Railway Rivals

A board game popularised by Games Workshop in 1985. The game belongs to a popular sub-genre of board games based around railway development. Players build railways and then run trains along them.

The inventor, David Watts, had self-published the game for many years, from at least the early 1970's, before it was released in a boxed set. Trading as 'Rostherne Games', Watts sold individual maps, together with brief instructions and the special dice required. Many maps were available, based on Watts' own encyclopedic knowledge of railway history, and each set in a specific geographical area, such as England, Scotland, Leeds to Liverpool, or India. The maps were made of laminated paper, and the Rostherne Games edition of Railway Rivals was both addictive and very cheap.

The game is in two stages; in the first part players draw tracks on the card using washable finetip pens (allowing the board to be cleaned for reuse). Players have a building allowance each turn; building through difficult terrain costs more moves. Once all cities are joined by railway tracks, the second part of the game starts. Trains are raced along the tracks between the cities; just as in real life, players must pay other players to use elements of their track if they don't have a complete route of their own. The choice of routes raced is random; each city is used one or more times. Money is awarded to the fastest trains, and the player with the most money when all routes have been raced is the winner.

In the 1980s, the game was formally published first by Butehorn and then by Schmidt, both in Germany, and won the Spiel des Jahres in 1984. But it was the mass-market Games Workshop edition that brought it to many people's attention. The GW game board was made of laminated card, with a map of Central England on one side and the Western USA on the other; pens, dice and small plastic trains were also included.

The game has subsequently been republished under its German name, as Dampfross, initially by Laurin and then by Mayfair Games.

The original maps are now out of print. Nevertheless, hundreds of after-market maps have been developed for Railway Rivals, and they can be developed straightforwardly by enthusiasts. It is also interesting to compare the results of games of Railway Rivals with the way that real railways developed in a particular area.

Railway Rivals

External links

See also