Pipeline

I had wanted to bring it back to the table for a long time, so I was happy to see Pipeline return — along with the hope that Rolling Freight will make it to the table someday too. We played it with three, adding Emerging Markets for some freshness, and my impression stayed more or less the same as in previous plays: it is a good game, but definitely not for everyone. Somewhere in the corner, Horseless is already laughing at us.

At its core, the game asks you to build your network as a puzzle of pipes: buying and placing pieces so that the connections make sense and lead where they need to go. That process is what gives it its charm, but also its fiddly side; it demands attention to detail and a group that genuinely enjoys spatial squeezing.

With three players, Emerging Markets added extra spice through its new goal cards. Some of them were fairly kinky and, in the way they appeared in our game, gave us interesting directions and extra things to pursue. Of course, that only works when everyone understands exactly what they are supposed to do — otherwise the goals feel more like riddles sitting on the table and staring at us.

Overall, Pipeline is very solid, and I like returning to it from time to time. I would not recommend it indiscriminately, nor would I put it on the schedule every week; but when everyone wants to play Tetris with pipes, it does exactly what it promises.