Snowdonia Deluxe Edition Review

Snowd-on With The Show

So there’s a huge amount of width what about the quality? Well, fortunately, like No.2 Enid or No.5 Moel Siabod pulling steadily up through the North Welsh mist Snowdonia rises high above with it’s game mechanics interlocking like the pinion teeth on the rail rack below. When Tony Boydell’s design was published in 2012 it provided a very solid engine (pun intended) for all the further scenarios and trains from Wales, the UK and the wider world.

Snowdonia essentially is a worker placement game. Players compete to make the biggest contribution to the construction of the railway from Llanberis at the bottom to Yr Wyddfa at the very top. Additionally there are Bonus tasks in the form of Contract Cards that are obtained from the Site Office and you can buy a train from the Engine Shed that will grant a degree of asymmetry to your player abilities.

Snowdonia is played in a number of rounds until the last piece of track is laid. Each round will see players assign their labourers – at least 2 and maybe a third granted by having a locomotive and hauled out of the pub! – to any of 8 different Action Areas. These actions are then resolved, the Contract Cards and the Stock Yard are re-stocked and the weather is checked.

The Board (it’s two-sided, a light side and a dark side, but they both function the same) is laid out with the current scenario’s stations on it separated by a specified number of randomised track sections. The stations and Tracks will have rubble in the from of brown cubes placed on them. Construction consists of first clearing this rubble then either building a piece of track with a steel bar or parts of a station with stone and steel. Completing either of these tasks enables you to place one of your ownership tokens and claim VPs at the end of the game. These ownership tokens will also contribute to completing Bonus Tasks on the Contractor Cards which will add hugely to your overall score.

Snowdonia sees seven tasks your workers can be assigned to in the Action Areas. These are:

• Stock Yard – take up to 3 resource cubes: Iron Ore, Stone or Coal
• Excavation – clear the number of rubble cubes shown on the Work-rate track
• Works - convert Iron Ore into Steel Bars and rubble into Stone
• Lay Track - guess what? Lay Track to the level of the Track work rate
• Build - Build up a station or Acquire a Train
• Site office - Select one of the Contract cards to take for future use
• Move the Surveyor – to the next Station to get higher VPs at game end

There is an interesting turn order mechanic in play here as though the workers are placed from the first player clockwise their actions are resolved in numerical sequence within each area from A through to G. So you may place an early worker in a key location, some of the areas in low player-count games have only 1 worker space, but know that other players will take their actions first. You also have another worker, or two, so you can play them as a team using one to clear a site and another to build on it. There’s a further twist that if you take the last available space in the Stock Yard action area you get to be the first player on the next game round.

There are two other effects on game play: Weather and Events. The weather is controlled by symbols on the backs of the Contract Cards and will enhance or reduce the rate of Excavation and Track Laying. There’s more chance of Rain and Fog than Sunshine which given my experience of growing up on the Northern edge of Snowdonia is very realistic! You can see up to 2 turns ahead on the Weather Track so can plan accordingly.

Secondly when the Stock yard is replenished at the end of the Round with random resource cubes drawn from the bag you may get 1 of the 5 Event cubes. These trigger events ranging from clearing rubble, laying track and completing stations to allowing train purchase and paying maintenance on same.