by EndersGame
Introducing Railroad Tycoon and Railways of the World
Since Railroad Tycoon appeared in 2005, it has become one of the most successful and popular train games of the modern era. It's currently ranked #27 on BGG, and has a very solid average rating of 7.76. As far as train games with a pick-up-and-deliver mechanic go, it has the extravagantly produced components and broad appeal to make it a big hit in the boardgame world - which it has been. For various reasons, the publisher no longer has legal rights to the Railroad Tycoon name, and with the original game now out of print, a reimplemented and revised version of the game has appeared at the end of 2009 under the name Railways of the World. If you're wondering about the differences between Railroad Tycoon and Railways of the World, then this review is for you. In my opinion, Railways of the World is a solid improvement over Railroad Tycoon, and is the definitive edition of the game to get. I'll show you all the changes made to the components, and explain the revisions made to the game-play and rules, so that you can make up your own mind! I'll also explain what owners of Railroad Tycoon need to do to benefit from the rule-changes incorporated in the reimplementation, so that you can enjoy the game at its best, regardless of which version you own.
BOX
The artwork on the cover has been changed from the original Railroad Tycoon (RRT) edition in the new Railways of the World (RotW) edition. The boxes are the same dimensions, however.
When we look inside the box we notice another difference. While Railroad Tycoon had no box insert of any kind, Railways of the World comes with a cardboard divider that enables components to be placed in different sections. The game board also rests on it, rather than on the components.
It's not terribly sturdy and it's not flash, but despite its somewhat flimsy nature, it's a step up, and helps store the components in a more organized fashion. Improvement!
RULES & GAME-PLAY
Rule books
All the rules of Railroad Tycoon were contained in a single rulebook, which included an explanation of game-play for the US map. You can now download these RRT rules from the publisher here. With Railways of the World, the approach to the game has changed somewhat, and now three rule-books are included.
● 1x main rulebook - the Railways of the World rulebook explains the basics of gameplay, since this is the base game for the series.
● 2x expansion rulebooks - the rules for the expansions now come in separate rulebooks. Since Railways of the World includes two expansions (Railways of the Eastern US and Railways of Mexico), there are separate rulebooks for each of them.
The Railways of the World rule book contains the information about the gameplay for the core game, and the content is substantially the same as what was included in the original Railroad Tycoon rule book. A few cosmetic changes have been made, such as the change from the term 'shares' to 'bonds', inclusion of some common variants (Age of Steam style auction), and some minor alterations have been made to the formatting.
The separate rule sheets for the Eastern US expansion and the Mexico expansion consist of only a page each, and contain information about aspects of the game unique to those expansions, such as the Western Link, Major Lines, Railroad Tycoon cards, and also some strategy notes.
Rule changes
There are several rule changes that have been implemented in Railways of the World. Most of these were already introduced in the Rails of Europe expansion in 2008, so they have had the benefit of being well-tested, and are generally regarded as sound improvements. The good news for Railroad Tycoon owners is that they're easy enough to adopt when playing with the original game as well. On the other hand, those who buy Railways of the World will be pleased to know that the rule-set in this new edition has continued to improve the game in positive ways. So what are the changes?
1. Permanent major lines. All the Major Lines are permanently available from the start of the game. Previously the Major Line cards would appear randomly via the Railroad Operations deck, and the appearance of a valuable Major Lines card could at times make Railroad Tycoon come down to the luck of the draw. Having major lines available to all players from the beginning of the game enables players to make more long-term plans about their routes. The game still comes with the Major Lines cards, so you can still play the 'old way' if you wish, but it's a variant. There are also reference cards for each player to help keep track of the major lines. Overall, this is a solid improvement.
2. More choice for Railroad Baron cards. The Railroad Tycoon cards are now called Railroad Baron cards. But the bigger change is that at the start of the game, players are dealt two Railroad Baron cards (with long-term objectives that give bonus points) from which they select one. In Railroad Tycoon, each player received only one Railroad Tycoon card at the start of a game. The new rule gives more choice about your long term objective, based on the randomized set-up of that particular game, and is another good improvement.
3. Clearer hex classification and costs. Mountain hexes are identified by a dot and have an associated cost of $4000, whereas any non-mountain hexes with water (blue) have an associated cost of $3000. The original Railroad Tycoon rules about “following a river” (at a cost of $2000) had the potential to create much confusion, and there have been lengthy discussions about how it works and whether or not it is thematic. These special rules about river crossings have been eliminated, and having any hex with water cost $3000 simplifies the rule and works well.
4. Greater restrictions on issuing bonds. Bonds can only be issued when cash is needed. This prevents players from taking out a truck load of bonds at the end of the game simply to meet the requirements of the Railroad Baron objective that rewards the player with the most money. This is another sensible change.
5. New starting Railroad Operation card. The 'Passenger Lines' card replaces 'New Train' as starting Railroad Operations card. This is another solid improvement, because it gives a more balanced set of incentives at the start of the game. In Railroad Tycoon the 'New Train' card could often be claimed by the same player who claimed the 'Speed Record' card, leading to a significant advantage. The Passenger Lines card rewards transporting differing types of goods rather than multi-link deliveries, and thus gives a new strategy for players to pursue.
These changes are all good improvements, and if you are playing the original Railroad Tycoon, I highly recommend adopting them. Certainly the rule-set of Railways of the World is very solid and balanced. Improvement!
COMPONENTS
The biggest change to the components in the new edition is the addition of a Mexico map, but several other changes have been made to the original components of Railroad Tycoon as well.
US Map
The new map is higher quality, and instead of coming in three separate pieces, it comes in a single one-piece unit that can be folded up into sixths. It looks much more durable and appears less prone to warping than the original Railroad Tycoon board (a well documented issue).
The new map is also smaller in size, as can be seen from this comparison, where the new board has been laid on top of the old Railroad Tycoon board.
To accomplish a smaller and convenient size, notice that the score-track has been eliminated, and as well as some empty space on the right side and the bottom row of hexes. It's still a very large and attractive map, but at least now it's more likely to fit on most game tables.
Maintain hexes are now marked more clearly with a white dot. The colours are over-all more vibrant in Railways of the World, and there's a glossy rather than a matte finish. Purple cities are also now somewhat more pink in colour, so that there can be absolutely no confusion between blue and purple cities (a significant problem with some of the earlier editions of Railroad Tycoon).
Several minor changes have been made to the exits of some cities, such as to New Orleans, which now can join to Mobile with a three hex link (via the new water hex on Lake Pontartchrain) instead of a five hex link.
An extra hex and extra exits have been added to allow an additional link between New York and New Haven on the east coast. This change was made to help correct some of the concerns with the NE corridor, and to reflect the fact that New York was a major rail hub.
Several redundant exits were also eliminated from Toronto, which also serves well to illustrate the colour change from purple to pink.
My copy seemed to have a slight register error resulting in a loss of clarity on a small part of the board, but this appears to be a non issue with most copies of the game. Overall the map is a definite improvement.
Mexico Map
Now for the best bit! Completely new in Railways of the World is a Mexico map.
It's mounted, has a nice matte finish, and includes major routes. It comes with its own set of rules (a single sheet), and is specifically designed to cater to 2-4 players. It is billed as an introductory form of the game for new players, and thus does not come with its own deck of Railroad Operations and Railroad Baron cards. This is somewhat unfortunate, because it's actually a fantastic and challenging game for 2-4 players, and becomes a better game when these cards are added. The good news is that some BGG users have designed an excellent customized deck of cards from ArtsCow that is currently available at a low cost including shipping (see more details here). It's a wonderful and inexpensive enhancement that I highly recommend. For more information, see my separate pictorial review of Railways of Mexico (including an overview of the ArtsCow deck and its benefits) here:
So you're wondering about Railways of Mexico: Hopping aboard Railroad Tycoon's Mexican train
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/522307
Note that Railroad Tycoon owners currently have the option of purchasing the mounted Mexico map separately from the Eagle Games website at a cost of $15 (This does not include the scoreboard/income track, but it's easy enough to print one of the separate scoring tracks available in the BGG files e.g. here or here or here.)
In short, Railways of Mexico is an excellent addition to the game, especially for those looking for a challenging map to play on with 2-3 players. I hear that the publisher has plans for a future edition of Railways of the World that will include a deck of cards for the Mexico map (the deck will also be made available separately at a low cost), but it's certainly not worth waiting to purchase Railways of the World for this reason alone - the ArtsCow deck serves very well in the interim, and it's a particularly good game with 2-4 players and is better for that purpose than the US map. The Mexico map is a great addition to Railroad Tycoon. Improvement!
Income Track
Both the US map and Mexico map require a separate scoreboard/income track, which is also included in Railways of the World.
No changes have been made to the values on the track, but the new income track has spaced each place on the scoring chart further apart, as can be seen by comparing the scores 51-60 below.
I wasn't sure what to make of the separate scoring track at first, but I've grown to appreciate it. Not only does it help keep the US map to a more manageable size, but it can be placed somewhat out of the way, where there's less potential for trains on the income track to get bumped out of position. It's also less crowded. Improvement!
Railroad Barons
The artwork on these cards has changed to reflect the new title of the expansion, as well as the fact that they are called Railroad Barons instead of Railroad Tycoons.
Railroad Tycoon has ten of these cards, while Railways of the World has twelve. Seven of the Railroad Tycoon objectives have been retained unchanged (with the exception of one minor clarification to the text of one card): Cyrus Holiday, Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Pullman, Henry Farnam, Jay Gould, J.P. Morgan, and Theodore D. Judah. A card rewarding a player for having the most money still exists, but the name and artwork for Daniel Drew has been replaced with Moses Taylor.
Unlike Railroad Tycoon (which has duplicates of objective cards rewarding fewest stock certificates and most money), in Railways of the World there are no two barons which have precisely the same goal. Thus the biggest change is the addition of four new goal cards, which are pictured below:
The card-stock has also changed. The Railroad Tycoon cards feel thinner, and have more of a linen finish. But the biggest change is a larger pool of unique objectives. Improvement!
Railroad Operations
Railroad Operation cards have been 'pluralized' by the addition of an S, and also reflect the new title 'Railways of the Eastern US'.
If you look very very closely and have a good eye for detail, you'll also notice a more subtle change: the train now sports the name 'Adler Games' instead of 'Eagle Game', the US flags have been removed, and the train is numbered 2 instead of 1.
The main single change to the deck of Railroad Operations is the replacement of 'New Train' with 'Passenger Lines' as a starting card - an excellent improvement discussed earlier in this review.
Besides this, the Railways of the World deck consists of exactly the same cards as the Railroad Tycoon cards, including the Major Line cards which can optionally be included if players wish to use the 'old' rules rather than have permanent major lines.
A few cards have undergone some cosmetic changes - some additional text has been added to 'New Industry' and 'Railroad Executive' to prevent these being misused or misunderstood, and the Hotel and Service Bounty cards now feature new artwork, and italicized text.
The Passenger Lines addition is particularly good, but the other changes also make sense. Improvement!
Trains
The train colours have been adjusted, so that black is now grey, yellow is a more mustard colour, purple is more pink, and the other colours are also a different shade. They no longer look like simple primary colours, but have a somewhat lighter look, that in my view seems to lend itself better to showing the detail on the plastic miniatures.
One advantage of this change is that they no longer match the goods cubes as closely. This was a minor issue with Railroad Tycoon, but it did have the potential to confuse new players. For the most part the colours will be a matter of taste however. (Note: The new colours also match the six colours of the stock certificates in advanced game that comes with the Railways of England and Wales expansion.)
Goods Cubes
The colours of some of the goods cubes (notably blue and purple) have been slightly adjusted. More significantly, the cubes are now a smaller size. The cubes are now the same size and colours as the ones that come with the third edition of Age of Steam.
The smaller sized cubes are certainly a more convenient size, and don't take up too much room in cities. The colours are also slightly more vibrant. In my view the distinction between blue and purple is quite acceptable, although the colour of the purple cities does vary from board to board, so there won't always be a perfect match.
In real life the purple cube on the left is more purple and less blue than it seems in this picture, so the colour matching is less problematic than it appears - but it's too bad there's still not a perfect match between the purple cube, purple city, and purple new city tile. As for the smaller cube size? Improvement!
Bond Certificates
Railroad Tycoon had 'share certificates', representing stocks that were issued by the railroads to raise money. The term 'share' has been replaced with the term 'bond'. Pictured below is the international edition of Railroad Tycoon, with Italian language 'shares' (azionario).
Another reason for this change is that the Railways of England expansion has an actual share system as part of an advanced game. Calling them bonds in the base game helps differentiate between these concepts, and prevents confusion when using the shares of the advanced game in Railways of England.
Money
The banknotes also have a new look - they are the same colours as the ones in Railroad Tycoon, but feature some different artwork and design.
Start Player Marker
The black wooden train used as a start player marker in Railroad Tycoon has been replaced by a 'First Player' card.
I'm partial to the original wooden train as a start player marker, to be honest, since it's too easy for a card to get lost in the shuffle with other cards!
Reference Cards
The international edition of Railroad Tycoon had some very basic two-sided reference cards. These have been much improved in Railways of the World.
The reverse side of the Railways of the World reference cards lists the permanently available major lines. Overall: Improvement!
Unchanged Components
No changes have been made to the following components:
● Empty city markers
● Engine cards
● Track tiles
● Western Link & New City tiles
CONCLUSIONS
What do I think?
What are the main changes from Railroad Tycoon?
● Additional Mexico map. A fantastic addition, very suitable for games with 2-4 players. This is a wonderful extra.
● Smaller US map (and separate income track). A more manageable size, and a more durable product.
● Better long term objectives. Permanent major lines make long term objectives available to all players, and having a choice of two Railroad Barons from a pool of 12 unique objectives is a good change.
● Improved starting cards. 'Passenger Lines' is a much more balanced starting Railroad Operation card than 'New Train'.
● Revised and improved rules. Particularly the modified rule about building track on water makes a lot of sense.
● Other cosmetic improvements. Various other minor changes, mostly all for the better.
Overall it's a very good reimplementation, that improves on the original in small and subtle ways, to make a good game even better.
Should you buy Railways of the World if you have Railroad Tycoon?
Short answer: No. However, I do strongly recommend that Railroad Tycoon owners take a good look at the changes made in Railways of the World, and adopt as many as possible (e.g. permanent major lines, 'Passenger Lines' card, cost of track over water hexes, etc) when playing Railroad Tycoon for a better playing experience. You probably don't need to buy Railways of the World to do that, because most of the changes are fairly small, and hardly justify buying a whole new game. Do find a way to get your hands on the Mexico map, however! If you really like the look of the other improvements to the components as well, by all means get Railways of the World and spread the love of Railroad Tycoon by giving your old copy to a friend. A more inexpensive alternative is simply to purchase the Mexico map separately.
Should you buy Railways of the World if you don't have Railroad Tycoon?
Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: Railroad Tycoon is ranked #27 on BGG, and is held in high regard by a lot of gamers. While it has enough appeal to be introduced to those who are only just entering the hobby via gateway games, it also offers satisfying game-play to more experienced gamers, along with lovely components. Railways of the World is an even better and improved product. It looks great, and plays well, and most of the complaints people had with components in the original edition of Railroad Tycoon are long solved. Hardcore gamers will prefer Age of Steam, but for the rest of us, this is an excellent choice. Don't be intimidated by the big board and flashy production, it's a more accessible game than you might think, and Railways of the World deserves all the love that Railroad Tycoon had, and more! Quite frankly, Railways of the World effectively makes Railroad Tycoon more or less redundant. It's not entirely perfect (colour matching issues are minimized but not yet totally eliminated, the formatting and clarity of some rules could be further improved, and cards for the Mexico map would be an obvious enhancement), but it's awfully close, and the fact that the publisher is working on improving the series even further gives good reason to support it. We can nitpick about the details, but in the end, if you own Railroad Tycoon or Railways of the World, you own a fantastically fun and beautiful-looking game - so enjoy it!
What do others think?
So what are people saying about the changes that Railways of the World makes to Railroad Tycoon? It's virtually unanimous: Improvement!
'The new and improved edition of Railroad Tycoon.' - Henry Allen
'The instructions read similar to RRT, and the gameplay is identical. I like the extra Mexico map, and some of the rules have been tweaked.' - Christopher Seguin
'Fixes Railroad Tycoon in the style of Rails of Europe.' - Cody Sandifer
'Same game (almost) as Railroad Tycoon. Just as good, with more goodies in the box.' - Tom Vasel
'Put simply, Railways of the World is Railroad Tycoon with many of the presentation quirks and flaws sorted out. The board is more reasonable, terrain is more distinguishable, etc. It’s all improvements; this edition is superior to Railroad Tycoon in absolutely every way. My opinion of the game remains unchanged. The bonus map is a nice addition.' - Justin L
'Great to see RRT back in print. Neat production. Can't complain about an extra map.' - Christopher M.
Recommendation
So what's the final verdict on Railways of the World? The Railroad Tycoon engine just keeps motoring along, and it's great to see this latest incarnation of the game come with further improvements (and with word that there's still more to come). Improved rules, a new map for less players, tweaked components - what's not to like? With the original and highly popular Railroad Tycoon now out of print, Railways of the World is a solid replacement and all-round improvement, and I hope that more in the boardgaming community will discover what a gem this game really is. Lavish production, accessible yet satisfying game-play, strong theme: highly recommended!
[microbadge=15768] Another pictorial review by EndersGame
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[microbadge=15768] The complete list of Ender's pictorial reviews: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/37596
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