The Deluxe Master Set included all previously existing Snowdonia scenarios. That means this product was the first time the Bayerische Zugspitzbahn was officially printed in English. Although it was available online as a free PNP, originally it was only printed in German. This is in part because the origin of this scenario is a little unique. I asked designer Tony Boydell for comment:

“It was designed as a massive thank you to Lookout Games. Lookout changed my life as a designer and opened up so many avenues for me and Surprised Stare Games - adapting a German mountain railway just for them seemed the least I could do to say thanks!”

Even in the cold snowy setting of Zugspitze, it’s hard not to have your heart warmed by that sentiment. Let’s see how it plays!

Overview and main changes

This scenario’s crowning feature is imposing spatial limitations on excavation, track laying and building based on to surveyor's location instead of the usual linear progression.

There is a new weather type: snow, which can push excavation progress back. Though not a billed feature, this scenario also has a great scarcity of options vs most which gives it its own identity.

Track

There are only eight track cards in this scenario regardless of player count; just over half the amount in Mt Snowdon. This may take the title for lowest amount of track in a Snowdonia scenario. This has several implications:

1. Significantly less rubble in the game.

2. Contracts become much harder to score.

3. Shorter game length.

4. Major scarcity at higher player counts. At 2 players, this will feel considerably tighter than normal. At 5? You’ll be lucky to even get 2 track.

Stations

Once again, we have far fewer station spaces than normal. A 5 player game of Mt Snowdon has 37 spaces in stations, this scenario only has 25. 

Grainau and Riffelriss are quite exciting, offering a free contract which you take before the people waiting on the F action. Their value is reduced to account for this (the 4 stone for 4 points on Grainau clearly offers a weak VP ratio as a trade-off).

Schneefernhaus offers larger individual VP sums for large amounts of stone. Given there are only 7 spaces that can be built with stone in the whole scenario, these proportionally hold a  lot of power.

The coal bunkers however are questionable. You spend a coal to gain a worker next round… but you use a worker now to do so. Effectively burning resources to “bank” a worker for next turn. If the work rates are about to jump because of incoming sun, or you have a worker spare and nothing better to do with them, this could be worth it… but for the most part I think these aren’t worth your time.

Surveyor

Unlike in regular Snowdonia, you cannot linearly excavate and build up the mountain side. You are limited to only excavating, laying track and building in or either side of your surveyor’s current station. This is both a limitation and an opportunity.

You could run your surveyor up the track and start the railway in the middle or from the top. But if you wanted to work near the bottom again you would have to spend actions sending your surveyor back down. This is partially mitigated by the surveyor moving up to 2 spaces per action rather than just 1 but still inadvisable.

The cable cars cost a move for each space the Surveyor wants to traverse. Each space on the cable car they enter costs them 2 rubble. Once off, they are placed at Zugspitz Summit. The first player there gets 16 points, second gets 11 and so on.

In total it costs 4 actions and 6 rubble to get to the top for 16 points. Usually that’s not great but this scenario is low scoring by nature. The points decrease for later players also making this more competitive. 6 rubble can be deceptively expensive if it doesn’t snow much.

I’m not really sure why the cable cars have a spatial puzzle of lines on them. In theory surveyors could block each other by filling the slots but the movement here is so flexible it feels this is unlikely to matter.

Snow

Snow in this scenario is gentler than other snow scenarios. It adds 2 rubble to a number of track or rubble spaces that aren’t yet full (equal to current work rate). It cannot lay rubble on player-owned spaces but they still count towards said work rate. It also cannot add rubble that would exceed the initial amount placed. With only 7 cards in the deck for snow and 2 events on the event track, it’s improbable the snow will impact the game that much. Especially as the game goes on and more player markers have been placed.

Trains

The unique train for this scenario is, like with Jungfraubahn’s No.8 Snowplow a weakened L.A.D.A.S. (+2 excavation rate at all times). The BERGLOK here provides +1 excavation by default and only provides +2 in snow. I think this says more about the power level of the L.A.D.A.S. than anything else. Almost every excavation train since is in some way weaker or more situational.

The BERGLOK might be worth it if you can grab it very quickly. There’s a decent amount of excavation station spaces and if there’s frequent snow, then it will reap rewards. But moreso than normal, there’s a chance this one is a little on the weak side. In fact with the game so short and the options so limited, most trains start to look like a questionable investment!

Contract Cards

There aren’t any unique contract cards for this scenario, but it’s worth noting that contracts are generally harder to score across the board. There’s fewer buildings, track and rubble in the game, making any big contracts very unlikely to score.

Jaya’s Design Thoughts

Firstly, I think it’s a wonderful this scenario was designed as an act of gratitude. Having had the privilege of designing for friends myself, there really are few better feelings than putting your craft to good use for someone else. I like that several experiments were taken with here too rather than producing something safe.

The new spatial puzzle around the Surveyor is probably my favourite part of the scenario. It’s cool as it requires forward planning to set up for the next round. I like the timing element of deciding when to ascend the cable car but trade-off your build and track options. The option to excavate in either direction from your surveyor lays the groundwork for some Grand Tour scenarios such as Isle of Wight and Tokyo Metro to expand on that concept. It can also make the game feel more solitary at times, with players each focusing on their own section. And with only 5 stations and G giving you 2 moves, it's not that broad a problem space.

I feel Jungfraubahn manages the attrition of snow better. It more consistently throws rubble onto the track and then adds a bit of a tug-o-war feel by giving you bombastic dynamiting turns to push back with.  

The tight, 8-track, 5-station route creates scarcity… but I feel Necropolis Railway better captured what's *fun* about scarcity. It's quite possible for rounds of Bayerische Zugspitzbahn to see people twiddling their thumbs as they run out of things to do. In higher player count games especially, it can feel like there's not enough on the board to really feel you played a full game.

What do you think of this scenario? Do you like the shorter playtime? Do you find the scarcity thrilling or overly restrictive? Let me know in the comments!

Interested in more Snowdonia? Check out Grand Tour here! Late pledges open next week.