Trains: Rising Sun

The better of the two base sets currently available with a better setup of cards and map goals. Additional 2p maps are icing on the cake. I'm just not particularly fond of the artwork or deckbuilders in general anymore.

Route cards from Rising Sun complete the game - I can't imagine ever playing it without them now.

Trains is Dominion meets Ticket to Ride, and somehow the end result is less than the sum of its parts. Though the map adds something I didn't know was missing from deck builders, I hate the setup with the randomizers (I prefer to fine-tune my own startup deck based on the preferences of the players). At least the game itself plays quickly and doesn't overstay its welcome. I've played 2 player, 4 player, and 3 player and all three play counts work smoothly.

I pimped out my copy with some cheap wooden train pieces from Mayday and have printed out a bunch of expansion maps (which I have yet to try).

Deckbuilders just aren't my thing, I guess. Quest for El Dorado is still the only one that really works for me.

[b]Expansions Owned[/b] Trains: Osaka [BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] [b]N/A[/b] [/BGCOLOR] - Base game map, printed on paper to fit in box. Trains: Schweitz [BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] [b]N/A[/b] [/BGCOLOR] - Fan-made map, printed on paper to fit in box. [thing=146629][/thing] [BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] [b]N/A[/b] [/BGCOLOR] - Expansion map pack, printed on paper to fit in box. [thing=164213][/thing] [BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] [b]N/A[/b] [/BGCOLOR] - Expansion map pack, printed on paper to fit in box. [thing=182020][/thing] [BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] [b]N/A[/b] [/BGCOLOR] - Expansion map pack, printed on paper to fit in box.

A great improvement over the original in nearly every aspect - if you were going to pick up one or the other, Rising Sun is the one you should pick up.

Owned

3 plays / 3,4 players

LIKE: Many strategies and card synergies. In this game, having a map is really fun and creates the center of the player interaction. The cards are easy to work with, because they are simple actions without a lot of chaining. There is also not a lot of rules-interpretation which is sometimes accompanied with deck-builders. Plays quickly.

DISLIKE: Some reading of the cards, which is a turn off for me, but having similar cards helps. Card draws can get random. Familiar comparisons to Dominion turned me off. There are attack cards, but we didn't play with them.

OVERALL: I was really impressed. The game plays smooth, I enjoyed how players got in the way of each other, but no serious negative effects. Very good for a deck builder, and I normally avoid most deckbuilders.

Similar games: Dominion

Solid design but didn't offer enough over Dominion to excite me.

Box dented on the side.