In an ultra-skinny box holding a single hex-fold board (two thirds the size of Railroad Tycoon), a rules booklet, and two decks of cards, Rails of Europe finally arrived. Anybody want to come over and play?!
Some interesting tidbits from the rules booklet:
- Players choose a role (Rail Baron) to play out of the two they are dealt at the beginning of the game. The baron card bears a hidden goal.
- The mountain hexes have been identified with a visible dot in addition to the graphical terrain.
- Operations cards no longer include Major Lines. Instead, the Major Line bonuses are available to everyone…first come first serve. The chart in the middle left of the board enumerates the Major Lines.
- Players may only issue shares when they are low on cash needed to make a purchase and they can only issue just enough shares to cover the shortfall.
- There are a few new Operations Cards: Passenger Line (first player to deliver 4 of the 6 goods colors), Capital Charter (awards points to connections to and from a capital city), City Charter (awards points for connections to and from a city and blocks the city from other player’s connections, Tunnel Engineer (one time use card making building track over mountains and ridges for half price).
The geography is very mountainous and it looks like play will get expensive quickly and it looks like the terrain will drive players into competition sooner making for a more interesting game.