All Aboard! Hear New Train Games A Comin' in 2021

In 1871, with Canada only four years old, the Prime Minister calls for a massive undertaking: a transcontinental railway to link the established eastern provinces with the newly-added western province. Between them lay the vast, undeveloped interior. It would be a nation-defining project, opening up the resource-rich Canadian shield, the fertile prairies, and the breathtaking Rocky Mountain Cordillera, shaping not only the economy of the young country but its identity as well.

The Transcontinental is a medium-weight Eurogame with worker-placement and pick-up and deliver mechanisms about the development of the Canadian transcontinental railway.


Players are contractors who work to complete the railway. They send out telegrams along a linear worker-placement track — reserving those action spaces for themselves — then take turns in telegram order, loading and unloading to a shared train that travels across the country. Players can use these resources to complete developments ranging from lumber mills and farms to cities and national parks, or they can use the resources to bid to extend the railway. Powerful one-time-use ally cards, themed around a rich and inclusive cast of Canadian historical figures, allow players to make powerful combined actions.

In On the Underground: Paris/New York, players build the Paris Métro lines or the New York City Subway lines. Each player controls 2-4 different lines, depending on the number of players.

On each turn, four destination cards are available, corresponding to stations on the map. You can take up to four actions; an action is either building track by placing one of your track tokens on the board or taking a branch token. A player may use two branch tokens to branch out of an existing line (whereas normally lines can be extended only at the endpoints). After each player's turn, a passenger token is moved along players' lines, avoiding walking as much as possible, to reach one or two destinations determined at the beginning of the turn. Destination cards corresponding to the visited stations are then replaced by new ones, then the next player takes their turn.


Players score points in two ways:

—By building track and connecting their lines to various types of stations, by collecting landmark tiles (in Paris), by connecting stations across water (in New York) or at the end of the game if they have achieved their secret objectives (in Paris).
—By having the passenger use their lines when moving.

After all destination cards have been drawn and all players have taken the same number of turns, the game ends.

Paris is a thoughtful map offering many options. To win, you need to strike the right balance between collecting sets of tokens, connecting secret destinations, blocking other players while not being blocked yourself, and of course carrying the passenger. Paris is the refined elder sister of the original On the Underground: London map and is recommended for experienced players.

New York is a fast-paced map reflecting the hectic pace of life in the big Apple. It encourages players to mirror real life by creating lines through Manhattan, but you have to build quickly to keep up with the always-moving passenger.

18Mag ("Magyarország" meaning "Hungary") is an 18xx game that tells the story of Hungarian railroads and their supporting companies.

Depending on the player number, 13 different railway companies are drafted equally between the players. These railways operate in numerical order, build track on the map, erect stations, run their trains and always pay out their earnings 50:50 — half to their owners and half into their own treasury.


Beside those operating railroads, seven other companies offering various services for the railroads are included in the game. Examples of these services are building an extra tile, allowing a railroad to run freely over small stations, reducing costs when building bridges and tunnels, and most importantly, offering new trains. Whenever a railroad uses the services of one or more of these companies, they pay their fee into their treasury. In stock rounds, players acquire shares of those companies and after operation rounds, they distribute their earnings among the shareholders. These companies also have station markers (or in this case: factories) which can be placed on city tiles (instead of railway stations) by the president of the company, thus denying other companies passage through that city.

Contrary to other 18xx games, all trains are available from the beginning. Because of the pricing, they usually come in the accustomed order, but not necessarily! However, trains do not rust or go obsolete, but they may be scrapped voluntarily to make space for bigger trains. When the first 6-train is sold, one more set of operation rounds is played, then the game ends. As usual in 18xx games, the wealthiest player is the winner.

On the island of Luzon, large mountain ranges collide with wetlands, and an already established shipping industry means that coastal cities will be profitable only to rail networks that have already established effective routes.

In Luzon Rails, players are rail investors. They buy stock in companies, seek to improve those companies, and amass wealth when company dividends pay out.


This game differs from cube rail games you may have played before. Variable company start locations mean that companies can feel quite different from game to game. Actions are selected by playing action cards either from hand or from a central pool, which leads players to make tough decisions and risky moves. How would you proceed in a round where it looks like there will be few auctions? How would that affect your own bids?

Some features on the board try to encourage varied rail types. Landlocked cities grant a long term bonus to companies that then connect to coastal cities. Manila provides a one-off dividend payment for investors who can make a company rail reach that far. And the Southern peninsula creates tight conditions if more than one company has ambitions on the cities down there.