Review
Prussian Rails
Prussian Rails is an honest little railway game with shares and enough actual game to earn its place. It does not reach Iberian Rails, but its brief running time and basement price make it an easy recommendation for the railway-curious.
- Published
- 2008
- Designer
- John Bohrer
- Publisher
- Queen Games, Rio Grande Games, Winsome Games
- Players
- 3–5
- Playing time
- 60 min
Prussian Rails is not the startlingly good small railway game that Iberian Rails is. It is, however, an honest design: there are meaningful choices, shares, and a few mechanisms worth attending to, without any grand claim to have reinvented the railway.
Its centre is the share game, rather than shares pasted on as railway decoration. Decisions run through that layer of ownership, and the game develops its interest from the way holdings are divided among the players. The interesting decision is how to read that division, not how to treat the network as a solitary puzzle.
It is, however, an honest design: there are meaningful choices, shares, and a few mechanisms worth attending to, without any grand claim to have reinvented the railway.
TheTrainSpotter
Interaction follows from who has an interest in what, and from how that allocation shapes the endgame. That is also its weak point: if players labour over it, or if the shares have settled into an awkward distribution, the finish can lose momentum and become dull. Mercifully, the whole affair lasts only twenty to thirty minutes; a flaw that does not have time to become a long-distance service.
It will not dislodge Iberian Rails, but at this price Prussian Rails is an entirely sensible small stop for anyone wishing to go further into railway-game obsession.
It will not dislodge Iberian Rails, but at this price Prussian Rails is an entirely sensible small stop for anyone wishing to go further into railway-game obsession.
TheTrainSpotter
Source: BoardGameGeek
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