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Empire Builder

How often in our lives can we claim to have built the Transcontinental Railway? Personally I've built it about 40 times. Strangely, even though i'm from the UK and have little or no idea where most American towns and cities are, I seem to win this game two thirds of the time. Those that read my reviews often, will know i adore my crayon rail games, and this game doesn't disappoint at all. True, this game ranks fourth in my crayon rail games with British Rails, Eurorails and Iron Dragon coming before it. However this is simply because im from Britain and Europe and Iron Dragon has that special something with it being fantasy based. It has nothing at all to do with the game itself, and if i had to list these four games strictly on how well they played etc, I dont think i could list them in anyother way than joint first.

So whats this game all about anyway? Well you play a rail baron in America. Using your crayon you plot out your track so that your counter can move along this and pickup, transport and deliver the goods to destinations determined by cards. If you build a profitable track and are lucky enough to keep getting cargos for towns you already connected to, then your almost guaranteed to earn $250million first and win every time.

This game has had several versions since it first appeared in 1980, the latest versions having the same high standard of components that was first introduced with Euro Rails.

SUMMARY:
I've played this game many many times, and thoroughly enjoyed it every time. Im a little biased because I love the freedom of the crayon rail games genre, but having said that, I am hard pushed to find fault with this gem of a game. So yet again i advice all of you who like crayon rail games to hunt this one down and add it to your collection with pride.


Review by Tom

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