Played for you

Switching Tracks

Criss-Crossing America

Sheep and textiles are transported across America; for doing so you must throw switches on the tracks in order to deliver goods where they are needed. Goods you deliver go to your depot and can then be used to upgrade your train or to complete contracts. Whoever completes five contracts first – they must include one each of 3-, 4- and 5-items contracts – wins the game.

You start in a city of your choice – at the begin all players are in different regions of the board – and a train with one upgrade or three switchmen as well as one of nine offices. The active player first fills empty cities with goods or Demand Discs, can throw switches and then moves the train according to the dice value on the engine, from city to city and past other trains. You can end the movement in a city where there is already another train. If you have room on your train, you must load up a good in a city and must, if possible deliver a good in a city, that is, you put the good and an eventual Demand Disk behind your screen. Later you can use those goods to upgrade your train – expand its range or give it more cars- or get more switchmen. Upgrading the range or new cars cost 2 goods, switchmen cost one good each, you can hire two. If you want to meet one of the 10 contracts, you discard the corresponding goods. For some contracts you can acquire offices for special abilities.

All in all this is a nice logistics game, featuring pretty components. Allover, the game is not too complicated and yet offers tactic from optimum use of the various offices and – at the end – a usually tight race for the contracts and with them for victory.

Players: 2-5

Age: 10+

Time: 60+

Designer: Kris Gould

Artist: Mike Raabe

Price: ca. 40 Euro

Publisher: Wattsalpoag 2015

Web: www.wattsalpoag.com

Genre: Railway, logistics

Users: With friends

Version: multi

Rules: de en es fr

In-game text: yes

Comments:

Not too complicated rules

Well suited for beginners, too

And yet enough tactic for a more experienced player

Language-dependent included components in four languages

Compares to:

Railway games with logistics mechanics

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0