Recently I went to Con on the Cob where I wandered into a Game of Rail Road Tycoon the Boardgame. All in all a very fun game, but a rather long game since it lasted for about two hours. Naturally the goal is to gain the most victory points at the end of the game, but this simple goal is complicated by the fact that you don't start with any cash and you have to get capitol by selling stock in your railroad. Each stock certificate raises you 5 grand but subtracts a $1000 from your your income and subtracts a VP at the end of the game.

Gameplay: As I stated above your goal is to gain victory points. And you gain victory points primarily from delivering cargo cubes to the proper cites. The cubes are distributed at the beginning of the game, each city gets a specified number of random cubes(blue, red, purple and yellow).

The turns are cut in two three round where you can do one action each round. The actions include picking up an event card, laying track, upgrading your train, building a transcontinental link, delivering a cargo cube, Urbanizing a city(Develping an undeveloped city) and probably something else that I've forgotten. In addition you can sell stock as much stock at any time. (usually something that should be kept to a minimum) At the end of a round you collect you income - $1000 for each stock certificate.

As you connect cites with your track and depending on the level of your train you can move the cubes from one spot to another. Unfortunately you must be able to move a drop a cube in one move, so if you need to move a cube two cites down you track and you only have level 1 train your out of luck until you upgrade your train.

There are also cards that end up adding some spice to the game. Some will add cubes to the board, other will mention special shipments such as "be the first to make shipment to Mobile and pick up 2 point". Some cards allow you to build free track or even five in stead of four track pieces a turn. These cards add more variation to the game.

I felt the board was quite cool. It is a map of the Eastern U.S (plus Toronto) in what looks to be around 1840 or 1850. The only complaint I have is the blue and purple colors are far too similar. A minor quibble would involve the size of the board, you need a lot of space to play this game since the board is quite large.

Sadly my only game ended with me coming in second last(out of five players), but I tell myself in consolation that I was the only newbie there so I think did okay considering I at least made a profit on my railroad. This came game has acquired my seal of approval and a recommendation to any board game enthusiasts in need of some thrills.