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 longer game. It also happens to be the reason we’re adding 21 more rubble cubes in our Final Fix Pack for the deluxe Master set!
The main difference between wood and rubble are in how they’re spent, which is all tied to the new C action.
New C action and lumber mill
The C action offers two new options. The first is to convert 2 wood into a coal, the 2nd is to move 5 wood from your personal supply onto your Lumber Mill card.
The first action is superior to the usual "2 rubble for a stone" as coal is slightly harder to get hold of, but it’s still not one to rush for if you can get your coal from the stock yard. It’s also made weaker thanks to trains in this scenario being able to gain workers without coal.
This 2nd option is critical as many buildings and contracts can only be scored if the wood has been placed into the Lumber mill first. Expect the C action to be more competitive that normal as there are some really good scoring opportunities using wood and most players will be collecting it.
This naturally makes the C action more consistently contested. In lower player count games, the first player marker will be important.
Stations
The main standout features here are the many “excavation” station spaces and the spaces that cost wood to build (The axe spaces are identical to the usual shovel spaces on stations). Clearing rubble from a station to score VP, then turning that wood into lumber to build stations worth even more VP is fantastically profitable. Moreso than usual you will need to keep an eye on the timing of your B actions to capitalise on this as some of the spaces are worth a lot more than others.
This is otherwise a fairly standard distribution of stations. There’s less to build with stone so it’s less valuable but there are some solid spaces on offer that are worth snagging. Especially since the usual rubble contracts are harder to score. The steel spaces are slightly below average - you’re better off pursuing track and track-contracts if able.
I’ll mention here that all players are given a free steel bar during setup. I advise refraining from using this freebie on building - it’s worth grabbing at least one train early in this scenario.
2nd train and 4th worker
Players can build trains from the start of this scenario. There’s 10 trains in the engine shed and when the “Engine shed opens” event triggers, players are allowed to own a 2nd train. If players own 2 trains, they can hire 2 extra workers, one with each train.
Four workers sounds incredible and it is undeniably powerful… but it can be costly. The 1 free steel bar at setup helps and the longer game means you’ll get more value from them. In train maintenance however, you still have to pay for both of them and getting 2 extra workers means paying double the coal (unless using one of the potent scenario specific trains).
The other complication is that there aren’t really any more worker spaces than normal, so if lots of players are getting 4th workers there’s a high chance many of those are taking quite inefficient actions.
Do not blindly buy 2 trains, carefully assess the situation first.
New G action
The new G action allows you to get 2 iron ore or have 2 of your workers share a space to get a steel bar instead. It’s the equivalent to gaining 3 iron ore from the stock yard and then taking a single conversion at the C action. That’s generally not the most efficient play - perfectly fine for the odd spare worker, but if you notice you’re taking this often with 3rd and 4th workers, it’s a sign your extra train might not have been the right call.
Trains
With 10 trains in the engine shed and an allowance to own 2, it is possible to create more potent combinations of effects through careful train selection. All of Neuhauser Bockerlbahn’s trains allow you to gain an extra worker from the pub by transferring an amount of wood to your lumber mill (in addition to the usual coal option). This is fantastic as you wanted to move that wood into the lumber mill anyway, turning gaining an extra worker into pure upside.
No.24a Bockerlbahn Loco
This train offers you that extra worker for only 2 lumber which is very compelling. Take one or two potentially profitable B actions gaining wood then turn that into workers and valuable lumber for several turns to come.
No.24b Bockerlbahn Loco
The same ability as No.24a but now it costs 3 lumber, still very good. The F bonus ability feels like it’s too expensive though. You burn a coal and discard one of your existing contracts to take one of the leftover contracts in the site office after other players have chosen. I don’t see why you would use this instead of just spending a coal to get a 3rd worker, place them on the F action yourself and getting a higher priority contract pick, without having to discard one of your existing ones. This train feels like a trap - I’m really not sure why this costs 2 steel.
No.24c Bockerlbahn Loco
Here it costs 4 lumber to gain your extra worker, less reliably usable but still great. This is made a little easier however thanks to the +1 wood chopping rate. This bonus is fantastic given how many station spaces there are to profit off and the general focus on lumber. I think this is the best use of your first steel bar.
No.24d Bockerlbahn Loco
3 lumber for a worker, gives you 5VP. It’s not exciting but the “lumber for worker” ability is so strong it doesn’t matter. This will probably be picked every game by someone but never get picked first.
Removed Contracts
Notably - this scenario doen’t add any contracts but instead removes 5. 3 of these get replaced in near every Snowdonia scenario anyway, but 11 and 17 seem to have been removed on thematic grounds so that players can’t make stone out of wood.
The choice makes sense but It is a slight shame that both of these are excavation contracts since that is this scenario’s primary focus and one of the key reasons to use your lumber mill.
Of the 5 cards removed, none of them have fog on the back, so you can expect slightly foggier games than average which, again, will slightly lengthen the number of rounds.
Also worth noting all the excavation contracts require time spent processing wood into the lumber mill - making them ever so slightly more work to score than usual.
Jaya’s design thoughts
I have to briefly address the components used in the Deluxe Master Set for this scenario. 17 new track cards, 2 new B action cards and a wooden axe marker were added… purely to switch shovel icons to axes. These were not present in the original printing (which was released alongside pet favourite of mine - The Necropolis railway) because they did not need to be. This indulgence irks me. Especially when the contracts still all have shovels on them anyway meaning these 20 redundant components don’t even finish their needless job of shovel erasure.
That aside, Neuhauser Bockerlbahn is a decent introductory scenario, maybe even to play before Mount Snowdon - it’s very similar but offers players more time, more trains and more workers to explore the core systems and make mistakes. Though it’s simple, the steady work of processing more wood through your lumber mill is satisfying too. Even if I’m not sure how often it’s strategically correct, using 4 workers feels really cool - almost like cheating, in a good way.
The starting steel bar I feel torn over. On one level, I like that it opens up the early game action selection a bit more by enabling turn 1 train purchases. However, it makes being first player on turn 1 significantly more advantageous which might feel a bit unfair given that’s decided randomly.
What do you think of this scenario? As always, I'd love to know.
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