Today we’re looking at the Jungfraubahn, another of the earlier scenarios released very shortly after the Daffodil line we talked about a few months ago. This closeness in release is telling, I think, as both have a similar feel in terms of complexity level and feel like good “first forays” into scenarios. Daffodil achieved this by adding a new resource and playing with the way excavation worked; Jungfraubahn does exactly the same. Impressively though, the gamefeel it achieves is very different. Let’s explore further.
Changes – dynamite
Jungfraubahn adds dynamite, and as the title might imply, this resource has an explosive impact on the game. When excavating, players can spend dynamite alongside a single point of excavation to take all the rubble on a space (instead of just one rubble cube). That already matches the strength of some of the best contract cards in the game, but that’s not all. It can destroy this scenario’s unique track cards, earning big points in the process.
Dynamite is obtained at the works. This C action has an additional option to forgo one conversion to gain one dynamite. It is rare that anything from the C action comes for free, and players can use this to easily get additional value out of usually inefficient one or two steel bar trades.
Changes – track
When the game starts there are only six, scenario-specific, track cards in play. They have no rubble on them and cannot be excavated – instead they must be detonated with dynamite. When detonated, the card flips and places one to three track cards onto the board that are immediately populated with rubble and function as normal. The detonating player however gets to keep the special track card worth a hefty seven or eight points. Considering the relatively low cost, everyone will be jostling for this opportunity.
This also means that players don’t have exact knowledge of track length and rubble quantities in advance. Some stations mightbe unexpectedly closer or further away than first thought.
Changes – stations
The big change here is the quantity of rubble spaces on these stations being well above average. The amount of rubble on them and the number of points they offer are also much higher than usual. This yet further increases the appeal of dynamite and will heavily reward players that can cannily time their excavations to exploit this.
This also slightly reduces the number of available station spaces for building, de-emphasizing the value of such strategies. That said, the points exchanges on offer are all favourable and there are more “high cost for high reward” spaces than usual – seven stone for 16 points is particularly abnormal.
Changes – snow
This new weather type replaces fog. When snow occurs, rubble is placed back onto the board on a number of spaces equal to the current excavation work rate. It cannot refill any spaces that a player has placed a player marker on, so laid track and earned station spaces are unaffected. This is like an inverted version of the excavation event and it has many implications.
Firstly, it has a disruptive effect. It can refill track cards a player may have been intending to lay while simultaneously blocking another player from building where they wanted to as the path there is now blocked again. It also pushes back the game end timer.
Secondly, it can re-open opportunities. Any rubble spaces on stations that the game has excavated via events can be refilled via snow. This makes it possible for players to empty and score them again in a way that is usually impossible. Considering just how many of this scenario’s points are tied up in excavation spaces, this is a big deal.
Players can see snow coming – it can be a thorn in their side or potentially a huge scoring opportunity. But they will need to prepare a turn or so ahead to truly capitalise on it.
Contracts
Most scenarios contain only a few new contracts, but this scenario boasts an entirely unique 30 card contract deck. That said, many of the new cards tread familiar ground, so I’ll just focus on broad trends and a few highlights.
There are more rubble contracts than usual and fewer rail contracts. The largest amount of track that a rail contract asks of you to lay here is only two, so a heavy track building strategy will be harder to pay off than usual. The few building contracts on offer also score more than usual but demand far more stations to be built and specify that excavation spaces do not count toward the total.
Two cards of interest are those that score you points for collected dynamite-track cards. These do something unusual for Snowdonia in that they provide a lot of points for something that was already inherently very rewarding. If you’re able to grab and fulfil them, you’ll be in a strong position.
Cards 4, 8, 9 and 18 are all little powerhouses to look out for as well. Snow is a sufficiently powerful force that being able to control the weather (with cards 4 and 18) goes significantly up in value. Card 8’s free surveyor move is worth five points just for taking it, while card 9 is a very rare case in which the bottom half (dynamite) directly contributes to scoring the top half (rubble).
Trains
This scenario features the following setup text: “Remove the train No. 1 L.A.D.A.S. from the game; it will not be used in this scenario”. As a shameless shill of that particular train, my day is ruined and my disappointment is immeasurable.
We get two trains in this scenario. The first is No. 8 Snowplow, or as I like to call it, L.A.D.A.S. at home. For those that don’t remember the L.A.D.A.S., it is a base game train offering +2 excavation rate. The Snowplow here costs the same but only has half the bonus to excavation and comes with a dynamite instead of a coal. I think that this is definitely weaker – potentially too weak, but I see why No. 8 replaces No. 1 here. As established, excavation is more pivotal than ever and any kind of edge you gain in it over the other players could lead to massive gains. The +2 is likely just too powerful to include here.
We also get the No. 9 Foundry Loco which allows a player to use the C action five times rather than the usual three. I’m unsure how good this really is here, since most players will want to be gaining powerful dynamite every time they visit the works and this train incentivises you to visit less often.
I think perhaps they have more potential than meets the eye but from my limited plays I’ve yet to see it.
Surveyor
The surveyor here has only one small variation: the starting station has a value of negative 15 and a finishing total of eight. This is a nice flourish to tell the story of an adverse snow covered mountain but gameplay-wise, I don’t think this affects much. Since all players’ surveyors start on -15, you could choose to see the start as 0 and the end as 23.
That said, with only six stations to traverse, the surveyor is far more efficient than usual here. The first move gets you five points which, considering it doesn’t cost resources, is a good deal. Bear it in mind as an option if other areas are getting competitive.
Jaya’s design thoughts
This might be my favourite “simpler” scenario so far. I find the push and pull up and down the mountain against the snow, the way scoring opportunities are taken away and returned sporadically and using dynamite to smash one’s way to victory thematic and exciting.
Like the Daffodil line, this scenario is a great teacher of excavation fundamentals but I think achieves the goal in a way that just has a higher fun factor than Daffodil. Where Daffodil makes the challenges more nuanced, Jungfraubahn just turns the volume up on everything. Blowing stuff up with dynamite is super fun and powerful. Snow adds more opportunities and rubble to the board rather than asking that you spend it to fill in the canals. If there are two things that human beings love, they’re blowing stuff up and amassing large piles of stuff, and this scenario very much lets you do both.
The Snowplow vs the L.A.D.A.S. is a fantastic example of the often thorny game balance issue of +1 being too weak an effect and +2 being too strong, making you wish that +1.5 was somehow an option.
The surveyor in this early stage of the game still hasn’t quite found its stride, though it at least offers a solid return on investment.
I think this scenario will really reward repeat plays as well, since an entirely new contract deck sculpts a very different game-shape that can take time to learn and understand. It’s very exciting to step away from a scenario wanting to come back both for greater mastery and raw fun factor.
What do you think of this scenario? Do you prefer it to the Daffodil line? Have you found great success with the Snowplow or the Foundry Loco?
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