You are a train driver, going at break neck speeds around the train tracks of Britain, trying to travel to tourist spots before racing back to London to claim the victory. Unfortunately, it seems like the rest of the world is conspiring against you, placing train signals in your way, and sending you to Llanfair PG to learn how to pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch,a terrible thing that no one should be subjected to.
The Great Game of Britain - Steam Trains, is an older game that knows it relies on luck, and is proud of it. If you don't like the kind experience, in which you can be one space off from one of your objectives and then get sent to the other side of the board from an unlucky card draw, this is not the game for you.
At the start of each match every player collects 6 souvenir cards, which represent different points of interest you have to go to before returning to London to win the game. This is were the game hits a small problem, as if you have younger players less familiar with the geography of the UK, they my need an adult to help locate where they need to go. Then each player places down two train signals which block a player going through them unless they roll a six. This puts the adults who helped the children find their locations in a dilemma, as they try to figure out where they would have placed them had they not known where the children's card were.
Then, each turn you roll a dice and move up to that number of stops towards your next destination. But if you want to switch between the different coloured lines, which is necessary to get nearly anywhere, you have to end you turn and draw a hazard card which can either give rewards or send you off to exactly the place you didn't want to be.
Hazard cards, are the life blood of this game, especially on your first run-throughs, as you laugh as people get sent off to far off spots on the map and have to reconfigure their plans, or when you are changing lines yourself and hope that you draw something that could actually help you. The fact that you are constantly being moved around the board means that you constantly have to re-adjust your plans and try and figure out the most effective route(one of the most fun parts of the game). My favourite are the ones that make you interact with the other players, which is the most fun part of the game, letting you have fun with the friends you are playing this with.
However, despite these hazard cards, you can't escape the terror of train signals, as if you have to go through one, you can spend the entire game just trying to roll a six to pass the road block, which can ruin your chances of ever winning or having fun. They do offer the opportunity to mess with other players, as you can move them using hazard cards, which can be very exciting, as you try to block your opponent in. If there is a way round the blockage, they can be a good addition to the game, but if you have to go through that one spot which is blocked it gets dull.
One dilemma you must face though, if you want the game, is that there are two different versions of the game a larger 'deluxe' edition which has more spaces on the map and bigger pieces, or the smaller travel edition with less spaces but smaller fiddly pieces that are hard to manoeuvre. The extra spaces on the deluxe edition exacerbates the issue of hazard cards sending you half way across the country because it could take a lot longer to get back to where you need to be, which feels like a chore Also disappointingly, for the deluxe edition, the plastic insert and the box is super flimsy and got dented in our copy, which is not quite what you expect from something branding itself as deluxe. So in my opinion the travel sized game is actually better, making the game just the right amount of time, without dragging the game on for too long.
This game, is a game to be shared with friends, I fun romp around the British countryside, as you laugh at each others misfortune, watching with glee as your companion gets sent back to Penzance, again. You jokingly try and block each other in with train signals, and welcom the crazy things that happen in this game. So really, this game is made or broken by the people you have around you. If people actually are trying to win, they will get annoyed and frustrated, meaning that this is probably not the best game to play with someone new. With that proviso out of the way, the Great Game of Britain - Steam Trains, is a chuffing good time.
However, despite these hazard cards, you can't escape the terror of train signals, as if you have to go through one, you can spend the entire game just trying to roll a six to pass the road block, which can ruin your chances of ever winning or having fun. They do offer the opportunity to mess with other players, as you can move them using hazard cards, which can be very exciting, as you try to block your opponent in. If there is a way round the blockage, they can be a good addition to the game, but if you have to go through that one spot which is blocked it gets dull.One dilemma you must face though, if you want the game, is that there are two different versions of the game a larger 'deluxe' edition which has more spaces on the map and bigger pieces, or the smaller travel edition with less spaces but smaller fiddly pieces that are hard to manoeuvre. The extra spaces on the deluxe edition exacerbates the issue of hazard cards sending you half way across the country because it could take a lot longer to get back to where you need to be, which feels like a chore Also disappointingly, for the deluxe edition, the plastic insert and the box is super flimsy and got dented in our copy, which is not quite what you expect from something branding itself as deluxe. So in my opinion the travel sized game is actually better, making the game just the right amount of time, without dragging the game on for too long.
This game, is a game to be shared with friends, I fun romp around the British countryside, as you laugh at each others misfortune, watching with glee as your companion gets sent back to Penzance, again. You jokingly try and block each other in with train signals, and welcom the crazy things that happen in this game. So really, this game is made or broken by the people you have around you. If people actually are trying to win, they will get annoyed and frustrated, meaning that this is probably not the best game to play with someone new. With that proviso out of the way, the Great Game of Britain - Steam Trains, is a chuffing good time.
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