Mini Express

MOIDEAS closed out its line with a Gerrits cube rail that wastes no time on frills. Mini Express is small, minimalist, and very nicely produced on the table, yet beneath that clean look sits just the right amount of pain and complexes. With four companies and maps of Europe or America, each with small variations, it is exactly the size I want from a quick, tight economic game.

On my turn, I am essentially choosing between two things. Either I build a link in a company's network and gain influence in the companies indicated by the destination's demand tile, or I buy shares in companies. I pay influence for those shares, and their cost is tied to the relevant company's current capacity for expansion. So growing a network is not merely a way to put lines on the map: it immediately changes the share landscape and everyone else's options.

Where the game becomes truly heretical is in how share bundles are valued at the end. It is not enough to have collected shares; the value of each bundle depends on my final influence ranking. That can shut doors in a big way, because every move for expansion, influence, or shares may benefit someone else more than it benefits me. The interaction is therefore constant, not because anyone directly destroys my network, but because we all share the same companies and try to beat one another to the right timing.

The best part is that all this pressure never becomes tiring: a game lasts barely 45 minutes. Once I have taken the appropriate economic slap, I can simply flip the map and start again. The group loved it, and I completely understand why. The only real thorn is that MOIDEAS games become expensive because of shipping; if you can get past that, you have a very strong little cube rail.

Updated session

By the fourth game, we understood it much better. There were no "passes" at all, the contest was decided on fine margins, and the opening of ports on the European map proved decisive. My opinion has not changed: it remains a lovely little filler for this short cube-rail slot, alongside Ride the Rails and Irish Gauge. I probably still prefer Irish Gauge, not because Mini Express falls short, but because I have played it less and its kinkier mechanisms still pull me in more.