Railroad Madness (2023)

Railroad Madness is a family game for 2-4 players about building and running railway lines in the Old West. Players each take on the role of a wannabe railroad tycoon! The game will have you picking up pioneers seeking to make their fortunes in the Gold Rush and transporting them to new frontiers as fast as you dare…

Railroad Madness uses a mixture of real-time dexterity mechanics and territory control. The game board starts with a basic starting setup, and is then expanded during play: each turn, you’ll build a new section of railroad by drawing a Rail card at random, flipping it over, and adding it to the relevant area around the starting zone: North, South, East or West. A section of railroad made of punchboard is then placed on top of the card.

Once that’s done, it’s time to get those trains onto the track! Each player starts the game with one train station of their colour, and a 3D plastic train with moving wheels. The aim of the game is simple - transport as many pioneers as possible to a new area of the board, preferably as far from the starting point as possible. Your gold-hunting passengers are looking for new horizons!

On your turn, you’ll have to move your train along the tracks, picking up passenger meeples from Train Stations as you go and loading them onto your wagon. If one or more passengers fall off, you can simply pick them up again before continuing your journey. Easy.

But of course, there’s a catch: your turn is limited to just 15 seconds! Your frantic journey will be timed by the Controller (the next player in the turn order) who must keep an eye on the sand timer and shout "Stop!" when it runs out. During that time, you’ll have to keep your train on the track and your passengers on the train, moving as fast as you dare.

When you end your turn on an empty section of railroad, they get to build a Train Station there, unloading the passengers who safely reached this new frontier and scoring them accordingly. Train stations will generate new passengers at the start of each player turn.

While all of this fast and furious action is going on, the other players at the table will need to be paying attention. If your train passes a Train Station of their colour, they get to shout "Ding Ding!" and put a coin into their Safety Deposit box. These coins can be used to upgrade Train Stations, making them generate more passengers and money.

The madness continues until there are no Rail cards left. At the end of the game, there is additional scoring for area control. The player with the most train stations in each area of the desert gains extra points!

-description from publisher