I received Bonaparte at Marengo as a Christmas gift back in 2005 and I really wanted it. It didn’t help that I talked to Bowen Simmons at Origins earlier that year. He’d convinced me that I should dip my toe in the wargame waters and so I put the copy on my wishlist, Lisa picked up a copy for me, and there it sat gathering dust.
So, after two great trade experiences on BGG, I started looking for a good candidate for a trade and I think I found it in a copy of the (German) Amigo version of Union Pacific. UP is out of print and although the Rio Grande Games version is next to impossible to find and very expensive on eBay ($80+), the Amigo version is somewhat easier to find and runs in the $60+ ballpark. 999 also carries a Dutch copy that apparently is easier to find but I couldn’t locate one myself.
UP was designed by Alan Moon, a two-time winner of the Spiel des Jahres and the designer of Ticket to Ride. The game is a stock market/set collection game at its heart with players attempting to ‘invest’ in the railroad that pays out the largest total dividends over the course of the game. Players place cards to build track and place trains to extends railroad routes across the map of North America. Players must also choose to skip expanding routes to invest in specific railroads. In the end, the player who has collected the most money from investing in the right railroads will win the game.
Even after many years, UP still holds an amazing 7.52 rating on BGG and I’m reallying looking forward to my first play.