Is anyone buying Steam?

I used to own Age of Steam but I couldn't find any players, and as the price steadily crept upwards I traded it for Epic Duels, which I eventually sold because Heroscape was better. Anyway, I find myself craving a copy of Steam, because it has shorter, basic rules (in addition to "standard" rules) and because I think I've got some players lined up. So were does Steam sit in the holy canon of Ameritrash? It's obviously a euro, but due to the viciousness of the game it's certainly not a bland, pure euro. Discuss.

How many alterations of AGE OF STEAM is this now?

I dunno, I'm a lot more excited about RAILS OF THE WORLD. As far as I'm concerned, the "dumbing down" (whatever) of AGE OF STEAM in RRT was the best thing that ever happened to it.

What is Rails of the World?

Michael Barnes wrote:

How many alterations of AGE OF STEAM is this now?

They're going to keep trying until they have one that doesn't suck?

What is Rails of the World?

It's a RAILROAD TYCOON expansion coming from Fred. It's not only going to add extra maps and whatnot, but it's also going to incorporate a company ownership/stock thing a la 18xx but with the obvious simplicity and ease of play of RRT. If it lives up to my expectations, it will make RRT _the_ train game as far as I'm concerned.

I'll eventually get it since I never played Age of Steam, but I'll probably get le Havre and Brass first

I'm a gamer that likes train games and building games (used to be an engineer before jumping into this IT quagmire) so my views are probably more about me than any of the games, but ...

I enjoy AoS but found Steam (admittedly in my only playing) very similar but not quite as enjoyable.

I hated Brass and would refuse to play it if it was hitting a table.

I didn't like RRT - it was AoS on a stupidly big map with an infantile auction system (what the fuck, why even bother) and TtR route cards or similar, and fuckin random Baron (or whatever-the-fuck they are) cards - but still will play it because it is fun, I just do the normal rail 'build & deliver' shit and ignore the cards ... don't win but have enough fun with it.
Would be interesting to see what adding stock management adds to the game as I've enjoyed the few 18xx games I've played.

My fave rail game though is Silverton, but have only once (in 6 years) been able to get enough players and time to play it (though one more time than my copy of Dune I suppose).

I won't buy FRED games because they charge too much, but it will be interesting to see how "Rails of the World" is received and whether it becomes the gateway train game of choice.

Honest question about train games: Why?

I can see it if you like model trains or something, and presumably, any theme could possibly be made into a fun game. But how did we end up with an entire train game genre?

mjl1783 wrote:

But how did we end up with an entire train game genre?

I've been meaning to ask this very same question.

Bullwinkle wrote:

mjl1783 wrote:

But how did we end up with an entire train game genre?

I've been meaning to ask this very same question.

Railroads are a good concrete implementation of basic graph theory concepts. Graph theory makes for good gaming due to its two-dimensional nature.

They're also kind of cool.

Sag.

fuck me, train gamers, WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION??? anyone who plays this shit should be burned at the stake as a mother fucking witch. jesus christ! go do something useful with your genius, train gamers, rather than building a fictional railway line on the sun. you pricks!

Let's see - we have train gamers building rail systems and working an economic model of some sort, then we have minis gamers painting their little creations and arguing with each other about which type of goblin or elves can use which weapons or cast which spells, and I won't even go down the tape measures.

Yep - gamers are sorts of different types of fucked up.

It's the guys with the periscopes that amuse the hell out of me.

Sag.

On the plus side, the miniatures guys have FRIKKIN LASERS!