Every board game has a distinct theme that serves as a lovely backdrop to the gameplay. You’re either spies trying to figure out who to trust or gods battling for control of the realm. For train board games, trains are a typical and much more realistic notion. The train enthusiast can choose from a wide range of available games.
From sophisticated tactical adventures to easy party games, train games provide various gameplay techniques. It’s satisfying to lay down tracks and connect stations to build a robust public transportation system from the bottom up. Here is a list of terrific games introducing you to the beautiful world of trains.
10 Best Train Board Game
1. Age of Steam
Age of Steam is a train board game to play with your friends. You’ll all be trying to be the best railroad owner. You will bid on turn orders, build tracks, and connect cities throughout the game. A lot of alternative ways to play Age Of Steam exist.
To get points, try to deliver as many goods as possible while staying out of debt. You may lose the game if you take out too lot loans and build too many routes. In Age of Steam, there is a lot of interaction between players, which keeps you all interested in each other’s actions until the end.
2. Ride the Rails
For three to five people, the train board game Ride the Rails is fun. It’s all about connecting the east and west coasts of the United States using trains. Every round is made up of two sections. First, everyone will draw train tracks connecting the cities on the map.
Then, you’ll pick up a passenger at one of these cities and convince them to travel as far as they can on these routes. In Ride The Rails, you do not own a particular train business. Instead, divide the cost of the several color trains. When a traveler chooses a specific route, the more shares you own in that color, the more money you’ll make. Make sure the routes are in suitable locations for everyone to utilize. People frequently bargain with one another toward the end of the game to build the finest routes in the colors they care about. You feel like the devil when you thoroughly ruin another player’s route.
3. Iberian Railways
The world of Iberian Railways centers around trains and debt. There is a lot of debt. The game aims to build paths to the many towns and cities strewn over the terrain. You’ll need to buy tracks to do so. These rails are costly, mainly when many lines are constructed simultaneously. This means you’ll have to take out more loans, paying back interest as you go.
The game progresses into a balancing act of earning money, designing interesting routes between cities, and managing debt. Iberian Railways is a low-scoring game. Thus, the end appears close and exciting. Points are granted based on who has the most connections, wealth, etc. The game includes enough variations to keep you interested without being too challenging.
4. Ticket to Ride
A Ticket to Ride is a famous train board game. Because the rules are simple to learn and the game is fun, it’s a beautiful way to start the activity. You will utilize train cards to build tracks across the map in Ticket to Ride. Your goal is to build a network that connects various locations. You will receive extra points in the end if you complete more routes.
However, because everyone wants the limited available locations on the map, you’ll frequently have to race to make your trains first. It makes the game more fun and exciting. Ticket to Ride can be played in a variety of ways. The game will usually take place in a different nation most of the time. The game may also be played in a variety of ways. Boats, for example, are included in the game Ticket to Ride: Rails and Sails. You have additional ways to travel about as a result.
5. In Colt Express
In Colt Express, you play as a gunzlinging bandit seeking to steal as much money as you can off a rushing train. You punch, shoot, and loot your way through each carriage instead of installing rails. Each game of the round consists of two stages.
You’ll start by plotting and shuffling cards into a shared pile. Each card in this pile will be triggered one by one in the second round, culminating in shenanigans. The game is full of bizarre and unpredictable interactions. It would help if you changed your plans based on the cards that others may play. You’ll get shot a lot, striving to avoid the lethal Marshal and occasionally climbing onto the train’s roof. Each character has a unique talent that helps to make the plot exciting and surprising.
6. Brass Lancashire
Brass Lancashire is a complicated economic game set during the Industrial Revolution. To try to make money, you will build several production lines. It’s a massive game that will take all night to play, but it feels fantastic when your ideas work out. Lancashire and London are the two main rounds in Brass.
You’ll need to build canals in the first round to transport your resources. In the second round, you put down train tokens to connect your manufacturing lines to the market and switch canals for railways. There are several ways to play this game.
Will you make connections between all of the trains?
Will you try to build pricey shipyards that will be worth many points if you succeed?
Will someone derail your plans by erecting a plant near where you wish to go?
Lancashire provides a lot of alternatives for brass.
7. Switch & Signal
If you wish to work with others more, try Switch & Signal Train Board game. In this fast-paced game, you must try to deliver goods to the dock before time runs out. The only drawback is that you need control over how quickly the trains travel. A shuffled deck of cards and a few dice rolls will determine which trains move and how far they travel.
You and your friends need to work together to keep track of everything because this might cause a lot of crashes. Throughout the map, several switches and signals indicate where the trains can go. You can alter these routes to give each train a clean road when it’s your turn. As the game progresses, additional trains will appear on the map, making it harder and harder to keep track of them all. Switch & Signal is a ridiculous, stupid game that is fun to play whether you win or lose.
8. Railroad Ink
Railroad Ink is a traditional “roll and write” game. Each of you is given a grid to populate with roads and train tracks. Someone will roll the dice and tell you what lines to draw each round.
You want to make as many exits as possible into an extensive network. Most of the time, you play Railroad Ink alone, but it’s always fun to see how everyone else’s boards ended. Even though everyone is drawing the same roads and tracks, their train networks will differ.
Railroad Ink comes in a variety of colors. The Deep Blue Edition, for example, includes rivers and lakes. To keep things exciting and fresh, each edition offers a distinct difficulty. Also, this game has a fun mobile version that you can play anytime.
9. Northern Pacific
This surprises me. It has a straightforward concept; the main draw is that it concentrates on short-term relationships. You can extend the train or put a small or large investment cube in a city on your turn. When the train arrives at a city with cubes, all players with those colors of cubes receive a “payout” of their cubes from the supply (one for small cubes, two for big cubes). A round ends when the train arrives in Seattle, and a player’s score equals the number of cubes in front of them.
The individual with the most points at the end of three rounds wins. But let me explain. Moves are made by placing your cube in the same city as another player, like in other good train games. You give each other high-fives, and their cube moves into your city on its next turn.
But what if another player gets between you and your “partner”?
Will they have fun with you and your friend?
Will they oppositely send the train on their turn, leaving your cubes on the board?
Even though these choices are straightforward, they are a lot of fun and significant in the best possible ways.
10. Rails Trick
The oddest game on our list Train Board game is The Trick of the Rails. The term “of taking tricks” is what makes it stand out. In practice, neither the train gamer nor the trick-taking enthusiast should be able to use it. Trick of the Rails makes every move you make extremely important, even if you don’t win the trick.
Like with the 18xx games, you may switch between being stuck and creating tracks, but the foundation of both is taking tricks. During stock rounds, the trick winner receives the card from the trick lane (a line of cards that serves as a timer and progresses players through each game), while losers retain their played card as a share.
The trick’s winner adds a city or locomotive to any business during track laying. Cities are a primary source of points, and other players add their played cards to their own color company’s line. It’s an odd combination that works since every card play is essential for developing businesses or acquiring a stake in the most valuable railroad. One of the trick-taking games I played made me ponder the most.
