Railways of the World Board Game 10th Anniversary

Relative to Steam/Age of Steam, Railways is the physically bigger, lighter, friendlier, and more fun game that's easier to teach, more variable within plays on the same map (as opposed to the other two games, for which map variety is a stronger requirement for replayability), and, frankly, more engaging without losing too much of the tactical and strategic elements of its heavier cousins. Its comparative ease and accessibility are due to a few key factors, including (1) Railways' greater tolerance for tactical mistakes (you almost literally can't go broke, though too much debt and/or too-early debt can and should cost one the game), (2) the wider range of scoring opportunities via the operations cards and rewards for long lines, and (3) the decoupling of role selection from the auction (i.e., all roles are open to all players regardless of how they finished in the auction at the start of each round). Whereas Steam/AoS more or less demands that players find 6-segment routes in the last few turns to have a chance to win, Railways can, in my experience, be won in a variety of ways. I personally love the clean, "technical" aesthetics of AoS Deluxe, but Railways' luscious and more naturalistic maps are likely to be more appealing to most gamers (and nongamers), and the graphics are certainly better than the dull and somewhat blurry (and by now outdated) ones of Steam. Railways also, importantly for me, can be played decently at 2, whereas the centrality of the auction in Steam/AoS makes them less amenable to lower play counts without two-player-specific maps or variants. Railways eschews Steam/AoS's wooden components for plastic, but Eagle-Gryphon does sell matching (and smaller-size) wooden-piece sets at reasonable prices. Railways also recently received a fairly simple card-based "bot" implementation for solo play on a range of standard maps (sold separately), something lacking in Steam/AoS. The two maps included in this edition of Railways--Mexico and Eastern US--jointly cover a good range of player counts down to two, and, as I said, the gameplay variety introduced by the operations cards reduces the need to buy more maps just to keep the game fresh. Railways is a table hog relative to Steam/AoS, especially if you try the transcontinental US variant (which requires components not included in this set), but this sort of monumentalism is arguably part of the appeal. The hardest of the hardcore are still likely to prefer AoS over Railways (and Steam) because of the former's greater strategic (as opposed to tactical) depth, but for the rest of us, Railways htis the sweet spot. Highly recommended.

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Railways of the World is the BEST Train-themed Euro-game there is. No BORING stock market, no BORING spread sheet game play, no OVERLY CONVOLUTED pick-up-and-delivery systems and no UNREALISTIC train engine improvement mechanic. RotW as simple (about 8 pages of rules), elegant mechanics that are easy to learn yet difficult to master.

Great game hours of fun

THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITIONRailways of the World is one of my favourite games of all time. I love everything about it: the theme, the game-play, and of course the amazing components. If you're looking for a train game that's a step up from Ticket to Ride, without being too hardcore or complicated, Railways of the World is your game. If you've seen photos of this game, with its massive board and incredible components, you might think that this a glamorous and heavy duty game that is reserved for hardcore gamers and not for you. But not at all: if you're beyond gateway games, then this is an ideal "next step" into the world of gaming. The game has been out for more than a decade (its predecessor Railroad Tycoon was already published in 2005), and to mark the occasion the publisher put out a 10th anniversary edition of the game. Over time the game has had numerous adjustments, additions, and upgrades, and this new 10th anniversary version is intended to be a definitive version of this beautiful game. So what has changed from the previous version?RULE CHANGESThe main changes with the anniversary edition are upgrades to the components rather than the rules, but there are rule changes on two points:1. Income freezes upon reaching end of score-track2. Four Services Bounties available at start of gameCOMPONENT CHANGESHere's a complete list of all the things that have changed from the 2010 printing of the game in the 10th anniversary edition:1. Improved box: The game box has much thicker and sturdier side walls, is larger in height so that it can fit more contents, and has thumb tabs for easy removal.2. Improved box insert: The box insert has a removable tray for storing the bonds and money, and extra compartments so you can include storage of expansion cards.3. Revised maps: The Eastern US and Mexico maps both have all new artwork, clearer text, fixed hexes, and have undergone a complete upgrade. A border on the edge of the map does make Transcontinental games less optimal.4. New water hex icons: All hexes that require an extra cost due to water are clearly marked with a water droplet icon, similar to how mountain hexes are marked a white dot.5. Improved Major Lines: Not only is there a clear Major Line chart on all maps (sorted in order of point value), but the start and end point of Major Lines are marked on the cities themselves with matching alphabet letters (e.g. A, B, C etc).6. Improved round & turn order tracks: The tracks on the board for keeping track of turn order and rounds have been upgraded and improved.7. Improved cloth bag: The cloth bag for the goods cubes is now a larger, more beautiful, and high quality velvet feel black bag, screen printed with the game name in gold.8. Revised empty city markers: Instead of city markers of four types, there are 20 identical markers with a design sculpted with a `ghost town' feel.9. Improved score track: This now has a snake-like design, with clearer numbers and figures, and the lowest income at the end is $10.10. New scoring discs: Instead of needing to use trains for scoring, there are stackable wooden score discs in all the player colours.11. Revised train colours: A slight colour adjustment has been made to avoid them being identified with the colours of goods cubes and cities.12. Revised banknote colours: The currency colours have been adjusted to make the different denominations more clearly distinct in low light.13. Revised game cards: Many revisions have been made to the Railroad Operation cards and the Baron cards, mostly with added clarifications to avoid misunderstandings by players.14. Revised bonds: The bonds cards are are slightly smaller, and have a rectangular rather than square shape.15. New city name on Hotel and Service Bounty cards: The city name of these cards is part of the title, making these cards stackable and easier to read.16. Revised player reference cards: These cards have been redone and improved, with Major Lines on one side and player actions on the other, including clarifications.17. Revised colour-matching: The colours of the cities have been altered from the previous version, but the cities, new city markers, and goods cubes are all an exact colour match, including blue and purple. It just means they won't be an exact match with previous versions of the game.18. Revised expansion maps : All the expansion boards have been reprinted, to make sure their city colours are an exact match to the components of the new base game.19. Revised comprehensive rule book: Includes updates and clarifications, and gives information for the base game and all expansions, rather than separate booklets for each expansion.RECOMMENDATIONThat's a long list of upgrades, and the publishers have done a fantastic job with this new version of the game; virtually all the changes that have been made are upgrades. Many of them are small, but they all make the playing experience clearer and better. With the 10th anniversary edition, Railways of the World has really progressed to the next level, and everything is really an improvement in every way. A large team of people have been involved in making this anniversary edition and have put a huge amount of work into a project that they love, and the quality of the final product proves it. I think we can safely say that now we do have a definitive version of the game, and that new players can go out and get the 10th anniversary edition with confidence, knowing that they are getting a shiny new version of a game that has been enjoyed for a decade already, but now has the benefit of some serious polish to the rules and components.My favourite game now has an absolutely amazing edition, and I can't recommend this highly enough! - BGG reviewer EndersGame