Thursday, May 28, 2020

Time to Move? (Review of Railroad Ink: Blazing Red Edition)

railroad ink blazing red edition board game cover art
Roll 'n' Writes have been all the rage lately and one of the more popular series are the Railroad Ink ones. They have two versions out currently (Blazing Red and Deep Blue) and there are two more on Kickstarter right now (Lush Green and Shining Yellow). I'm a relative newcomer to the Railroad Ink game, playing Deep Blue with my family during the winter and getting Blazing Red for my birthday in April. In my review I'm going to talk about both games as the base dice are the same and it's just the expansion dice in each version that are different. I'll talk about those separately.

Railroad Ink is a perfect game for solo players or for those who like to do their own thing and not affect or alter what anyone else is doing. Each player is basically building their own railroad tracks and roads without interfering with each other. I believe the current Kickstarter versions do have more player interaction, but these first two do not. In the game you roll four dice (or six, adding two of the expansion dice) and draw the roads and railways pictured (you must include all four dice on each round - the expansion dice have different rules depending on the scenario). Your goal is to connect the exit arrows on the side of the boards to each other. The more of these you connect, the more points you score! You also score points for your longest road and railroad, for building in the middle nine squares, and you lose points for any dead ends. If you're playing with an expansion, you can gain more points depending on the scenario it puts you in. Winner is the player with the most points after 7 rounds (6 with expansions).

Deep Blue Edition
  • River dice - try to build around the rivers and score points for connecting rivers to the edge
  • Lake dice - ferry across lakes to connect pathways and score points for large lakes
Blazing Red Edition
  • Meteor dice - watch out for explosive meteors but score points by mining them
  • Lava dice - navigate around the lava pools but score points for the biggest ones
So, how is it? Let's find out.

TOTAL PLAYS (including Blazing Red and Deep Blue): 8 competitive, 10 solo

COMPONENTS
railroad ink blazing red edition board game
Overall, I'm really happy with the components. There's not much in terms of art, but the colour schemes are nice and everything is easy to read. The boards you draw on are really thick and sturdy feeling. The dice have a high quality feel to them and are pleasant to roll. You use dry erase markers in this one, which are usually sketchy in board games, but mine have lasted few a handful of games and seem ok still. The erasers clear the boards very nicely too. Nothing blows me away about the components, but everything is well done. 4/5

RULES
Even though there is a lot thinking involved in this game, there isn't much in terms of rules to learn. They are short and succinct and have some helpful gameplay diagrams to support the text. I did have an issue when playing the meteor expansion, however. It wasn't clear to me if a meteor connected two pathways or it didn't. I'm assuming it did not and that's how I played it, but it could have been more clear. That's fairly nitpicky, but for such short rules, you're hoping none of those issues arise. 4/5

GAMEPLAY
railroad ink blazing red edition lava board game
Please bask in this glorious high score!

The big brain burn here is not learning or remembering rule, it's trying to decide how to use the dice before you. On some turns, you're praying for a certain road or railway so you can connect your planned path and you just don't get it! Fortunately, you can use three special connectors during the game - these are four sided connectors (you can see them at the top of the picture above) - that can help fill in some of those gaps and connect your paths.  Depending on the expansion, you also need to work around lakes, rivers, meteors, and lava. The gameplay is really impressive to me. Rules are short, strategy is high, and it really racks your spatial reasoning. It's not my favourite solo or competitive game, but it packs a powerful punch for 10-20 minutes. 5/5

REPLAYABILITY
railroad ink blazing red edition board game
Apparently if you have multiple games you can play as many players as you have boards. That sounds like it would take an
obnoxiously long time, but it's nice to have game that can be pulled out for those parts of 6 or more people. This gives it replayability just in terms of the crowd you can play it with. Plus, you can play with just the starting four dice or add in one of the expansions. I tend to start each game with a similar strategy and even in a similar place, but what you do really depends on the dice. You might have an idea in mind and you quickly have to abandon it due to the dice you've gotten so far. That's what happened to me during my last playthrough with the lava dice, actually. Thanks to changing my mind halfway through and the luck of the dice roll, I easily had my highest scoring game. Yes, each time you play the game you have the same little board and you're rolling the same dice and drawing the same little tracks and roads, but it is different each time. 4/5

FUN
To be honest, I don't get excited about railroad tracks and roads. I don't get excited thinking and planning where they should go. However, I do get excited about quick games that can be played solo or with others and where no one is trying to screw me over. Games that pack a lot into a little package and give me a chance to doodle, are exciting to me. Of course, in my opinion it is more enjoyable to be hacking at goblins or something, but there is a definite amount of fun generated here by the challenge of planning out your route and the feelings of success or failure at the end of the game. 7/10

TOTAL SCORE  24/30

Railroad Ink: Blazing Red Edition (and also Deep Blue Edition) are great additions to your library. In the scheme of roll 'n' writes that I've played, these are probably the best (beating out That's So Clever and Harvest Dice as my other most played in the genre). Good for one or four, you won't be disappointed with this one.

If you want more information on my review system, check out the full description here.

Looking for more Railroad Ink fun? I've also posted a playthrough here.

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