| Players | 2–6 |
|---|---|
| Setup time | 5 minutes |
| Playing time | 60–240 minutes |
| Random chance | Low |
| Skill(s) required | Resource Allocation |
Empire Builder is a railroad board game centered on the construction of railroad track, and then the delivery of goods along those railroad tracks. The original Empire Builder game is set in North America, but the line has expanded to include games set across the world, on the moon and even in a fantasy land. They are collectively called "the Empire Builder series".
The Empire Builder games are sometimes called Crayon Rails games because players mark their tracks on the board with plastic crayons (or sometimes with markers or other items).
Contents |
Empire Builder was originally released in 1980 by Mayfair Games. It was quite successful, and is now in its sixth edition. In addition, the success of the original has resulted in the release of an entire Empire Builder series of games:
Sky Zone is an unofficial add-on created by William Ingram that can be used with any game in the Empire Builder series. It allows the player to drive their train onto a smaller map that "floats" over the board and has shifting entry and exit points. It is generally not available.
Most of the titles of the series are available in the Mayfair-authorized computer game named Empire Builder Pronto (formerly EB Player).
The gameplay in Empire Builder begins on a blank map of North America. A hexagonal grid of "mileposts" is printed on the map. Most of these points are clear, which are the cheapest to build across. However, mountains and other obstacles such as rivers can increase the cost of building.
Each player draws three demand cards, each of which lists three different commodities desired by three different cities and also lists a value for each. From this initial array of nine different demands a player begins to plot out an initial route which will let him pick up and deliver desired commodities. The game begins with each player spending two turns laying out initial track connecting up cities. He then places his train on one of the cities.
On a typical turn a player will move his train along his track, possibly picking up and delivering goods from cities. When he delivers a good required by a demand card he receives a cash payout and then draws a new demand. (Some of the cards in the draw stack feature events which can cause trouble for players.) After moving his train and possibly making deliveries, the player is able to build new track, up to $20 million worth per turn.
A player eventually wins the game by connecting together five of the six major cities on the map and getting $250 million.
Although there is some luck involved in Empire Builder and related games, depending on the cards that are drawn, the outcome is usually determined by the skill of the players. Players experienced with a particular board will have the advantage of knowing the busiest traffic routes and which cities are most valuable to connect to. Strategy consists of the careful balancing of several conflicting priorities:
In the early part of the game players will generally spend most available cash to invest in track and engine upgrades. After a certain point, players will concentrate on taking profits in order to win the game, so building track will be restricted to repairs and building spurs required to make specific deliveries. In the early game cash is short and networks are undeveloped, so players will generally only make low to medium value deliveries. Late in the game players will generally prefer high value deliveries, though sometimes a lower value load is made in order to trade in a card with little promise. Renting track is usually advisable only in the later part of the game when a large profit can be made to offset the additional cost.
An important concept is that of combining loads. This consists of finding two or more loads whose sources are close to each other and whose destinations are close to each other so they can be combined into a single trip. Ideally, this halves the travel time taken per load. At the beginning of the game this is important for another reason in that less track must be built per load. In this case, loads may be combined in the sense that they cover similar routes even if they go in different directions. The idea of combining loads is especially important in the initial build since the player is not constrained to build on existing track. A good initial build combines two medium value loads to earn back the investment in track while providing a foundation to build an efficient network.
As an additional tactical consideration, players should pick up loads to fill unused slots when possible. This offers the player protection against derailments since the unneeded load can be dumped instead of a load needed for delivery. Additionally, the player may draw a serendipitous contract calling for the load to be delivered with little additional travel.