Game Review – The Great Heartland Hauling Co.

The Great Heartland Hauling Co.
Number of Players	2 - 4 (5 w/ Expansion)
Play Time	30 min.
Ages	8 years and up

The Great Heartland Hauling Co. is transportation game with hand management and pick-up and delivery elements in it.

In the Great Heartland Hauling Co, the players take the role of truckers using their 18 wheelers to move good from one location to another across the American Heartland.

After setting up the board shuffling the location cards and placing them around the distribution center where the players start.  Once the board is set up the freight that is supposed to be added to each location card is placed. The players then take a hand of 5 cards that will have a mix of freight bill and fuel cards.

The players use the fuel cards to move around the board and the freight bill cards to pick up and drop off loads.  Loads can be dropped off at any location that has a demand for the item and are paid out based on the amount of the location card.

If you do not have fuel you can still move by using one $1 per location card you move.  This can become very expensive if you are not able to get fuel card very frequently since you are essentially paying a victory point to move each space.

After the player moves and does his actions, the player then draws cards from either 3 face up cards or from the top of the deck.  The game goes until one of the players reaches the minimum threshold of victory point.  The player with the most points wins.

There are also an inspanion and an expansion available for the game.

The inspansion is called Truck Stops.  It is included in the box of the base game for the participants of the Kickstarter project.  I am not sure whether it will be included with the base game if purchased in a store.

The Badlands expansion adds the items needed for a fifth player and two additional location cards called the badlands.  The badlands location cards have three product demands each on them and no items to pick up.

One of the things that I really like about this game is the modular board set up.  It allows for a lot more replays of the game than if it had a fixed board.  Not only do you have the basic side, you have an advanced side to each card.  The advanced side of the location cards adds obstacles, like road closures, toll roads and weigh stations, to the board which enhance the flavor of the game.

The problem with the obstacles is that they do not pop out at you when you are examining the board.  It would have been nice if the game included pieces to provide a more physical representation of the obstacles on the board.

We also add an optional rule that is not included in the rules of the game.  We will discard the three face up cards from the drawing tableau if they are all the same card.  It makes it so that you can get through the draw deck faster and can get to the cards that people are looking for thereby speeding up the game a bit.

I also like that the Badlands expansion is not required to make the game playable.  It can add to the game, but is not absolutely required unless you are looking to play with a fifth player.

I give this game an A and would definitely play it again if given a chance.  If you are looking for a game that can be played quickly with you family and friends, you will not go wrong with this one.