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two great games by Spiel des Jahres winner Alan Moon... ...that just happen to be "related" to each other in game mechanics but not in theme! |
last update: October 31, 2004 | |||
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A Mini-Guidebook to Collecting Trains & Other Objects of Value Here's the Game Central Station theory about which game you should play when:
Freight Train is the deeper of the two games, involving much more planning & strategy. However, it takes a BIG table to play a 5 player game of it. BTW, there are two different editions of Freight Train - one produced in limited numbers by White Wind and one in a smaller box by Mayfair Games. One other note: if you like either or both of these games, run (do not walk) to your nearest game retailer and buy Union Pacific (Amigo/Rio Grande), also designed by Alan Moon. It's a very different take on the same kind of game mechanism with beautiful components, playable with 2-6 players, and features a quick-paced 90 minute playing time. (If all goes as planned, Game Central Station will feature Union Pacific on a track of it's own in the near future.) Get the Goods/Reibach & Co. IMPORTANT House Rule We here at Game Central Station play by a common house rule (suggested by Mark Johnson), created to eliminate the balance problem in the game if one player is dealt multiple 2x cards: - The 2x and Wild cards are not shuffled into the deck for the initial deal. They are shuffled in with the 10 $ sign cards after the initial deal. As Mark so nicely puts it, "There's still luck involved regarding when the x2 and Wild cards show up, but no one gets them 'for free' in their initial draw." Another solution suggested to the 2x balance problem is to deal each player a 2x card at the beginning of the game and discard any extra 2x cards. Finally, Joe Huber has a slightly more "gamer" way of doing the same thing. They don't shuffle in the 2x cards at all. Instead, each player is dealt one of these cards to the table. As in the regular game, they may pick this card up and put it into their hand at the cost of two actions. In this way, each player gets a chance at one card, if they should choose to take it. Variant - Starting the Game Nick Sauer suggests giving the first player 1 action and the second player 2 actions (with all following players taking the normal 3 actions per turn) in the first round. This lessens the advantage to the early players. (Alan Moon has registered his approval of this variant.) Alan himself recommended a 1 point bonus for the 2nd & 3rd players and a 2 point bonus for the 4th & 5th players in order to even out the advantage. Clarifications The Scorepad - On the Get the Goods score pads there is a line near the bottom labeled Extra Points... which is downright confusing, because there are no "extra points" in the game. There are, however, penalties in the final round ONLY for undeveloped Keystone Cards (-2) and cards left in your hand (-1). That is evidently the purpose of the so-called "extra points" row on the scorecard. - Also, the "extra points" row on the scorepad has blanks for each round... which is an obvious mistake, since you receive penalties only in the final round. Oops. Keystone Cards - Keystone cards do not count as part of the total in each Pile of Goods... but it doesn't make any real difference since every stack must have one and only one keystone. Strategy - some ideas (thanks to Richard Irving, Greg Schlosser, and the designer himself, Alan Moon) How to select a Keystone Card 101
The Designer Speaks on the Game Function of Keystone Cards "What card you should use is up to you, but their function is: 1) To change the numbers of cards in play in each color so there aren't always nine of each, and 2) To force players which card to use from their hand, when it would almost always be better to keep the card to play as a Property." Overall Tactics Richard: "It depends a bit on the number of players, how many cards are left, whether you have a x2 in your hand, etc. That being said the game more tactical than strategic in that making the right choice on any particular move is more important than a long term strategy." Greg: "I find the strategy to be similar to Acquire or Medici ... try to get the majority or secondary position in as many commodites (or goods) as you can. Go for lots of commodities. Also, use the 'X2' card near the end of a round to boost your scoring, but only after you've had quite a few cards added to your pile to insure either a first or second position in that commodity." Freight Train Preview (from The Color of the Wind) by Alan Moon In FREIGHT TRAIN, players compete to put together the longest trains. Cars are availalbe from the Main Freight Yard and the player's own smaller Freight Yard. Each turn, a player can either transfer cars from the Main Freight Yard to his trains and/or to his own Freight Yard, transfer cards from his own Freight Yard to his trains, rearrange the cars in his own Freight Yard, or call up another locomotive. There are 11 types of cars in all; the typical stuff like boxcars, gondolas, and tank cars. Most trains can only consist of one type of car, but a player is allowed to have one mixed freight consisting of one of each different type of car. Of course, the type of car you need is not always available when it's your turn to play. There's also a little matter of only being able to take the cars out of thesidings in the Freight Yard in order, since we are, after all, talking about cars on rails, not cars on roads. The game is divided into three days. The number of locomotives available to each player increases each day. At the end of each day, the players who couple the longest and second longest trains of each type of freight score points. In addition, players gain points for cars in their own Freight Yards on the first day but lose points for the same situation on the third day. Which makes stockpiling cars on the first day a great idea, but also requires a player to clear the yard before the game ends to avoid a big deduction in score. The player with the highest score at the end of the third day is the winner. For 3-5 players. Game time is about an hour. Variants (from The Color of the Wind) These variants are written by Alan Moon (and appear here with his permission). They originally appeared in the third issue of The Color of the Wind, the house newsletter for the now-defunct White Wind Games, in the fall of 1994. 1. There is no limit to the number of cars a player can have in his Freight Yard. Ignore the bumpers at the end of the tracks on the right side of the sidings and pretend the tracks extend much farther to the right. 2. All cards placed in the Main Freight Yard are placed face down and remain face down until a player switches them from the Main Freight Yard. A player will not know what the car is until he removes it from the Main Freight Yard. If the player cannot add the car to one of his Trains, he must place it in his own Freight Yard. If the player cannot add the car to one of his Trains and his Freight Yard is full, the car is discarded. Alternately, you can combine this variant with the preceding variant. 3. There are several other possible types of Mixed Freight Trains.
Players may choose which and how many of these new Mixed Freight Trains to use, but a player may never have more than one of each type of Mixed Freight Train. Alternately, players can play a game with only Mixed Freight Trains and allow more than one of some types.
All about Cabooses Finally, Richard Irving notes: "I prefer to play without the cabooses because unlike Reibach's x2 cards, they are only going to be used one time. There is no incentive to play the cabooses, unless you are certain you are going to win a particular type of train. Once the round is scored, the train reshuffled back into the next deck. The most it will net you is 3 pts (in addition to the three pts you would already receive). and is often used as a delaying turn when you don't want to draw from the common yard because there is nothing you want there. In Reibach & Co./Get the Goods, you might very well play a x2 card on the first round, hoping you are still in first through at least the second round so you score 12 pts. instead of 6." In a dissenting opinion (pro-caboose!), Pat Brennan says: "When to play them is a tight decision and tends to be at different points in each round. I always aim to get at least 2 and even three cabooses if it can stop someone else getting a caboose on a sure fire winner train that they have and so deny them points. Having a caboose on a train that comes second still gets two points rather than 1, which almost makes it equivalent to winning a non-caboosed train with 3 points anyway." My rule of thumb on how many carriages I need before I slap a caboose on is:
Departures Here's a couple of reviews & a variant & a rules translation of Reibach & Co. (the German version of Get the Goods), as well as a trio of reviews of Freight Train. Get the Goods Boardgame Geek entry for Get the Goods The Game Cabinet from Mike Siggins Huzonfirst Games in which Larry "My Roomie" Levy shares his review of Get the Goods Huzonfirst Games in which Larry shares his variant for Get the Goods Reibach & Co. Rules Translation c/o of The Game Cabinet & the Sumo Rules Bank Freight Train Boardgame Geek entry for Freight Train The Game Cabinet fromMike Siggins The Game Report Online from Peter Sarrett SOS' Gameviews from Steffan O'Sullivan | |||
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