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Railroad Rivals – Standard Edition
You could earn
2459 Victory Points
with this purchase
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Description
While playing Railroad Rivals, you connect cities via one of the twelve great railroads that stretched across the United States, while simultaneously building your stock portfolio. You then use those railroads to make deliveries that drive up the price of your stocks. At the end of the game, the player who has run the most profitable railroad while also owning the most valuable stocks becomes the greatest of all of the railroad rivals!
In more detail, Railroad Rivals is a tile-drafting and -laying game in which you build a railroad empire that stretches across America…and across your table. Each turn you draft one new city tile and one new railroad stock tile. You then lay one of your city tiles next to a city tile that is already on the table to create a link between the two cities. The matching edges must both have the same railroad on them. Each newly laid city gets one or more randomly drawn colored cubes placed on it that represent the goods that can be delivered from that city. After all players have laid their city tile, you deliver one goods cube using one of that city's railroad links. This gives you points and raises the value of that railroad stock.
At the end of the game, your score is the total of all of the points that you received from deliveries, from other players using your railroad links, and from the value of all of your railroad stock tiles.
Railroad Rivals is a tile drafting, tile laying game where players build a railroad empire stretching across America. Players connect cities using one of the 12 great railroads across America and use these railroads to perform delivers and increase the price of a player’s stocks. It was successfully funded on Kickstarter in April 2018.
Railroad Rivals Gameplay
Each turn plays will draft, in turn order, one city tile and one railroad stock tile. The city tile is then laid next to an already existing city tile to create a link between them. The tile can only be laid if the matching edges have the same railroad on them.
Each new city laid receives one or more randomly drawn coloured cube representing a “deliverable good.” After all players have laid their city tile players can perform a delivery. Players can deliver one good using one of the city’s railroad links. This delivery gives a player points and increases the value of that railroad stock used for the delivery by one.
Extra content was unlocked as part of the Railroad Rivals campaign’s stretch goals which allow players to place hotels, which add +1 income when delivering goods to a city containing a hotel. Players also receive one wooden water tower that they can play on any city tile not already containing a water tower. Whenever a player makes a delivery to a city tile with a water tower they can continue to deliver to another adjacent city. Both railroads used in the deliver have their stocks increased by one. These two extra components add some extra strategic decisions to make when placing tiles and making deliveries.
Final scoring is based on the points received from delivers, and the value of all of a player’s stocks.
Initial Thoughts on Railroad Rivals
The gameplay for Railroad Rivals looks nice and streamlined, and turns are quick with minimal downtime. The component quality looks good (especially the premium wooden version) and the artwork looks nice. The game is somewhat abstract in its nature as players are laying down tiles as a representation of a railroad network. But it is nice to see that they have used real names for the railroad networks.
Railroad Rivals looks to be a nice and quick game that is relatively simple to teach and play. It is due to be delivered to backers any time now and copies of the game have been available at recent conventions. I am looking forward to seeing how this one is received and hopefully picking up a copy in the future.