Russian Railroads - 2 August 2018

James brought his new birthday game - Russian Railroads over first a first play. This is definitely one of those games where the playing of the game is easier than the rule reading would suggest.

Players are building 3 Russian railways through placing different types of track, obtaining trains, developing engineering, building factories and recruiting engineers. As you develop the railway track, bonuses and opportunities are opened. For some bonuses the power of the trains is important. Recruiting engineers gives some in-game advantages and the most engineers earns an end-game bonus.

The game uses worker placement to decide actions, so awareness of what others want to do is needed to make sure you don't get blocked out.

In some ways the game reminded me of Tzolk'in where a number of different tracks offer many different ways of scoring points. In the same way as with that game, working out which of the many options to pursue is critical. Some options score early, some build for big points later.

David bought a lot of engineers and used them early to score bonus points and get an early lead.

James went all out on the Kiev line, helped by an early acquisition of a level 9 train. This line earns massive bonus points and for a while looked like an unbeatable combination as he caught up with David and then took the lead.

For this first game, Andy and James both balanced track building with industry and factories. This was a bit limited as the factories only really started appearing towards the end of the game, earning Andy some big points in the last couple of rounds.

At the end, David completed the Vladivostok line and was able to bring the high scoring white track into play with some double score markers. This combined with the most engineers bonus let him overtake James and win the game.

Scores: David 291, James 255, Andy 195.