The concept: Railroad Adventurers is an adventure game in which you will travel across North America (or Europe) by train. You discard cards to be able to take possession of a section of rails, travel from one city to another and earn points by connecting destinations or building the longest railway line. We can block the road to his opponents, forcing them to detours, and when a player has only two wagons in hand (or less), after having laid the 43 others to trace his railway lines , the other participants have right to one last turn before the game is over. Each counts its points and subtracts from the total the value of any unfinished track. The winner is the one with the most points.
There are several variations of the Railroad Adventurers if you want “advanced” versions. Wire cutter editor Alex Apria recommends the European version .
Why we love it: Railroad Adventurers is recommended by both the Wirecutter team and the experts consulted, as an accessible and entertaining game that we want to play and replay. Like The Settlers of Catania , The Railroad Adventurers has become a staple game evenings. The concept is easy to understand, but at the same time, we felt a certain tension because you have to keep an eye on all your tracks and complete connections before you run out of cars. There is less interaction than with barter games, but all participants build on the same board and we are delightfully annoyed when an opponent manages to thwart our plans. We love the captivating scenario of the adventure on board a train, as well as the pieces and the tray in bright colors (note: the tray is quite bulky, plan a large table). With two players, allow approximately 45 minutes per game. Wirecutter team members report that they last longer if there are more players.
Railroad Adventurers was voted Spiel des Jahres in 2004. At the time of writing, it has a 4.7 / 5 star rating for 4,021 reviews on Amazon (that’s the highest number of reviews for one of our finalist games) and 7.5 / 10 at Board Game Geek , for 54,000 votes.
Number of players: 2 to 5
Duration: 30 to 60 minutes
Rules: The site in English (PDF) or a video explaining the rules in French with the “Europe” version.
Apps: Android (mobile game), iOS (mobile game)