PLAYED FOR YOU

Trains

Laying railway tracks in Japan

Private railroad companies in 19^th century Japan, that in time merge into bigger company; actually this is a topic that one associate with a game from the 18xx series, but Trains is a deck building game - you play and buy cards for trains, personnel and facilities, which you all use to build track around Tokyo or Osaka, or with which you expand the towns and construct buildings.

The game always comprises eight stacks of Mandatory cards - Trains, stations, Waste, etc, - and eight randomly chosen stacks of cards from a total of 30 different cards, ranging from Amusement Park to Tunnel or Viaduct. At the start each player puts a track marker onto the board. Then you play and buy cards in your turn in any order and as often as you like, but in separate actions, in analogy to other deck building games. A card you play earns you virtual coins for the current turn only; the effects of action cards can be used instantly. With those virtual coins you buy cards and, at the end of your turn, you put all cards that you played, bought or remaining in your hand on your personal discard pile. When four of the stacks are empty or if you have used up all your track markers or when all station markers have been placed you add up bonuses for track and points on your cards to win with the highest score.

The mechanisms are clearly reminiscent of Dominion, but Trains is much more a track building game than a deck building game; a special feature are waste cards which you must take when building track; you must spend an entire turn just to get rid of waste cards you currently have in hand. This is a marvelous game, in which other players do not obstruct you, they “only” make building more expensive. It is to be hoped that there will be another edition!

Players: 2-4

Age: 12+

Time: 45+

Designer: Hisashi Hayashi

Art: ryo_nyamo

Price: ca. 50 Euro

Publisher: Okazu Brand 2012

Web: www.gamers-jp.com

Genre: Deck building for track building

Users: With friends

Version: multi

Rules: en jp

In-game text: no

Comments:

Track building with a deck building mechanism

Functional cards

Good, easily understood rules

Very difficult to acquire

Compares to:

Deck building games like Dominion, Track placement games like Ticket to Ride, overall first game of its kind

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0