Transportation

Steam-belching iron horses roar across the wild plains! Age of Steam relives the era when pioneering U.S. railroads built the tracks that transformed America's economy. The cut-throat action is centered on the industrial powerhouses of the growing nation: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and beyond.

Challenges that await you:

Can you finance both the most extensive track network and the most powerful locomotives?
Which routes will give the best returns on their costs?
Can you beat the opposition to the most lucrative shipments?
Will you make enough money to pay your aggressive creditors?

Competition is brutal, with the game usually going to the player who plans most carefully.

Each self-contained phase in the game keeps players constantly involved in making vital decisions and interacting with other players. Age of Steam also allows towns to be developed into cities, ensuring that no two games are exactly the same.

Ticket to Ride: Europe takes you on a new train adventure across Europe. From Edinburgh to Constantinople and from Lisbon to Moscow, you'll visit great cities of turn-of-the-century Europe. Like the original Ticket to Ride, the game remains elegantly simple, can be learned in 5 minutes, and appeals to both families and experienced gamers. Ticket to Ride: Europe is a complete, new game and does not require the original version.

More than just a new map, Ticket to Ride: Europe features brand new gameplay elements. Tunnels may require you to pay extra cards to build on them, Ferries require locomotive cards in order to claim them, and Stations allow you to sacrifice a few points in order to use an opponents route to connect yours. The game also includes larger format cards and Train Station game pieces.

The overall goal remains the same, collect and play train cards in order to place your pieces on the board, attempting to connect cities on your ticket cards. Points are earned both from placing trains and completing tickets but uncompleted tickets lose you points. The player who has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Part of the Ticket to Ride series.

Online Play

Xbox LIVE Arcade

With elegantly simple gameplay, Ticket to Ride can be learned in under 15 minutes, while providing players with intense strategic and tactical decisions every turn. Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who fulfill Destination Tickets – goal cards that connect distant cities; and to the player who builds the longest continuous route.

"The rules are simple enough to write on a train ticket – each turn you either draw more cards, claim a route, or get additional Destination Tickets," says Ticket to Ride author, Alan R. Moon. "The tension comes from being forced to balance greed – adding more cards to your hand, and fear – losing a critical route to a competitor."

Ticket to Ride continues in the tradition of Days of Wonder's big format board games featuring high-quality illustrations and components including: an oversize board map of North America, 225 custom-molded train cars, 144 illustrated cards, and wooden scoring markers.

Since its introduction and numerous subsequent awards, Ticket to Ride has become the BoardGameGeek epitome of a "gateway game" -- simple enough to be taught in a few minutes, and with enough action and tension to keep new players involved and in the game for the duration.

Part of the Ticket to Ride series.

Re-implemented by:

Ticket to Ride: Europe
Ticket to Ride: Märklin
Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries
Ticket to Ride: The Card Game
Zug um Zug: Deutschland

Cleopatra's Caboose: The train game based...in Ancient Egypt?!?

Cleopatra's Caboose is a train game for 3 to 5 players that's based in Ancient Egypt. Each turn, players bid for the right to utilize a game designer of their choosing which denotes both the turn order and a special ability that can be used that turn.

Players construct tracks, ship fruits to cities that need them, construct buildings for victory points and to improve a city's status, and build pyramids to make a city more prestigious. Be careful, though; you have a limited amount of money and actions in which to accomplish your goals! Manage both wisely and become the Emperor of Ancient Egypt!

Two to five players act as leaders of different peoples and command them to explore, send out fleets, build trading posts, and generate the highest possible profit. Poseidon contains most of the basics of 18xx games and due to the relatively short running time of two hours is as suitable for 18xx-newbies who want to explore this wonderful world as it is for experienced train gamers.

The 18xx basics included are:
1) Instead of running a corporation, players control a country/people
2) The goal of the game is personal wealth, the wealthiest player at game end is the winner
3) Players create trade routes similar to railway lines in 18xx games
4) Trains are replaced with common modes of transportation at the time (i.e. ships) with varying types
5) 18xx type stations are replaced with trading posts

Game Contents: game board, eight "possession sheets", play money, lots of wood pieces, cards, 1 rule book