Mount Washington joins Jungfraubahn and Bayerische Zugspitzbahn to complete a “trilogy” of snow scenarios. Jungfraubahn remains one of my favourite scenarios I’ve covered in this series and while I don’t think Bayerische Zugspitzbahn did snow quite as well, I liked its experimentation with the surveyor. Mount Washington promises us snow again, alongside some dynamite blasting and surveyor sledding. Can it topple Jungfraubahn? Let’s find out! Track and Snow Snow here works the same as Bayerische Zugspitzbahn. Rather than fill a number of spaces back up to their rubble maximum like Jungfraubahn, Mount Washington instead adds 2 to a number of spaces. This causes a minor slowdown to proceedings which is important given there are only 10 track cards in play...
A huge part of most Snowdonia scenarios is the excavation of rubble. Designed by Sebastian Bleasdale, Neuhauser Bockerlbahn replaces the ironclad act of excavation with that of chopping down trees. Clearly the workforce has finally had enough of the surveyor’s jaunts too because in this scenario they are made into a 4th worker. Grab an axe and let’s get chopping. Wood Though wood replaces rubble in this scenario, the way it works on the board and the way it’s chopped are identical to excavation. There is quite a lot more wood/rubble that gets placed in set-up though owing to the much greater number of “excavation” station spaces. Approximately 25 more wood/rubble on average than Mt Snowdon. This makes for a...
Every scenario we’ve discussed in Snowdonia so far has taken us to a real-world time and place for the construction of a railway of interest. But today, for the first (and potentially only) time, we’re entering the realm of the fantastical. Today we’re talking about the Once and Future Train designed by Blazej Kubacki. In this scenario, King Arthur and the knights of the round table are building the Snowdon Mountain Railway. The biggest change in this scenario is the total replacement of the stock yard with a new method of resource acquisition. Most actions also have an option to spend a steel bar to take a more powerful version of that action. Resource split Instead of a stock yard,...
I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to Japan earlier this month. It’s a country famed for the efficiency and quality of its trains. Let me tell you, it does not disappoint! While it’s not yet time to discuss the Tokyo Metro scenario in Grand Tour, it’s the perfect time to discuss the Japanese scenario from the master set: Mount Hakone. This scenario was designed by Hisashi Hayashi, designer of Yokohama and the Spiel de Jahres winning Bomb Busters. He’s not a stranger to train games either having designed Trains (a personal favourite of mine from uni) and String Railways (beloved by designer Tony Boydell). Let’s see his take on Snowdonia! New resource: lumber Lumber is a...
Today we’re looking at The Siege of Petersburg, the counterpart to Channel Tunnel in our exploration of 2 player scenarios (though this one can also be played with exactly 4 players). The Channel Tunnel had some ambitious ideas that shook the core game up significantly, but ultimately felt like too big a departure to want to play regularly. The Siege of Petersburg is similar in its ambitions. Let’s see how it shapes up. Overview and main changes Like the Channel Tunnel, this scenario changes a lot: There is no weather, work rates are fixed. There are now military generals on the board fighting a war and the winner affects how contracts score Players can manipulate the war using a new...
