Game Review – Australian Rails

Australian Rails
Number of Players	2 - 6
Play Time	120 Minutes
Ages	12 Years and up

In this review I am going to go back to the reoccurring Mayfair Empire Builder series that I consistently play and review another one of the game in the series.

Australian Rails like the other games in the Empire Builder series is a game about building an efficient and prosperous railroad network in a location on earth or a number of fantasy settings.  In the case of Australian Rails in the location of the game is Australia.

In Australian Rails the players are building the railroad networks in the populated eastern shores of the continent or around Perth in the west and eventually into the Outback to be able to connect the two sides of the country.  All the while they will need to deal with sand storms in the deserts, bridges getting washed out, forest fires and other disasters.

The basic rules for Australian Rails are like all of the other Empire Builder games.  It uses the unique feature of the Empire Builder family of games, the free form building of track.  The player uses special crayons that are included with the game to draw their track on the board.  Between games the marking from the previous game are erased from the game so that in the next play of the game the players start with a fresh board.

There is nothing surprising in the game plays of Australian Rails versus the other Empire Builder games.  The player gets three demand cards at the start of the game.  Each of the demand cards has three different load demands on them.  In order to complete the card, a player must deliver one of loads on a card to the city that needs the item.  Once the load is delivered the player discards the demand card and gets a new on in its place.  If the player does not like the demand cards they have they can opt to lose a turn and replace all of them.

A turn goes as follows.  The player moves their train along their track on the board, and then builds any additional track they need or upgrade their train before passing the turn.  At any city they go though during their turn the player my pick up or drop off any loads they have without the loss of movement.  The amount of movement the train can take depends on the size of train they have.  The starting train moves 9 spaces and can carry 2 loads.  The super freight, which is the best train can move 12 spaces and carry 3 loads.  During the build phase the player can spend up to 20 million yen to upgrade their train or build additional track.  Track costs are the same as other games in the series, 1 million for plains, 2 million for mountains, +1 million for a dry riverbed, and +2 million for a river crossing.  In addition there is a ferry to Tasmania that the player can opt to build for 8 million.   In order to win Australian Rails you must be the first to connect three of the four major cities in eastern Australian and Perth in the west and have 250 million yen. 

As with all the games in the Empire Builder series, Australian Rails can be slow for players that are new to the game, mostly because they are not familiar with the map and where the loads originate from.  Because of this, I always recommend that new players play with the fast start rules and fast trains to help speed the game along.  In the case of Australian Rails those fast start rules are the player starts with five demand cards and they must discard down to three by the end of the pre-build.  The train speeds are increased from 9 to 12 for Freight and Heavy Freight and 12 to 16 for Fast and Super Freight.   The Tax Card is ignored.

The unique rule to Australian Rails is that it is the only game in the Empire Builder series that allows players to start their track from anywhere other than a major city.  In this case that city is Darwin in the north.  I do not see the option used very often mostly because there are not very many cities around it and it does not count as major city for victory purposes.  In fact I do not remember ever seeing someone win the game while building to Darwin.

Australian Rails is one of the earlier additions to the Empire Builder family so it does not have any of the additional special rules that the later games such as special load cards like Martian and Russian Rails have.  It is a solid addition to the series.

There are two viable options to victory for the game.  You need to create an L with the base going up the east or west coast and the length of it stretching along the south coast.  Most people try to do the east coast option as it is easier to start to get to pay off, but the west coast option can lead to a faster victory provided you have the cards to support it.

I recommend Australian Rails to players who have played other games in the series.  It gives you a different place to build railroad networks that is not as narrow as Nippon Rails and there are a number of ways to victory.  As always if you are new to the Empire Builder series I recommend you try the game that corresponds to an area of the world where you are familiar with the geography when first learning the game.  That way you have one less hurdle to overcome when learning to play the game.

If You Are Interested In Purchasing This Game: