After Action Report – Strategic & Adventure Game Association Game Day @ the El Toro Public Library, August 23, 2014

I hosted the Strategic & Adventure Game Association Game Day at the El Toro Public Library on Saturday.  There were 21 people at the event with five games being played at any one time.

I played three games at the event.

The first game I played was Empire Builder.  Empire Builder is a game of rail building and goods transportation in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.  The players own railroad companies that are competing to build rail lines and move freight from one city to another based on a set of demand cards that they have.  Once a demand on a demand card is completed the player discards it and draws a new one from the deck.  Included in the demand card deck are a number of disaster cards which include things like derailments and river floods which impede the player’s progress to victory.

After Action Report – Strategic & Adventure Game Association Game Day @ El Toro Public Library, June 28, 2014

I hosted the Strategic and Adventure Game Association Game Day at the El Toro Public Library on Saturday.  With everyone now on summer break and there being less than a week until the 4^th of July holiday I was not certain what the attendance would be like.  Usually in the summer months fewer people go to the events.  We did see more people at the event than we had two weeks ago.  There were 18 people at the event and up to five games were being played at any one time.

I played two games at the event.  Both of them were from the Empire Builder family of games.  To review, in the Empire Builder family of games the players own railroad companies that are competing to build rail lines and move freight from one city to another based on a set of demand cards that they have.  Once a demand on a demand card is completed the player discards it and draws a new one from the deck.  Included in the demand card deck are a number of disaster cards which include things like derailments and river floods which impede the player’s progress to victory.  In order to win the game, the player must be the first to have track connecting a number of major cities on the board and have at least $250 million dollars.

The first game I played was Russian Rails.  Russian Rails starts in the Soviet Union era and can extend to after the fall of communism.  The board includes the western half of the Soviet Union extending east to Alma- Ata in what is now Kazakhstan.  The game plays similarly to all of the other games in the Empire Builder family.  The game was the first to add bonus deliver cards in a big way to the game.  It also has a unique hazard card that causes the fall of communism which takes away 20% of all of the player money and adds a toll for people entering Russia from the other countries that used to make up the Soviet Union.

After Action Report – Strategic & Adventure Game Association@ El Toro Public Library, March 8, 2014

On Saturday I started my weekend of gaming at the Strategic & Adventure Gaming Association event at the El Toro Public Library.  There were 23 people at the event and five games were being played at any one time.

I was able to play three games at the event.

After Action Report – Strategic & Adventure Game Association @ El Toro Public Library, February 22, 2014

I had a fun day at the Strategic & Adventure Game Association Event at the El Toro Public Library on Saturday.  24 people were at the event and 5 games were being played at any one time throughout the day.

We also had Rob Huffman from the Huff-N-Stuff Podcast at the event.  He was in town and decided to come to the event.  If you get a chance you should check out his podcast at http://huffnstuffpodcasts.podomatic.com/

I was able to play two games from the Empire Builder family at the event.

For those that are unfamiliar with the Empire Builder games here is a brief description of how they are played.

The players own railroad companies that are competing to build rail lines and move freight from one city to another based on a set of demand cards that they have.  Once a demand on a demand card is completed the player discards it and draws a new one from the deck.  Included in the demand card deck are a number of disaster cards which include things like derailments and river floods which impede the player’s progress to victory.

The unique feature of the Empire Builder family of games is the free form building of track that it allows.  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.

The first one I played was Russian Rails.  Russian Rails starts in the Soviet Union era and can extend to after the fall of communism.  The board includes the western half of the Soviet Union extending east to Alma- Ata in what is now Kazakhstan.  The game plays similarly to all of the other games in the Empire Builder family.  The game was the first to add bonus deliver cards in a big way to the game.  It also has a unique hazard card that causes the fall of communism which takes away 20% of all of the player money and adds a toll for people entering Russia from the other countries that used to make up the Soviet Union.

I was worried at the start of the game.  My beginning set of demand cards did not work well together so I discarded them on my first turn.  The replacement cards were much better than what I had but they were focused towards the western side of the board which is not where I usually start my game.  The cards would give me enough track and money left over to expand my rail network for the new cards I would get as the game went on so I kept them.  As the game progressed I was able to get some good synergy going between the cards that I was getting and the track that I had.  Unfortunately, it was not enough I was two and a half turns out from winning the game when one of the other players claimed the victory.

The other game I played was India Rails.  India Rails is the version of the game that takes place in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.  The only added rule for this game is the ability for transporting pilgrims from one region to another for a minimal payment inside India.  I believe that this feature was added to help offset a couple of major disasters that can destroy a player’s game if they do not have the cash to build back track and they do not want to sacrifice their current hand.

In the India Rails game I had a great start.  Instead of being suckered into starting in Sri Lanka like I have been doing for the last year with less than optimal results, I had to demand cards with jute on them which made me start in Bangladesh and deliver in the central western and not western parts of the board.  With my first set of cards which included another delivery that I could make as well, I would be able to 120 million which would be able to get me most of the rest of the track I needed in the game plus both of my upgrades.  From there it was mostly smooth sailing.  I did have a couple of less than optimal runs and had to discard my hand twice but I had enough momentum in the game that I was able to win it with relative ease.

My stats for the event:

Game	No. of Plays	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	Avg.
Russian Rails	1	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	2.00
India Rails	1	1	-	-	-	-	-			1.00
Totals	2	1	1	-	-	-	-		-	1.50

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:

After Action Report – Strategic & Adventure Game Association @ El Toro Public Library, November 9, 2013

On Saturday I hosted my event the Strategic and Adventure Game Association at the El Toro Public Library.   The attendance was rather low even for a weekend where we are up against two other events.  We only had 9 people attend.  There were three games being played at any one time. 

We should start seeing better attendance for the second Saturday date starting in January because one of the events we are competing against is changing their schedule and will no longer be having their event on the same day.

I was able to play three games at the event.  Two of them were Empire Builder family games.  The other was a game that I was able to play twice.

The first game of the day was game in the Empire Builder family that I have not played for at least a year called Russian Rails. 

To review, in the Empire Builder family of games the players own railroad companies that are competing to build rail lines and move freight from one city to another based on a set of demand cards that they have.  Once a demand on a demand card is completed the player discards it and draws a new one from the deck.  Included in the demand card deck are a number of disaster cards which include things like derailments and river floods which impede the player’s progress to victory.  In order to win the game, the player must be the first to have track connecting a number of major cities on the board and have at least $250 million dollars.

Russian Rails starts in the Soviet Union era and can extend to after the fall of communism.  The board includes the western half of the Soviet Union extending east to Alma- Ata in what is now Kazakhstan.  The game plays similarly to all of the other games in the Empire Builder family.  The game was the first to add bonus deliver cards in a big way to the game.  It also has a unique hazard card that causes the fall of communism which takes away 20% of all of the player money and adds a toll for people entering Russia from the other countries that used to make up the Soviet Union.

I started the game with an okay set of cards that got me the prime set of track that I generally look for in the east so I opted to keep those.  I was able to deliver my first load without any problems but then I got hit by a derailment card which caused me to lose one of my loads.  Unfortunately in order to make any progress in the game I had to back track and pick up the lost load which delayed my game quite a bit.  To add to my problems I kept getting cards that did not conform to my track or my current location so I spend a lot of time delayed trying to get cards that worked.  I limped through the game and ended up in third place out of three players.

The next game I played was Iron Dragon.  The setting for Iron Dragon is a fantasy world filled with things like dwarves, elves, and orcs, which is great if you are playing Dungeons & Dragons, but not my preference for a rail game.  I have explained the major differences between this game and the others in the series enough in previous posts that I will not go into them here.

I started the game with a set of cards that was so bad that I had to discard them and draw a new set.  I knew this would put me slightly behind and was prepared to have as bad a game as I had in the Russian Rails game.  My replacement cards actually turned out to be very good.  With them I was able to build a good base of track in an area that I normally would not think to build and upgrade my train most of the way.  The cards continued to work out in my favor the rest of the game adding to my current base of track in areas that I needed to go and making me the money I needed.  I actually wound up winning the game that I expected to lose because of my rough start.

The last game that I played was Organic Soup.  One of the people that played Compounded with me on Thursday brought it with them to show me a game with a chemistry theme that they really liked.

Organic Soup is a card game in which the players collect cards to create chemicals and chemical reactions.

The players start the game with a set of chemicals they can create, one simple, one complex, and one amino nucleic.  In addition there are basic chemicals available for creation on the table.  The players take turns either collecting carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen or oxygen atoms from 12 face up cards in the center of the table to create any chemical that is face up on the table or use atom from reaction is front of them to place a chemical in their hand down.  In addition when they are creating a new chemical they may steal unprotected atom from other players.  The game ends when there are no more atoms in the deck to place out or when a player creates the first amino nucleic acid.

We played the game twice.  The first time I did not quite understand the rules so I was not making more of the simple and complex compounds out of the face up atoms until late in the game.  The game ended when the atom deck ran out.  I won the game because I had control of two complex compounds the next player had only one.

The second time, with I much better understanding of the game, I focused on gathering the atoms I needed in order to complete my amino nucleic acid early on as I was building my first simple and complex chemicals.  This allowed me to create my amino nucleic acid the turn after I created my complex chemical and won the game again.  Not bad for a guy with a liberal arts education.

My stats for this event:

Game	No. of Plays	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	Avg.
Russian Rails	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	-		3.00
Iron Dragon	1	1	-	-	-	-	-			1.00
Organic Soup	2	2	-	-	-	-	-			1.00
Totals	4	3	-	1	-	-	-		-	1.50

 If You Are Interested In Purchasing These Games: