RailRoad product reviews

First rule of RailRoad - read the rules properly.

This is a game that would appeal to people who like Blokus. A two player game, you play as either Rail or Road as you compete to form a transport network by placing your pieces on the board. Each tile has a number of potential junctions coming off it allowing you to grow your network, encircle your opposition, and generally prove the dominance of your network.

After a quick scan of the rules we settled down to play our first game. We played this in "friendly" mode as we got our heads around what we were doing. Unfortunately we didn't quite understand the rules 100% the first time round (largely because it was me reading the rules and not the better half) and the game seemed fun but rather pedestrian. Upon completion we re-read the rules (or the better half did) and we picked out some of the things that we had done wrong. Then it was game on for the second round, the gloves came off and the game descended in to a bitter battle of one-up-manship, unsportsmanlike moves, and general underhanded tactics. It was about this point I fell in love with the game.

RailRoad is a strategy game that will have you trying to outwit your opponent as you attempt to stay three moves ahead. Once we understood what we were doing, it was a heck of a lot of fun to play and a game to be kept aside for nights where there is nothing on TV.

Oh boy this game could break up marriages and other long standing relationships! This is the sort of game that really requires you to plot, plan and think ahead. A few underhanded and brutal moves don't hurt either.

The aim sounds pretty simple, one player using road pieces to build and the other player using railway pieces. Each tile has a differing value depending on how many connections there are ie: a tile may have 2 - 4 different branching roads/tracks. The idea is that at the end of the game, the winner is the person with the lowest number of connections over all unplaced tiles.

A couple of key points to that I've found useful so far, remember that you don't have to join to your own pieces. You can join a track to a road so long as there is a continuous connection. This can be useful for blocking an opponent. In addition if you can create a continuous road or track from one side of the board to a neighbouring side (not opposite!) then it creates a exclusive zone for yourself that the other player cannot place in and it captures any of their pieces already there, increasing their final total.

I also found it a good idea to use up any of the higher value pieces sooner rather than later, so anything with four or more connections on it I used early on.

I love strategy games so this was right up my ally. First time around we did play it pretty nicely and all that but the second time around, once we knew what we were doing, we didn't hold back and were pretty ruthless. We weren't shy about blocking each other and cutting each other off. It made for a very close game! We found we had to think fast, plan ahead and it paid to have several play options on the go in case the other player blocked us.

As this is a two player, it also appeals to us as it's perfect for the games cupboard. We do have where we want to geek out and turn off the TV but it can be hard finding a decent game that is challenging and fun with only 2 players. This one really fit the bill and is one we will add to our stash. A+ from hubby and I!