Lightning Train

After Dune Imperium, it was reasonable to ask whether Lone Wolf had another substantial game in it. Lightning Train did not win me over as an object at first: the artwork and production are not especially persuasive, and the rulebook manages to obscure an experience that is much clearer in play. Set it up before reading; that order helps more than it ought to.

At its centre is a marriage of bag building and pick up and deliver, and these are not merely adjacent systems. The bag sets the tempo at which your options become available; the routes turn that supply into meaningful choices about movement, delivery and progress. The interesting decision is not making a move, but deciding which opportunity is worth serving before the bag changes its mind.

And it does change its mind. One moment it launches you into extra turns; the next it leaves you drinking raki at a border station with Artemis Matsa. The bag provides the spice without undoing the design: there is catch-up, and the routes have plainly been considered, so the pressure remains productive rather than merely punitive. This is pick up and deliver territory, certainly, but with the bag wearing different overalls.

The result is considerably more approachable than its first reading suggests, while still full of sound decisions. A robust mechanism, handled by a designer who has attended to the edges, is enough to raise pick up and deliver from respectable to must-play. I would be surprised if anyone could make a properly reasoned case for disliking it.