Age of Steam Expansion #4: France and Italy

reviewed on my blog.

I've only played Italy.

I have only played Italy, it was ok, but nothing special. Base map and Scandinavia at least are better.

Italy is a knife-fight but France is somewhat more gentle (though with larger numbers of players it is not so friendly).

Italy is a brutal map with a lot of fun. The corruption goods make play a bit more strategic, and controlling certain hexes can be crucial to having any viability at all. Definitely one of the more interesting maps I've played, though definitely not for the new player; they would be crushed.

France is interesting too; I don't think it's nearly as forgiving or as easy as people make it out to be. There are a lot of opportunities to cut Paris off from the rest of the map with stop urbanizations; urbanization becomes a defensive play (both for yourself, and as a way to stave 5+-link good shipments by your competitors), which is sort of fascinating.