The Best Train Based Board Games

Join us then as we get up a head of steam, and ask: “tickets please?”

Written by Christopher John Eggett, updated by Charlie Pettit

Ride the Rails

As the age of steam makes its way across America, players take on the role of railway tycoons. Players buy coloured shares, lay pieces connecting lines they have stock in, and then take a passenger on a journey across the map of their choosing – taking cash equal to the number of cities visited. Then every player gets a payout based on the used lines and their ownership. This is a game of loose alliances coming together and falling away, train supplies dwindling and creating a rush on a less popular colour. It’s elegant and minimalist with a simple but deep loop. An accessible and rewarding investment.

Buy your copy on Amazon here, or or read our full Ride the Rails review.

Ticket To Ride: Europe

Create networks using your train carriages and link up routes to collect route cards for points. Beautifully simple, but with a minor wrinkle in the Europe edition that adds ferries, tunnels and the ability to borrow bits of your opponent's routes, for a cost. The 15th Anniversary Edition offers a massive map and a ton of upgrades, including new cards and beautiful train and station sculpts, there’s a reason to make Ticket To Ride: Europe the centre of your gaming evening once again. Also a perfect entry point to the hobby for new gamers.

And if you wanted something a little different, we'd also add the incredible Ticket To Ride Legacy: Legends of the West – it's a must-play game that takes everything you love about Ticket to Ride, and adds in a range of new and exciting experiences. 

Buy yours on Amazon

 

 

Pioneer Rails

Let's combine our favourite topic (trains) with a flip and write style game. Let's set it in the Old West, add in some vibrant art work and... Hey presto! Pioneer Rails emerges. The game manages to evoke a spirit of playing a tense game of poker in a saloon, so much so you can almost hear the Western Music somewhere in the distance. Whilst roll and writes, or flip and writes, can sometimes be criticised for lacking social interaction, Pioneer Rails encourages this, toeing the line perfectly so that it adds to the tension, but without feeling too mean. 

 

 

Railways of the World 

Or Age of Steam, the game that this is a reimplementation of. We could probably have completed this entire list with Martin Wallace adjacent games, but this might be the best outing for its slimmed-down rules and improved components. Deliver the right kind of goods to the right cities by linking up a freight network of trains across the United States and Mexico. Gain points not only for using your own route, but for other players using your routes too – making for smart positioning being at the heart of this game’s tactics.

 

Railroad Ink

There’s never been a better time to return to Railroad Ink. It’s a roll and write where players are adding routes to a wipe clean map, based on the dice rolled to their personal map. Here you’re not only connecting rain routes from one edge of the map to another, but you’re also taking account of the highway network that you’ll also be asked to build. Working out smart routing plays off against the wafer thin lightness to the gameplay, making this an accessible entry into the world of locomotive map-making.

Buy your copy of Railroad Ink on Amazon.

 

5. 1830: Railways and Robber Barons

It would be impossible to create this list without one 18XX game in it. Here we have the classic formula of buying shares in train companies as they make routes across a hexagonal grid. The hexes add a certain tile laying puzzle alongside the crunchiness of engine building (no pun intended) and choices about dividends payments. Not only are you building the lines, you’re also trying to run the company – and blocking your opponents by strategically placing station tokens. A vicious game on the rails, if you want it to be.

Colt Express

 

This might be a bit of a cop-out. It’s not really about railways, and more about robbery – but it does all take place on a cardboard train you have to slot together at the start. And it is based on a Butch Cassidy rain robbery of 1889, loosely. Players take the roles of bandits all trying to rob the same train, playing action cards face down in a pile in the middle. Next, all of the actions are played out in the order they were laid, making for silly and slapstick action scenes which are more Blazing Saddles than a true Western. Colt Express is great for families and a jolly winner of the Spiel des Jahres.

Buy Colt Express here

 

Empyreal: Spells & Steam 

A beautiful fantasy train game from Level 99 Games that is as simple as it is attractive – so while it’s a bit of a table hog, it doesn’t overwhelm players. A classic ‘build a route, and the resources will come’ game, each tile offers a resource, which can then be delivered to a city to complete a demand tile for points. Add in the special abilities of the conductor pawn on the personal player board, and you’ve got a little extra depth without too much overhead. Soon you’ll be building up machines to get you extra resources or actions, and making your network that little bit more powerful. Empyreal: Spells and Steam is a beautiful centrepiece for those who don’t mind a bit of make-believe on the rails. 

Maglev Metro 

The train of the future might float, a bit. Maglev Metro is a network builder that uses transparent perspex tiles to show the ‘floating’ aspect of the game – and so you can see everyone’s route. Sadly the magic of magnets has not been incorporated into this game, but their spirit has. Players build up their lines and upgrade their offering using robots, eventually using the same automatons to acquire commuters who will form the basis of your end game points. Get your personal combination of powers and resources flowing, and you’ll soon be levitating away from your opposition at record breaking, frictionless speed.

Buy your copy of Maglev Metro on Amazon

Station Master

Far flung from the slimmed down roll and writes and the heavier 18XX games, comes Station Master with a little sense of crunch that sits somewhere between. Players perform the simple loop of attaching railcars to one of the shared central trains – which will depart from the station when they meet their length requirement. Or adding passengers, which affect the score for a single train for that player. This leads to attempts to sabotage other players' trains while fighting to retain control of your own. Surprisingly cutthroat and vicious, the companion app takes some sting out scoring – and also offers a variety of train toots. 

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This article originally appeared in Tabletop Gaming Magazine. Pick up the latest issue of the UK's fastest-growing gaming magazine in print or digital here or subscribe to make sure you never miss another issue.

Sometimes we may include links to online retailers, from which we might receive a commission if you make a purchase. Affiliate links do not influence editorial coverage and will only be used when covering relevant products