Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
A board game about train barons and desperadoes in the Wild West. As a rail baron in the 1880's American West, you try to expand your railroad empire by moving goods and passengers between cities.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
A board game about train barons and desperadoes in the Wild West. As a rail baron in the 1880's American West, you try to expand your railroad empire by moving goods and passengers between cities. You may invest in new trains and stations or upgrade your trains to make them go faster and carry more goods. Buy goods where they are cheap and sell them where they fetch the best price. But beware: Gangs of desperadoes hired by rival rail barons will try to hold up and rob your trains, or blow up the tracks to derail you. A roll-and-move game where you each turn will roll three dice; your large trains will move the sum of all the dice, your small trains the sum of the two highest dice and your gang of desperadoes the highest die. Pay to pick up goods in cities (small trains may carry one good while large trains may carry two) or pick up passengers for free. Deliver goods and passengers to the cities accepting them, your profit will depend on how far you moved the goods. Goods available for buying and selling are fixed for the different cities and prices are pre-printed on the board. If an opponent's train pass your gang of desperadoes you will rob the train if you roll higher on a die than your opponent does (trains cannot change direction and are forced to use the entire die roll and hence you can maneuver to force them into your ambush). Other features are "telegrams" (a la community chest cards), marshals and sticks of dynamite... The goal of the game is to be the first to reach a given number of "success points" (victory points), which you get for buying trains and stations and for cash in hand.