Board Gaming - Tramways
Tramways: Paris
This game is an expansion map to the base game Tramways, and while I haven't played the base game, I will talk about it as it is the same game in many aspects.
Tramways is a deck building game, where you are building a transport network on a map. In the base game, the map is made up of a number of modular boards, but in the expansion it is a section of Paris divided across the board by the Seine. The river provides a couple of additional rules to the base game, adding an increased cost to build track over it, and a cost to travel along it by ferry.
To start the game, you're given a starting deck, and randomly assigned some undeveloped locations on the map. All the developed locations start with a passenger at the start of the game and only certain types are replenished after each round. Transporting passengers from one location to another is how to earn money and points.
I'm playing the green colour, and am on the upside down side of the table
One of the most interesting and from my experience so far, unique, things in tramways is the auction mechanism. In the first phase of each round, players bid for position in a continual auction. You pay an amount to stay in, which can't be what you paid last time, and can't be the same as any player "to your left" on the auction board - that is to say, that was earlier in the turn order in the previous round. If it gets to you and you have the highest bid, you immediately take the next position in the new turn order (highest remain position). If you aren't the highest bid, and you choose not to bid, you immediately take the lowest remaining position in the new turn order. If you make a new bid, you pay the new bid and stay in another round. It can quite easily happen where the person who paid the most over the whole auction isn't the first player, and the person that paid the least isn't last. Bidding can be paid for in cash, or by using cards from your hand that contain money, but they're used for the entire round.
Winning the auction gets you the first pick from the available cards for this round, and is the main way of adding cards to your deck. Some of the cards are good, and some are not so good, having additional payments on them for when they leave your hand, and some are also just nothing cards that fill up your deck.
After the auction, everyone takes turns playing 2 actions. Each action requires playing some amount of cards from your hand to pay for the action. You can build or upgrade tracks, build or upgrade a building, or transport a passenger.
To build tracks, you need enough 'build track' symbols to build the length you want, a rail worker (which you can only have 2 of at any point), and if you are completing a connection, a symbols for one of the endpoints. When upgrading, you upgrade the entire link with the one symbol. For buildings, you need the site you want to build and the type of building you want to build in symbols. For the upgrade, you need the upgrade symbol and the type of building.
To move a passenger, you need the destination card, and a ticket to travel the trams. In our game, you also needed a ticket for each section on the river you travel on top of the 1 for unrestricted tram travel. You get $1 for each section of track you travel on, and pay an opponent $1 for each section of their track you use and you get a point for each link traveled along. In our game we also got $5 for each section of the river traveled along.
I think by now I'd worked out my mistake with earlier card selection due to the randomness of no more turning up until later. Having a Commerce card is important for getting other cards!
Delivering a passenger to one of the buildings gives you a special benefit also.
- Commercial allows you to pick a card from one of the stacks of additional cards or take $5. None of these cards have negatives on them, and it's the only other way to gain cards. You need to be able to do this, which wasn't something I worked out until it was too late.
- Industry gets you a rail worker so you can build more tracks
- Leisure allows you to convert extra money into points at a far greater rate than the 1 point for $10 at the end of the game. This is where the majority of points come from, so you need to be able to do this.
And this is how our board looked at the end of the game. Some poor decisions and poor analysis led to me being a small network and a clear last place
The one other thing not mentioned in all that is stress. You have to manage your stress levels. Commerce and Industry increase stress. The final location to transport a passenger to is a Residential location, which reduces stress level by 1. I don't recall anyone actually using this though, as there is a couple of cards that can be used to reduce stress in the final phase of each round.
Most of the stress is generated through card use though, as while you get to use 1 symbol on a card for free, you are also able to use additional symbols at the cost of 1 stress each. Get too stressed and you lose points. At the end of the game, you lose points based on your stress level, so managing it is very useful.
I found the game quite fun, and while it is only 6 rounds long, there is quite a bit in the game. I really enjoyed the auction mechanic because of it's difference to other auctions methods I've seen before, and while I made what turned out to be a few tactical errors early, some of them were compounded by the way our random cards came out for the auctions, with no further commerce symbols appearing in the 2nd through 4th rounds, making my decision not to take one in the 1st round much worse than it should have been.
If you made it to here, well done! that turned out to be much longer than I intended, or expected.
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I have not played a board in a long time. This one looks different. I only played scrabble lol! I probably will understand the process as I play the game.
If you enjoy word games, I'd suggest Paperback which I wrote about a while ago. It also would introduce you to deck building games, which is one of my current favourite mechanics
That seems complicated but sounds fun even Alhambra and Crossfire. I have to check if these are available here in our place. These are not traditional games. I did not realize word games can be this complex.
Most of what I play are modern or euro (or euro-style) games. And I agree that I wasn't quite ready for the way Paperback deals with being a word game, but with good planning of what cards (letters), it can be pretty easy to make words with the random hand of letters you draw from your deck. Better when they're also point scoring combos too :)
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Been a while since I’ve played any board games. When I do it just tends to be Monopoly. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a board game have such an auction function. I wish monopoly only last 6 rounds hehe. Very nice man I’m glad it turned out longer than you expect. I don’t often see board game reviews so I found this very refreshing.
Interesting point: If you read the rules, Monopoly has an auction in it, which actually makes the game much quicker. It's still a very poor game, but it is improved with removing all the cultural house rules.
If you enjoy board games, there's quite a lot of new things out there to try.
hehe ya I never really read the rules for monopoly we just had our own house rules. Had make our own money too we ran out haha. A game would go on for like a week.
In our house it was very much the same. So many of the house rules are generations old, and the parents teaching kids how to play weren't even taught by people that had read the rules. We just know how to play.
This guy is where I am with Monopoly these days, but back when we were kids, 5 player family games were a 1-2 evening setting, or an entire afternoon. Not so great for the first eliminated, but dad still holds our record of being eliminated in under 15 minutes. His plus side to that though was that he holds our comeback record, from just the orange set when head to head started to winning the game. Fun was had, but there are many better games out there these days. Just a bit of a list (they also have a post on why you should play it with kids too...)
I still think everyone needs to experience it, mostly so they can recognize what is good and bad in the game, but most of the basic concepts can be gathered from other games
I have been undefeated for so many years now I'm kind of glade I stop playing it. I'm hoping when some of my younger relatives get a bit older I will get to play and teach them. I have plans to purpose lose and let one of them have the honor of beating me. I have a winning streak of 30 games perhaps. That was mostly due to house rules and I think it be kind of funny to let someone's kid beat me when there parents have not been able to for years on end hehe.
You ever use discord?
I'm probably undefeated for 20 years, but then it's been about that since I played, so... (but I did share the wins with my mum in our family games growing up). Definitely would be amusing to let a new player beat you. Even more amusing if it's in a game with their parents too.
I'm on discord all the time (PAL and the other Aussie server), but I am often distracted and wander away. I do come back to check mentions though, and answer PMs. (same username)
Nice I think my recorded has to be something like that as well. I'm sure when I was real young they let me win. Than later on they could not take me down even when teaming up hehe. Go go red properties. People would love getting those or greens before I did.
I always loved the Orange and Red corner, but would also like the light blue and purples. That half of the board always was good value for money. And of course the stations
thats a GG boardgame there! love to see in steemit! im promoting boardgames in spanish from CalabozoCriollo! so now i will follow you!
Thanks for dropping by. What game is being played in your image? Unfortunately I'm not very good at Spanish, but it is in my list of things I want to get better at
That game its Article 27 of the United nations! a very good game of represent powerful nations in the assembly to get more influence, between eurogame and social party game.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/113293/article-27-un-security-council-game
Thanks a lot and please visit us at @calabozocriollo images dont need languaje
also a good game its the thing. (john carpenter movie)
That sounds quite an interesting game. Will have to keep my eye out for it and give it a go if I get the chance.