Kansas Pacific

Kansas Pacific is one of those simple Cube Rail games that I would call neither great nor bad. It lasts about an hour and, once it is over, the natural reaction is, “let’s play again.” It could have been a nice, relaxed little railway affair, if the board itself did not fight me quite so much.

At its core, it is a stripped-back Cube Rail, with attention focused on the railway routes. The game does not overstay its welcome and its pace fits comfortably into an hour, keeping the experience simple and direct.

The issue is that the game’s basic task—reading and finding the route—becomes more tiring than it needs to be. The colours and the map do nothing to help readability, so instead of staying in the game’s zen, I am trying to work out exactly where the line goes.

And that is where I have a production complaint. Queen, you put 230 locomotive meeples in the box, and they genuinely look wonderful on the table; could you not have tidied up one damn map? At least those steam meeples are perfect props for any Cube Rail game. Overall, this is an okay game that I would play again, but a dreadful map holds it back more than it deserves.

Stay tuned: we still have plenty of gaming to get through before the end of the year.