Empire Builder

 

Empire Builder
Company: Mayfair Games; Type: Ameristyle; Players: 2-6; Time: 180 minutes; Genre: Builder, Railroad; Rating: 

💥💥💥💥 I like it!

Just for starters, this game feels like it runs longer than an hour-and-a-half. More like 2 to 2-1/2 hours based on my experience. (But I could be wrong.)

At home, we call it in all its versions "choo-choo and crayons. Which I think is actually pretty descriptive of the game. The object of the game is to be the first to accumulate a determined cash fortune. You do this by building railroad lines, upgrading your trains, and shipping goods to selected destinations.

You start with a locomotive card, demand cards (each of which have three destinations and commodities to be shipped there), your starting cash, colored token, and crayon. 

The playing board is a map of the given country for the specific version you playing (more on that in a bit). The map is made up of milestones (clear or otherwise), cities small and large, and commodities to be found at each city. On your turn, you can:

Upgrade your locomotive or draw railroad track: Improving your train either gains you speed or more storage. Drawing track is the name of the game. You can spend your cash connecting milestones from your cities in any direction. Building to clear milestones costs $1 million, cities and other terrain costs somewhat more.

Move your trains, pick up goods and deliver them: Then based on your demand cards, you will pick up goods, move your maximum speed, and deliver goods when you arrive at your destination.

That's it. Albeit there a few more rules. But not really that much more. We personally own and play Empire Builder, British Rails and Lunar Rails. Of these Lunar Rails is by far our favorite. 

There are two main strategies. Payouts depend on the rarity of the commodity and the distance to be traveled. One strategy is to build a compact, hyper-efficient local railroad system that you can then use to deliver goods early and often. The second strategy is to build for the long haul. There is usually one commodity that pays out especially well, because it has an unique origin. In Empire Builder, it's coffee from Mexico; in British Rails, it's clay from Scotland. (I forget what it is in Lunar Rails.) 

Both strategies are viable, and they can and should be combined to some extent. But it must be said, the longer the game goes, the more the advantage goes in favor of the Long Haul strategy. And it scales down to 2 players really well. (This is a go-to game for my wife and me when we decide we want to sit down and play a longer game.)