Game Preview: Age of Steam: America/Europe

By W. Eric Martin
July 23, 2007

Publisher: Bézier Games
Designer: Ted Alspach
Players: 3-6
Release Date: October 2007

Ted Alspach has already released a baker’s half-dozen Age of Steam expansion maps, with settings ranging from the realistic (San Francisco Bay Area) to the otherworldy (Soul Train). In the latter half of 2007, he’s going to nearly double his output of Age of Steam expansions with three new pairs of expansion maps.

The most traditional of these new expansions is Age of Steam: America/Europe. This expansion, which comes mounted on gameboard similar to the original Age of Steam, is compatible with both Age of Steam second edition (from Warfrog Games) and the forthcoming Mayfair Games’ Age of Steam.

New world and old

Age of Steam: America, for 3-6 players, is set in the 19th century, the golden age of railroading on the North American continent when the U.S. government was throwing money at any company that promised to connect far-flung cities. As such, each player starts the game with a government-subsidized 6-link locomotive that requires no expenses throughout the game.

The drawback for all these government handouts is that there’s a scarcity of goods for you and everyone else to deliver; each city starts with only one good, and each turn has only one round of goods delivery. “A lot more thought goes into which good you’ll deliver, and which goods your opponents will deliver,” says Alspach. “In the midgame of a typical AoS game, there are so many cubes and so much track that players often are figuring out which goods they’ll ship on the fly, with the knowledge that if an ideal ‘maxed’ good is taken by another player, there’s undoubtedly other cubes that are as valuable or possibly one link less. In America, you’ll find that each turn you’ll have narrowed your deliverable cube choices down to a small finite number, and you’ll be working towards ensuring delivery of one of those specific cubes.”

Players who can’t maximize their plans that efficiently can vie for the Locomotive Action, which in AoS:America gives its lucky holder the right to ship two goods on a turn.

From the past to the present, we move to Age of Steam: Europe, which has three to five players running a high-speed and highly efficient rail system in Western Europe. Speedy delivery takes the form of Express Links, which cost twice as much to build, but which net you two income for each good carried over that link. “Each tile still only counts as a single tile build, so a four tile build between two cities is possible (though expensive) on a single turn,” says Alspach. For the endgame scoring, these Express Link tiles still count for only a single VP.

The other switch-up is that goods are added to the board only if someone chooses the Production Action. “When it’s time for Goods Growth, the player with the Production action takes X cubes from the white side of the production chart and X cubes from the black side of the production chart, where X = number of players,” says Alspach. “They can pick from any of the cubes on the production chart (not just from the top rows) that have cities on the map.”

Adds Alspach, “If you’ve grabbed a section of the map just for yourself (like England/Ireland or Spain/Portugal), you’ll need to grab the Production action in the first few turns or your cubes will dry up.”

As mentioned, Age of Steam: America/Europe is one of three expansions that Ted is releasing. The preorder cost for all six maps is $60 plus shipping, unless you plan to pick them up from Ted in Essen in which case there is no shipping charge. Age of Steam: America/Europe should be available for individual order in October; check the link above for details, and check back later this week for previews of the other two expansions!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	One lonely cube per city
	West Virginia gets a new city
	Manifest destiny in cardboard
	So many mountains...
	Double-decker link

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Comments:

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A baker’s half-dozen?  6.5? Posted by Brent Mair on Jul 23, 2007 at 11:04 AM | #

Maybe that’s Eric’s way of referring to the Bay Area map, which had a tiny print run, is out of print, and was replaced by Northern California six months later… Posted by Ted Alspach on Jul 23, 2007 at 02:07 PM | #

Close, Brent, but 6.5 would be a “half baker’s dozen” and not a “baker’s half-dozen.” Ted, I’ve lived in the Bay Area and wouldn’t count your expansion as anything other then a full map. It might be out of print, but it still counts. Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jul 23, 2007 at 02:21 PM | #

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