Railways of the World: The Card Game

It's very rare that I will play a card game that is based on another board game, but this one is different.
Railways of the World is one of my favorite board games of all time. Even so, sometimes it is just to big of a game to get out and play, especially so if you don't have enough time to play a full game. This is where the card game come in.
Played with one deck of cards, some trains and a table, this really gives you a cut down version of the game without losing anything. Players have a hand of cards, that will consist of track cards, city cards and engine cards. Track cards allow you to build between cities, city cards show how many goods are available and engine cards upgrade your engine.
There are different city cards, and the higher cities yield more goods, but less colours go into them. Track cards come in a variety of colours, and you must chain them to get the required number to get into a city. So a brown 3 city requires you to place brown track that equals or exceeds a value of 3, which you then place a control train on.
Deliveries are as normal, with you needing a engine of sufficient power to move along the links. This is where the engine cards come in. Play one, and the level of your train goes up. They can also be used as wild cards for track placement.
You start in a central hub, and build the map as you go. All the usual game rules apply from its bigger brother, and scoring is almost exactly the same.
Cards are drawn from the deck to your hand, but you can also take the top card of the discard pile aswell.
The games is great as a standalone, and if you have played the full version then it is very easy to pick up and play. But I use this game to teach people how to play the full game, and it takes just 45 mins to play, and deals with all the major rules.
All in all fantastic game which can be played multiple times in a session, with enough nuances to actually warrent getting both this and the full game. Again, as with the full game, don't let the theme put you off. Play and you will be hooked.

Card Games: What to buy?

Here's a short run down of card games that we play here at Farlands Games. We recommend all these games, if you see them, give them a go!

A pack of normal cards: Portable, and can be great fun when with a group of friends. The best thing about a pack of cards is that almost everyone knows how to play games with these. Blackjack, Poker, Chase the Ace, Go Fish, and many more. Cheap and easy, and can be played when you are waiting for people to show up for the main game. Also, there are quite a few solo games out there that use a pack of cards.

Dominion: Of course, no list of card games would be complete without a mention of this game. Simple to understand, difficult to master, and expanded with so much content, there really is something for everyone. Kids can enjoy this as much as adults, and play as hard aswell. The thing I really like about this game is how much actual strategy that there is in this, and the deeper you look into it, the better the game becomes.

Elder Sign: Ok, not technically a card game, and does use dice, but uses less table space than most card games use, and is played predominately on and with cards. The younger brother of Arkham Horror, this game plays fast, and can be played solo of with a group of friends. Plays just like Arkam Horror, with all the juicy stories and theme, but with simplified rules, plays in around 30 mins. Still cannot beat the full Arkham, but with that having a playing time of 4 hours plus, this is a fantastic alternative.

Fluxx: Simple, good, honest fun with a twisted sense of humor. Two rules start the game, and more are added as you go along. Don't like the victory conditions? Play a card to change them. Want to draw 3 cards? 4? Want to collect everyone's cards together and deal them out again? Well that's exactly what you can do with this great card game from Looney Labs. There are a number of decks available, from standard Fluxx, Pirate Fluxx and Monty Python Fluxx. All the card backs are the same, so you can mix and match between sets and create a custom game. Martian Zombies anyone?

The Island of Dr. Necreaux: James bond type hero's and villain's in a James Bond type adventure. This is a little talked about game, but can be purchased quite cheaply on the internet. Easy to understand, the difficulty in this game really is brutal however. Your mission is to save some scientists from the evil Dr. Necreaux, but he has set his island to self destruct. Battle henchmen, robots and crafty traps, save the scientists and escape, all with a time limit. So good ideas in this game, if you can find it, give it a try.

Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game

People who know me will know that I am not a great fan of trading card games. I don’t like the way that you blindly pay to get cards that you probably do not want or need, or have to pay over the top to get the cards that you want.

That may all be about to change however. One of the regular TNG goers brought a few decks to play the other night, and I decided to try something different and got him to show me the ropes. From the beginning, it looked overly complicated, with cards flying from hand to table, and then decks to other decks. But after one round, it all clicked. It became very simple in premise. You play cards from your hand, either face up or face down depending on what type of card it is, and then after they have been played to the table, you play the card itself, and once its being resolved the other player takes their turn.

Now, even though it is simple in premise, there seems a lot of strategy involved, as playing a a card at the wrong time will potentially lose you the game.

I am not going to go any further with the rules of the game, as there are a lot of rules. Do not be put of by me saying that however, as the rules, one you are playing, all flow nicely and make sense. Most of the special rules are are on the cards themselves, much like the Dominion cards.

I think over the next few weeks I am going to be getting myself some starter decks and exploring this game a little bit more, as I enjoyed this game, and it may have also changed my mind on collectable card games...

Review: Pirate Fluxx

Fluxx is a long running card game made by the wonderfully named Looney Labs, and these games truly are looney.

One of the simplest games I have ever played, this Pirate Version brings a lot of fun to the table again. The idea of the game is to complete the goal placed by a player, which usually consists of getting two cards in play that match the goal, and you win. It sounds simple, but there are a lot of things that can go wrong.

Green cards are called keepers, and go in front of you. These are the cards that you win with. Blue cards are actions, which can move cards around, to letting you look and pick a card from the discard pile. Yellow rules change the rules of the game itself, from the starting draw 1, play 1, to things such as draw 5, or creating a hand limit of only 1. Pink cards are goals, and change how to win the game. And black cards, Creepers, mean you cannot possibly win if you have it in front of you.

All the rules are simple, just do what they say (my favourite has to be draw a extra card if you talk like a pirate during your turn...awesome!)

This is a real fun game, as you could be about to win and someone changes the goal, then you set about trying to reset it back, or go for the next goal. Mechanically, there’s not a lot. Do as the cards say, and your fine. The artwork in this is great as usual, but I noticed not as comic like as Zombie Fluxx, but still fits the theme of this one great.

Set up time is as long as it take to shuffle some cards, and play time ranges from 1 minute up to about 30 at most, with most games being in the 10-15 minute range depending one how silly you are with voices. All in all, a really fun game at a reasonable price.

One last thing that I like about these games: they are all compatible with each other. The backs are all the same, so you can mix and match as you want, so zombie-pirates are the way to go with our next game I think...

Pirate Fluxx is in stock over at the Farlands Games e-shop.