Mayfair Games' first crayon railroad game is a classic of the genre, though it shows a bit of its age nowadays with its game length and rulebook complexity.
Post originally by greg hallam at 2004-01-21 04:36:18
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I beg to differ on your last comments - Empire is not a complex game by any stretch of the imagination - it has older mechanics, but they are quite simple - the other three railway games you cite however, do get into complex mechanics...
Re the length of game - we have always used the extra starting money variant and ignored the victory requirement to link 5 cities..... that way we have easily had 4 player games in 3 hours or less...
Its still a great game, as is evidenced by alll the country spinoffs....
Post originally by Chris Camfield at 2004-01-21 05:58:40
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I do think the game takes rather too long (I used to estimate 1 hour per person) which is why I haven't played it in a while. It'd be good to try working on a super-fast version.
Anyhow, from the pictures presented and mention of Mexico, this is actually the revised Empire Builder. The original Empire Builder included only Canada and the U.S. and was not quite as good, as a result.
Post originally by Ineti at 2004-01-21 05:59:10
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The complexity in the game isn't so much in its mechanics but in planning out your building/load options strategies. That's the one place I've seen most novice track builders struggle with.
Love the game, though. This is one of those games where we can waive the winning criteria and just play the game for 5,6,7 hours.
On a side note, it makes for a decent solo game for those looking to practice and work on strategy.
Post originally by Peter Joelson at 2004-01-21 09:41:08
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I am shocked to think of games that take 5-7 hours. This can only be due to inexperienced or slow thinking players. Familiarity with the geography helps, but all it takes is practice to speed up the game. Oh, and make copies of the loads/source sheets so everybody can have one.
Post originally by Shannon Appelcline at 2004-01-21 11:13:44
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I'd agree it's inexperience, but playing the game 1-2x a year hasn't got me over that hurtle and I'm usually a pretty quick gameplayer. I think you need to play the game fairly seriously in order to really get quick at it.
Post originally by Tadeusz at 2004-01-21 11:30:24
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It does not take me that long, although I probably play more like five times a year from the whole set of games (Eurorails, Empire,etc.)
I would have given the game a 4/5 or 4/4. I see the style design as elegant and classic, but a touch plain.
Its not always true that time brings progress; the best of a preceding era may indeed be better than the next era's works. However, I will show this review to my wife (she's the real train game buff) for reccomendations on other train games.
BTW, they also came out with "Hellrails" which has the conductor trying to deliver souls to win free of his eternal punishment.
Post originally by Bob Runnicles at 2004-01-21 11:33:45
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Actually Hellrails is one of a number of Mayfair's card games isn't it? We've recently begun playing 'Express' and having a lot of fun with it, but it bears no relation (other than the company and the train theme) to Empire builder.
Regarding time, there are usually three of us playing (very occasionally) and it takes about 3-4 hours so I would say an hour a player is about right. Good game though!
Post originally by Tadeusz at 2004-01-21 11:33:59
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Oh yeah, I forgot, the solution to the 'getting stuck' problem is to learn to hold back enough money for emergencies. However, in the fun of trackbuilding or in simple inexperience, that can be a touch difficult.
Linear Mode
