Stopping Off at Ballpoint Station (Railroad Ink)

Being a Railroad Manager is hard.  You have to divvy out coal, make sure the lines run smooth, and keep the tracks from falling apart.  Not to mention, everyone will judge you based on Sir Hatt's line quality.  Luckily, there's a way to make life a little easier, and test out the trains without worrying about laying down actual track: Railroad Ink!  Of course, you have to worry about things like lakes and meteors, but that should be nothing for a Manager like yourself.

BACKGROUND:  Railroad Ink is a roll and draw dice/board game for 1-6 players.  It was designed by Hjalmar Hach, Lorenzo Silva, and Marta Tranquilli in 2018, and published by Horrible Games.  It initally came as two seperate versions of the same game, Deep Blue and Blazing Red, with each having their own expansion in them.  Players build roads and railroads using randomly generated tracks.

GAMEPLAY:  Each turn, one player rolls the 4 white Route dice, and any expansion dice being used.  Players then draw all the routes on their board that are shown on the Route dice, and they must connect to either an Exit on the edge of the board, or another Route of the same type.  These routes may be flipped or turned to match the board, and only Stations (black squares) can connect Train Tracks with Highways.  On any route drawn, mark the round number in the top right.  Once all players have drawn, roll the dice again.

SPECIAL:  Once per turn, players may also draw 1 of the 6 Special Route indicated on their board.  These are all 4 branching paths that can have different connections.  These can be rotated, but must match at least one of the special paths.  A Special Route can't be used if it was already used by the player, and players may only draw 3 Special Routes on their board the whole game.

WINNING:  At the end of the 7th round (or 6th, depending on the version), players tally up their points based on the lengths of their Roads, Railroads, with penalties for roads that don't connect.  The player with the highest point total wins.  In the case of a tie, the player with the fewest roads/railroads that don't connect win, with that tie being shared.

CONCLUSION:  This is a solitaire game that you can play with a group of people.  Honestly, the only reason it's limited to 6 players is because of the amount of boards available.  The biggest weakness is because of it's single player mentality, it can take a lot longer waiting for players to plan and draw, and because of the format, you have to wait for players.  In short, if you are the type of player that gets overwhelmed with choice, or gets impatient waiting for other players, chug on by.  But, if that doesn't dissuade you, I'd recommend stopping at this station and trying it out.

Eat Flesh (Give Me the Brain!)

Working at a dead-end job sucks.  No matter who you were, or what you did, nobody likes working in the food industry.  The wages are terrible, the customers are rude, and the work is tedious.  So you and your zomb-ployees have come up with a way to make it a little less tedious.  When your manager comes in, he sees you playing Hot Potato with a brain.  He won't stand for fun here, and shouts, "Give me the brain!"

BACKGROUND:  Give me the Brain! is a card game for 3-8 players.  It was created by James Earnest and has been published by Cheapass Games and Steve Jackson Games.  Players take the roles of fast food Zombie employees that attempt to take the Brain and be the first to finish all their jobs for the day.

GAMEPLAY:  At the beginning, or whenever the Brain (die) is "dropped", players can only play purple Bid cards to try to get the brain.  Once a player has the Brain, each player can play yellow Job cards.  All Job cards have 1 or 2 zombie Hands printed, and players can only play up to 2 Hands worth of cards.  Some have black borders, which are Objects.  Objects stay in front of the player when they are played.

BRAINS:  Some Job cards have a Brain with a number printed on them.  These cards can only be played if the player has the Brain.  Once the card is played and resolved, they then roll the Brain.  If they roll equal to or higher than the printed number, they keep the Brain, but if it's lower, the Brain is dropped and bidding begins.  If no player can bid, all players draw a card, and bidding starts again.

SLACKING:  Sometimes, players don't like their hand, or have anything they can play.  If this happens, they are 'Slacking', and can choose to draw a card, or discard their hand and draw the same number of cards in their hand + 1.

WINNING:  The first player to run out of cards in their personal hand wins.

CONCLUSION:  This is a fun, interesting game that plays like a lot of classic Steve Jackson published games, simple but engaging.  The first biggest complaint are the randomness of being dealt a bad hand.  The other is the nature of the jobs themselves, as they can feel counter-productive.  If you can get past that, there's a lot of fun to have in this little card game about Zombie Fry Cooks.

A Study in Fuchsia, or Maybe Auburn (13 Clues)

The poor detectives of Scotland Yard can't seem to catch a break.  Sherlock Holmes (Consulting Detective, mind you) has been busy at work sparring with Moriarty, and Mr. X has drained their resources in his game of cat and mouse.  While this has been going on, the detectives have all spotted various clues related to the others crimes.  While they could solve all of these crimes in one night with a pooled resource, they are now all over London.  Worse, the criminals are intercepting their reports to the station.  The thing to do?  Get the detectives to guess their own crime, and hope that all 13 Clues get to them in time...



BACKGROUND:  13 Clues is a deduction driven card game, created by Andrés J. Voicu & Giacomo Tappainer, and published by Italian company dV Giochi & CMON in the United States.  All players attempt to guess a Who, Where, and Why that all players but themselves can see. 

GAMEPLAY:  Each player will have seen 5 cards; 1 Person, Place, and Weapon card which will be placed in the front of a players screen so all but that player can see them, and 2 placed behind the screen of the player who drew them.  Each turn, that player draws a Clue (maginfiying glass) token if they have none, and spend their Clue tokens to do one the following actions: Give a player a Clue token to ask them how many of a specific Color or Sub-Category (I.E., Inside or Outside, Close or Ranged Weapon) they see, or either put one of their Clue tokens in the central Pool or give one to a player with none to look at a face-down card.  The turn ends when that player runs out of Clue Tokens.

WINNING:  If a player believes that they have all the information, they give a Clue token to any player with none, or into the central Pool, to guess the Person, Location, and Weapon on their screen.  If they guess correct, they win!  If they don't, the players indicate as such, and play continues.

CONCLUSION:  This feels like a streamlined Clue, but with more information lacking. There can be, and usually are, cards that are never seen.  Because of that, you have to change your approach, and that can be a bit daunting to those new to this game.  Long story short, it's the next step of difficulty up from Clue, so if you like Clue, but want or are just interested in a slightly higher difficulty, pull out your magnifying glasses and scope out 13 Clues.

The Case of the Mysterious Mr. X (Scotland Yard)

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY:
Eyewitnesses have recently informed us that the criminal, only known as Mr. X, has been spotted in Central London.  As you know, this vagabond is wanted for such crimes as Grand Larceny, creating selling Forgeries, and disrupting the police force (seriously, none of us could stop laughing when Constable Harpers put his helmet on and out fell a dozen glazed doughnuts).
It is up to you to find and catch this hoodlum and place him behind bars.  We have seen to pre pay for your local transport tickets, as Mr. X's latest crime was sabotaging all our vehicles.
Scotland Yard's honor and reputation rest entirely in your hands, detectives.



BACKGROUND:  Scotland Yard is an asymmetric board game for 3-6 players.  It was first released in 1983, by Manfred Burggraf, and has since been published by Ravensburger Spieleverlag GmbH, Milton Bradley, and others.  One player takes the role of Mr. X, and sneaks around avoiding the rest of the players.

GAMEPLAY:  Each player has a set of tickets, with Mr. X having a different set than the other players.  On their turn, starting with Mr. X, the player uses one of their tickets to move along a path that they are connected to (e,g,, using a taxi ticket moves them on the road, but a bus ticket moves them along the bus line).  The detectives are seen, and move accordingly, but Mr. X is different.



X:  Mr. X does not use a pawn right away.  Instead, the player controlling him writes the path he follows on the Travel Log, and covers it with their ticket instead of returning it to the box like the players.  Mr. X can also double move (taking his turn twice) or throw off the players with black tickets, which count as any type of ticket. On the 3rd, 8th, 13th, and 18th position, the player puts the clear pawn on the space Mr. X ended up on to indicate where he is at that moment.  The piece is removed the next turn.  Mr X also cannot run out of tickets, and if that player ever needs tickets, they are allowed to use tickets in the box.

WINNING:  Mr X wins if he has successfully evaded the detectives long enough that they cannot move anymore, or reaches the last space in the Travel Log.  The Detectives win whenever they land on a space that Mr. X is already on.

CONCLUSION:  This game is a lot of fun, but it can be tricky and frustrating.  I think the biggest problem is when you are playing as Mr. X.  Because most players can't see where Mr. X would be, it can become tempting to cheat.  Mr X needs to be an honest player, who can lose gracefully, and more importantly, will remember where they are.  That's the biggest struggle; not players who cheat, but players who get lost as Mr. X.  There were a few times I just lost where I was.  Sure, you can look at the last place you were on the map, but at least in the version we were using, it was a pain to get it out, and it slows the game down when doing so.  That being said, it can be frustrating and mind-racking trying to find where Mr. X is, but it's also an enjoyable puzzle and rewarding if you do.