Railroad Tycoon - the boardgame
Among the other presents Santa brought me was Railroad Tycoon. This is a sort of simplified version of Age of Steam , with a good bit of the pain removed and a little randomness thrown in. We've got a 4-player game going on at work, where we try to get a few turns in over lunch. When I got it I thought that it would be a nice game for the more casual gamers, but not in the league of Age of Steam. After a few plays, I think I actually like it more than I like Age of Steam. Age of Steam is fun, but it's a real brain burner compared to most games - one misstep at the start of AoS, and you get to spend the next 3 hours kicking yourself in the ass while losing, assuming you get to finish at all. Railroad Tycoon is a little more forgiving, a little looser. You might still be able to hose yourself completely over on turn 1, but you'll still think you're in it up to the end.
On it's downside, it is completely huge, with a 3' x 4' board. It might fit on your dinner table, if you can put a leaf in the middle. My copy has the warping problem that other people have reported - it'll start out flat and within 30 minutes will be fairly severely bowed. I might be kidding myself but it looks better than it was on the first playing, since I'm bending the boards backwards after every play before putting them away.
To sum it up, if you like Age of Steam, get it. If you like train games, get it. If not, I'd recommend something else.
On it's downside, it is completely huge, with a 3' x 4' board. It might fit on your dinner table, if you can put a leaf in the middle. My copy has the warping problem that other people have reported - it'll start out flat and within 30 minutes will be fairly severely bowed. I might be kidding myself but it looks better than it was on the first playing, since I'm bending the boards backwards after every play before putting them away.
To sum it up, if you like Age of Steam, get it. If you like train games, get it. If not, I'd recommend something else.
posted by Booder at 10:35 AM
2 Comments:
Man that takes me back to the days when Railroad Tycoon was all we had to play ahaha.
Eagle Games has been making a living porting PC games (Age of Mythology, World of Warcraft, Civilization) to board game format, with a mixed record of success. Railroad Tycoon doesn't feel much like the PC game, but it's a good game in its own right.
As for RRT - the computer game, yeah, I played a ton of it back in the day on the Amiga. I've got RRT2 as well, but for some reason I don't enjoy it nearly as much.
Rails Across America was another good PC game. You had a number of computer-driven opponents, who could steal your money, shut down parts of your railroad, stop your constuction, all sorts of nasty stuff. And you could do the same to them.
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