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.