Age of Steam Expansion: Bay Area

Best for three players. Very tight and has the potential to be even tighter and less forgiving than Ireland. This is the only map that I've ever gone bankrupt on. Not the most novel or unusual of maps, the rules and behaviour changes are mostly subtle, but still solidly playable and with a noticeably different feel than other maps.

The following comments apply to the re-working of this map into the Northern California map: Some changes have been made since the above comments. The map is now somewhat looser and more open, enough to make a solid little 4 player map. Nothing terribly shocking or novel. An interesting enjoyable map. Tight, particularly unforgiving in the endgame, and encourages delivering over other's routes to an unusual degree.

The slightly more brutal, older cousin of NorCal.The essential story here is that like the newer board, this is a nasty map for experienced players only. There are really no new twists here: the rules are all basic, and the only real changes are the existence of the bridges, which are as old as Expansion #1, and the way that San Jose works, which effectively allows players to siphon goods out of it slightly more easily than they would be able to otherwise.

Yet, I really like this map, and the reason is simple: it makes the game agonizingly difficult through simple design choices. For instance, there are no natural 3 track builds that create goods shipping opportunities on the first turn, it just isn't possible. So you have to make ships by taking Urb or the Engineer. (This is slightly softer in the newer map, where there is actually a gimme link up near San Fran).

By the second round, San Jose becomes an incredibly important place to be, so you have to choose between bidding and making your own ships in the north, or sitting on your hands, building up San Jose, and then working with whatever comes up there during the growth phase.

The game also beckons you to the LA Port, but goods only come out one at a time, and it can be difficult to use everything effectively. The problem being this: one bad good that isn't shipped can block up everything else. So, dangerous.

I think the only real beef I have is that this is a map that I would only want to play with 3...just like I think NorCal is probably only suitable for 4. With 3 the auction here is still weird though...Urb is clearly in demand throughout the game, as is Engineer. This leaves Loco as a natural 3rd pick through the early game, which is very weird. The auction is very high stakes at times though, as Urb can often be the thing that keeps people from losing money during expenses, so I think it still works despite this strangeness.

The bottom line though, is that this map delivers an enjoyably tough AoS experience. I remember thinking at one point that Ireland was tough to make a buck on, but the Bay easily surpasses that map in early game pain factor, though the auction here is a bit weaker. Still a great map for 3 though.

Quite like this one