rails Through the Rockies > Tramway Engineer’s Workbook > **Cube Rails (13)** > > Chicago Express (Wabash Cannonball a.k.a. Chicago Express a.k.a. Wabash Cannonball) > Empyreal: Spells & Steam > Iberian Gauge > Irish Gauge > Kansas Pacific > Luzon Rails > Mini Express > Northern Pacific > Paris Connection > Ride the Rails > Stephenson’s Rocket > Trans-Siberian Railroad > **Ticket to Ride (13)** > > Ticket to Ride: 10th Anniversary > Ticket to Ride: Amsterdam > Ticket to Ride: Europe > Ticket to Ride: Europe – 15th Anniversary > Ticket to Ride: First Journey (Europe) > Ticket to Ride: First Journey (U.S.) > Ticket to Ride: Germany > Ticket to Ride: London > Ticket to Ride: Märklin > Ticket to Ride: New York > Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries > Ticket to Ride: Rails & Sails > Ticket to Ride: San Francisco > **Light-hearted Fun (6)** > > Colt Express > Rail Pass > Railroad Ink (Red, Green, Yellow, Blue) > **The Martin Wallace and John Bohrer Things (3)** > > Age of Steam: Deluxe Edition > Railways of Nippon > Railways of the World > **Snowdonia Series (3)** > > Alubari: A Nice Cup of Tea > Foothills > Snowdonia: Deluxe Master Set > **Probably belongs somewhere else but I can't figure out where (1)** > > Silverton > **Ancient Egyptian Trains (1)** > > #### aka 18☥☥\[1\] > > Cleopatra’s Caboose > **EuroTrains (a.k.a. I stopped creating new categories and just lumped everything else together (11)** > > 20th Century Limited > Brass: Birmingham (Lancashire isn’t databased with Category: Train) > Cargo Express > Coal Baron > Coal Baron: The Great Card Game > Spike > TOKYO METRO > Trains & Trains: Rising Sun > Trans Europa > Yardmaster Express Happy to answer any questions about any of these games. Topics I’m willing to discuss on any of them: - Why is it a train game? - Why is it not a train game? (this post has been written and rewritten about 8 times. At one point, I believe it was over 300 lines… and I’m not even sure I had started talking about train board games yet) * * * 1. 18-ankh-ankh ---
**Author:** ![yashima](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/yashima/32/21481_2.png) [@yashima](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/yashima)\ **Post date:** [30 January 2024 19:18 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/topic-of-the-week-trains/5158/45 "2024-01-30T19:18:44Z")
I see that Dampfross is part of the Crayon Rails genre. I have such fond memories of it… is there any of these that is in print? ---
**Author:** ![pillbox](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/pillbox/32/1031_2.png) [@pillbox](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/pillbox)\ **Post date:** [30 January 2024 19:48 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/topic-of-the-week-trains/5158/46 "2024-01-30T19:48:46Z")
Interestingly, someone has bought or otherwise acquired the old Mayfair Games branding and trademarks and is currently, mostly, using it as some sort of zombie puppet to foist games upon unsuspecting online shoppers: > **[Mayfair Games](https://mayfair-games.com/)** > > Mayfair Games But, more interestingly, the widow of the late Darwin Bromley has been working to get old _and new_ games in the Empire Builder series printed under, originally, a new brand, but now working with the zombie-Mayfair entity. Incidentally, Darwin Bromley is, likely, one of the key contributors to modern hobby boardgaming and its decades-old grip on the English-speaking portion of the hobby, but is often overlooked I think. There’s really no way of knowing what German boardgaming would have become without people and companies like Darwin and Mayfair translating those games and importing them to the US and other places; it would certainly be different – and one could argue that if Mayfair didn’t do it, someone else would have… which may or may not be true. * * * Back to your question: Dampfross was practically free when I picked it up from a local in-town BGG auction; I suspect copies in Germany are a dime-a-dozen… or… maybe… a ten-euro-cent-coin-per-1.2e1. As far as the Mayfair Empire Builder series… they’re all out of stock, distribution-wise, for a few years. I know I own Dampfross, but I actually don’t remember what sets it apart from Empire Builder (or, rather, the other way around). And I know Dampross itself was a remake of Railway Rivals, which is different yet, but I couldn’t tell you why. ---
**Author:** ![Acacia](https://discussion.tekeli.li/user_avatar/discussion.tekeli.li/acacia/32/6915_2.png) [@Acacia](https://discussion.tekeli.li/u/Acacia)\ **Post date:** [31 January 2024 14:42 UTC](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/topic-of-the-week-trains/5158/47 "2024-01-31T14:42:12Z")
> [@pillbox](#): > > Shikoku 1889 (databasing error… no longer have this) Your Shikoku has been located in Virginia. I’d prefer if everyone pictured me dressed as a ninja sneaking through metal shelving units filled with Roads and Boats, as opposed to Pillbox trying to shove a box into a blue PO drop-off bin and realizing his car is stopped too far away. But either works. > [@pillbox](#): > > Stephenson’s Rocket This has tracks. Don’t think it count as cubes? [Previous page](https://discussion.tekeli.li/t/topic-of-the-week-trains/5158.md?page=2)