Sid Meier's Railroads: For those of us who always wanted a gigantic model train table, but never got one.

I was a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan growing up. Shining Time Station was my favorite show, and I'll never forget the misadventures of Thomas and his friends on the Island of Sodor. I did have a few of the die-cast model trains from the show to play around with on the basement floor, but I never had a full on model train table setup that I could build and manipulate and lay tracks, etc. 

Sid Meier's Railroads changed that for me. Sure, the game has been out for 11 years, and it's been even longer since I recreated a Thomas episode on the basement floor, but my inner train enthusiast has returned, and I wanted to share with you all some of the reasons I've enjoyed playing the game!

First, if you're not familiar with Sid Meier and his contributions to PC gaming over the years, look no further than the Civilization franchise. They're fantastic turn based strategy games that involve diplomacy, resource management, territorial expansion, and much more. But I digress. Maybe I'll do a separate post on that. Anyhow, Sid Meier has also produced several other games over the years that involve simulation. I recently discovered Railroads when I got it on sale during some sort of bundle deal (I can't remember if it was Humble Bundle or some other deal on Gamersgate or Green Man Gaming. Oh well...).

I didn't play it for a while, but when I finally got around to giving it a try, it proved to be pretty fun. When you launch the game, you're greeted with a cut scene that will bring waves of nostalgia if you are or once were a train table enthusiast. Then you'll see this screen:

Already, you can tell this is going to be fun. Next, you can start a game. I've not tried multiplayer, but I imagine it would be extremely fun. In Single Player mode, there are a variety of situations based on historical periods, both in the United States and Europe, where you're required to complete objectives. You may also introduce AI competitors who will also be vying for the title of railroad tycoon. Here's an example: 

Click start, and here we go. You always get to start with a decently sized city, and you're required to build tracks off of what exists in your city at the start of the game: 

The goal of the game is to make money on your railroad lines so that eventually you can complete the goals for the given situation and buy out all of your competitors. To do this, you'll notice that there are various resources placed around the map, like oil, cattle, grain, coal, etc. 

These resources may be processed into commodities such as food, steel, medicine, cars, and others, and then sold to cities which demand these items. Your job is to connect all of the resources with cities which may process them, and then connect the cities with other cities which demand the items. 

Once the tracks are laid, you must purchase an actual train to do the work, so you click the green train in the lower left menu, and set its destination and cargo. 

You're limited by the type of train, which varies based on the current year. Many types of trains will be better for freight, while others will be better for passengers. Each train also has a maintenance cost associated, so that will constantly tick down your cash on hand. Hopefully your deliveries will cover the cost of your rails and train maintenance. After that, it's just a matter of making more connections and watching cities grow. As they grow, their demands will change, and you'll be challenged by how to rout the trains so there aren't major delays. 

The game comes with predefined maps, but you can also randomly generate a map each time, which will have terrain obstacles that must be overcome, such as water, mountains, valleys, etc. The terrain plays a role in how fast your trains can make it down the tracks.

Eventually you'll have metropolis areas to oversee, and your railroad empire will grow! There are a lot more moving parts than what I've just described, but hopefully this small overview will make you want to give it a go, especially if you like trains. 

If you want to grab Sid Meier's Railroads, you can download it on Steam for $9.99 regular price at its Steam page here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/7600/ 

However, it is one of the games that usually goes on sale during the Steam sales, so add it to your wish list, and maybe grab it at a bargain price!

I hope you've enjoyed this brief look into an 11 year old game which I've probably played too much over the past few weeks. Maybe you'll enjoy it as much as I have! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the game, or other suggestions for fun simulation games.