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Date Played: 9/14/2006 Description: No, it isn't a new game. Far from it, Empire Builder is a 25-year-old classic, and with good reason. What to say? This game is amazing- and amazingly addictive. Whether it is this, or one of the other Rails games, the Barrister has been playing with a lot of crayons since first learning Empire Builder. Description fomr Mayfair Games: Featuring two American loves-railroads and cold cash-Empire Builder is as easy as connecting the dots. Players draw tracks with crayons on an erasable board and operate a rail empire in an effort to accumulate the most money. The new revision of Empire Builder's map now has all of Mexico included and more of Canada, with corresponding loads and events. Empire Builder is continually captivating and challenging. Every game is different, with players creating a new strategy and delivering a variety of goods across the continent.
Players learn the locations of cities, states, mountains and rivers of the United States and southern Canada. For 2 to 6 players, ages 12 to adult.A great game at home or even in the classroom! Likes: Build and Play- The combination of track building and train movement is a fun one that you don't see too often, you create the map (track) then we move upon it. Balanced - Cost versus return is well-balanced in a number of parts of the game. You have to measure the cost of building track to a location versus the return of delivering a load there. You must likewise balance the time it takes to delivery a load versus its payback. There are three different demands on each card which helps to balance the randomness based on card draw. Be On Your Toes - This has little to do with the game itself and more to do with personal victory. When playing this game you will make mistakes, and I don’t mean the kind of mistakes you learn from, I mean down right stupid, kick you while your down mistakes. The game is very unforgiving, at least if played correctly. Because every movement, and every load that is to be picked up and dropped off can cost you dearly if not executed properly you generally cannot afford to make these errors. But you will. Oh yeah, you will. I guarantee it. I have not yet played this game well. Although I have won, I have not done so without stupid mistakes. Planning is needed but execution is key and should not be taken lightly while playing this game. Dislikes: Time- The fastest game of Empire Builder was about 2 1/2 hours, and that was using some of the fast play and mercy rules. 4-6 hours is more common. One thing that seems to contribute to the turn time is you draw new cards while moving your train, and before building track - you might want to immediately build new track to start moving toward a new source or demand location on your next turn. This inevitably means that you have to sit around figuring out your new possibilities while everyone else waits. [Barrister's note: game times get faster as players get more experienced, note the 2 hour Euro Rails game from the other night. However, don't play Iron Dragon with a new player unless you have all night.] Without a Paddle- It's possible to get totally stuck if you miscalculate the costs of building rails that you need to deliver your loads or if certain events (floods) impact your track system. The first time we played a player was stuck not once but twice during the game. Playing with the mercy rules until all players feel comfortable with the game play should be a hint or a clear option in the rules for new players. Overall
Empire Builder is a truly great game, there is a reason it has been around for 20+
years. The game takes a bit of time to play but is worth it. For example, the last
game I played, I was enjoying the game so much that I didn’t even stop to count my
money until I was almost 100 million over the game ending 250 million. I just cant
seem to get enough. Now I suppose that I should probably get into some of the specifics of he game. Well, for starters the game can be played with up to six people and comes with two stacks of cards, the game board, money, six crayons and matching tokens to represent the train. You start the game by assembling the game board and then everyone chooses a color. The banker then deals every player 50 million dollars and three cards. Now, on these cards are contracts that you can fulfill and the who moves first is decided by whoever has the card with the contract that pays the most money. Before we go any further, lets take a look at the game board. On it you will see little dots and triangles that are very close to each other. These these are called mileposts and these are what you build your track to. You can connect to any other mile post, with some restrictions. It costs money to build your railroad, 1 million to a regular mile post, 2 million to a mountain, 3 million to a city and 5 million to go into a major city. You cannot build into the ocean or any lake, but you can build over a river or an inlet for an additional cost of 2 million dollars. Right next to most of the cities you will find little icons. these represent what the city produces and can be loaded up there when your train arrives. These icons will match up with the tokens in the box and what it says on the cards that were dealt to the players. Once the turn order is decided, then gameplay begins. The first two turns are bulding only and have a switchback start. What it means s that the last player to go ends his turn and then goes again and it goes in a counter clockwise fashion until it comes back to the first player, he ends his turn and the game resumes nomally. As far as building is concerned, you can only begin construction in a major city, but you can only build out from a major city twice in a turn. You can also always continue any unfinished track. you can only spend 20 million a turn. Every player was also given a card with a train, the number 9 in the top right corner, and two wheels on the bottom. This is your train. the number 9 represents the number of mileposts that you can move in a given turn and the wheels are your max capacity. this isn't the only train that you can get, because you can upgrade twice. after the 9 and 2 comes the train with 9 movement and 3 capacity or the train with 12 movement and 2 capacity. After this comes the 12 movement and 3 capacity. the improvements cost 20 million apiece and count toward your max building. Your train may move on your track for free, but if you want to move on another player's track, then you must pay that player 4 million per turn. The tokens that you get when picking up goods will sit on your train until you drop them off, get the money on the card and then draw a new one. There are cards randomply placed in the deck that will change things. If, for example, you get the card that says the Mississippi is now fludded, then all the bridges on the river are out, but can be rebuilt, but they can't be built until the end of your next turn. Play contines until someone has 6 of the 7 major cities connected and 250 million in cash.
There are some other rules that I'm not really going to get into right now simply
because I really onlywanted to give a good idea what the game is like. I really
liked it because there is very little player interaction unless you are on spmebody
else's rails, making for quick turns. that's not to say that this is a short game.
If nobody has ever played the game before, it can take abt 5-6 hours because a lot
of time is taken up looking for cities on the board to see what each city produces.
Otherwise, it takes abt 3 hours for a full game. this game is definitely worth
playing at least once, so check it out. The first thing I liked about Empire Builder was that I could learn the names and locations of the cities and the North America and Mexico and their major industries. I wish I played this game shortly after I came to the United States. Now I know where Boise is. The second thing I liked was that I could rather focus on my own tasks than fighting with other players for something. Sure, I want to construct my railroad on important routes so people are more likely to use it and I can collect some fare. But, at the same time, they can build their own right by it if they really want to. No one will compete for your destination or cargo, and no one will take your cargo away (except for natural disasters. And they are really disastrous when they happen.) However, this is not an easy game and that's the third, and the biggest thing I liked about this game; the tasks are challenging. A task is to pick up an item at a place and deliver it to another. There are three tasks on a card and only one gets to be completed. Having three cards, which give you total of nine task options, you have to think about the most efficient way to accomplish as many tasks as possible within your limitation. You have a finite amount of money, which translates to a finite length of your railroad. Your train's capacity doesn't allow you to carry ten cargos at a time (in reality, two as default and three for maximum). Thinking about these puzzles really requires your brain power. In addition to excellent planning, you may need other people's help, occasional, but important, decision making, and some luck. However, for the most part it's how you think you will tackle those tasks and the thinking process is fun for me. My few complaints about this game are that it can be very long (3h+) and you have to clean the board every time you play because you draw your railroad on the board with a crayon. Also, I felt the city names and item icons on the tokens could be a little bigger for easier identification from across the board. These are minor things and certainly they don't affect much the pleasure of playing the game.
For me, Empire Builder is best enjoyed when I feel like spending entire afternoon or
(/and) evening playing good boardgames with family and friends.
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