New Train Game Round-up: Mini Express, Colt Super Express, Station Master, & 18xx on the Moon

Mini Express is a strategic train game for 1 to 5 players in which you and other wealthy capitalists manage four railroad companies. Through careful planning and ruthless execution, players pioneer the western expansion of the 19th century, vying to be the most influential railroad baron and complete the transcontinental railroad.


On a turn, each player takes one of the two available actions, although otherwise the games are not similar. Your action choices are to (1) lay track to expand a company's railroad or (2) take a stock from a company.

To lay track, you take train pieces from the company's reservoir on the game board and place them one per hex to expand that company's network to a new city. When you do this, you gain influence in the goods that are in demand in that city. (The game includes four types of goods, and each type of good is the same color as one of the railroad companies.) Each city can have at most 1-3 companies enter it, and when that limit is reached, you remove the demand tile from the game. When you build into a hex (whether landscape or city), any other train companies in that hex gain a train in their reservoir (to represent them profiting from how your efforts affect that area).

To take a stock, you must decrease your influence in that company equal to the number of trains in that company's reservoir. If you can't do so without going below zero, then you cannot take that stock.


When all the shares have been claimed from two companies or two companies have no train pieces remaining, then you complete the round and the game ends. For each good/company, you multiple the number of shares you hold by a points multiplier that's based on how much influence you have in that good/company relative to other players. The higher your standing, the more valuable each of your shares will be. Whoever has the most points wins.

In Station Master, you have to compete with opponents to direct passengers to the proper trains while choosing the best place to assign your carriages. There are many unexpected things that can happen at the station, so be prepared for anything!


Station Master is a quick and highly interactive 2-6 player card game within which players attempt to influence the value of departing trains by assigning passengers and carriages in an effort to get the trains to depart on time and accumulate the most points.

The year is 2117. Climate change has taken its toll on Earth, and new resources are needed to fuel a technically advanced society gathered into ever-growing megacities around the globe. Research during the last fifty years has shown that the Moon has several pure and effective mineral resources that are needed on Earth. This year, mining corporations have established bases on the Moon with the purpose of building a transportation network to mine valuable mineral resources. As these resources are of global interest, the top twenty nations on Earth have invested in a freight rocket, "Future One", scheduled to fly to the moon and transport minerals back to Earth.


When the game starts, the corporations have eleven months to gather as many minerals as possible before the rocket leaves the moon. The players (referred to as "investors" in this game) see an excellent opportunity to make credits (money) by investing in and running private companies and mining corporations on the moon. The corporations establish bases on the moon and build road networks to valuable mining resources, mining as many resources as possible until the freight rocket leaves the moon with its cargo of minerals.

The winner is the wealthiest investor when the rocket leaves. An investor's wealth is made up of personal credits and current market value of owned shares in the seven corporations.