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, the first player takes all the resources that would usually be drawn from the bag in a round and splits them into a number of piles equal to the number of players. Then, in turn order, each player chooses a pile with the first player taking the final unpicked pile.
This is a radical shift to the game. Players will now get resources every round for free without spending actions. But they are also pretty strictly capped on the number of them they can get each round and have less control than usual over which ones they get. Because the first player gets the last remaining pile, they will generally be incentivised towards egalitarianism with their split though will likely be the one to suffer the most from the shortfall causef when events are drawn. As the game progresses, a clever first player may be able to create more favourable splits based on what other players’ current goals are.
Action changes
Most of the actions in this scenario do the same as they usually do with a small addition. Only the A and C actions are more radically changed. Rather than cover these in alphabetical order, I want to touch on them in order of significance.
C - Lady of the lake
The lady here still offers the option to convert resources (at a more generous rate owing to the slower max resource income) but now also allows you to just take 1 steel bar for free.
That bottom option sounds incredible, but The Lady of the Lake comes with an additional limitation: you cannot take the C action at all while you have steel.
This means if you take the free steel, you can’t lay more than 1 track nor build any 2 steel stations. It’s still strong though as it is the only way to gain more materials beyond what you get in the split each round.
A - The Round Table
There is only one space here now. It gives you the first player marker and the new Excalibur card. Excalibur effectively gives you access to extra worker placement spots above the B through F actions which will resolve before the other workers there.
First player is a strange proposition in this scenario. Firstly, you can’t gain any resources when you take it, making it relatively more costly than normal. Then, while splitting the resources offers control, choosing last from the selection will usually mean you’re not getting the best cubes. Excalibur is good though; the loss of all but one of the A action spaces means the other action spaces run tight.
F - Merlin
Once per round, instead of taking a contract from the site office, you can instead choose from the top 2 contracts of the deck, placing the other on the top of bottom of the deck. This isn’t a massive change, but offers players extra choices if they don’t like the 3 available and gives them a minor ability to interfere with others by putting a contract they may want to the bottom of the deck.
B - Jousting
You can spend a steel bar to increase your work rate to 6. This is probably not an amazing trade unless the weather is really bad, you’re pairing it with a double excavation contract or it’s getting you several station excavation VP spaces.
E - Brocéliande
You may take 2 build actions here at the cost of locking one of your workers under this card. Next time you use your train to get a worker from the pub, you get this one back instead. Effectively, you’re borrowing a worker from the next round to use a build action now.
Obviously if you don’t have a train, this is a terrible move as you can’t retrieve the worker. If you do have a train, it can be a reasonable way to snag multiple build spaces if you have the resources and can see other players might take the more valuable spaces. Great play on the final turn.
D - The Questing Beast
You can spend a steel bar to increase the lay track rate to 3… in theory. The fundamental problem here is that this maneuver will cost 4 steel once you’ve also paid for the track… but the Lady of the Lake won’t let you have more than 3 steel till you’ve spent it all.
The only way to exceed 3 steel bars and actually use this option are 2 contract cards or placing both your workers on C in the same round in a 4 or 5 player game while you have no steel… it’s niche.
G - The Green Chapel (The Surveyor)
You can spend a steel bar and permanently retire a worker to move your surveyor 3 times in one action.
The surveyor here is exactly the same as base Mt Snowdon which isn’t very strong. So the special triple action here should probably only be taken on the last or 2nd last round if it’s going to make a 10+ VP difference. If you have a contract that scores based on the surveyor’s position, this gets more appealing.
Stations
They’re exactly the same as Mt Snowon! So any advice from there applies here too. Spaces costing exactly 1 steel bar appeal a little more than usual thanks to the Lady of the Lake’s freebie option. Choose the most points efficient options when spending your stone.
Contracts
Once and Future Train uses the core 30 contracts. Some of their power levels have shifted though because of the scenario rules and actions.
Contracts 7, 20 and 23 have gotten weaker owing to the fact their usually powerful special abilities don’t do anything here. There’s no stockyard for them to get their resources from!
Conversely, some have gotten stronger, all of these contracts give you additional resources which are otherwise very hard to come by!
The changes to the C action also make 12 and 24 more powerful. They’re the only way to have more than 3 steel bars in your personal supply!
Jaya’s design thoughts
I think there’s genuinely a debate to be had here about whether this actually qualifies as a scenario or whether it should have been a module/variant akin to the Goats.
Going to a new railway with different station options is a pretty major part of the scenario experience which this lacks.
This scenario has some interesting ideas, the “I split, you choose” base of the scenario combined with the tighter action spaces and resource economy creates a meaningfully different game pace… but being capped to 3 resources per round can feel quite frustrating at times. I also think some tactical nuance is lost by the removal of the Stock Yard.
There’s unfortunately some snags in this design that are a bit *too* rough around the edges for me. The way the D action demands 4 steel for its special effect but the C action limits you to 3. The way the A contracts just don’t do anything… it speaks to me of a design that needed a bit more time to cook.
I don’t usually talk about theme that much, but I want to address it here. The theming of a game can sometimes be easy to undervalue. It's one of those things where if it’s working you don’t particularly notice it. This scenario highlights how good a job Snowdonia usually does of its theming by confusing a lot of core concepts.
From my research, the lakes surrounding Mt Snowdon all lay claim to potentially having Excalibur lying at the bottom of them. So I see how the scenario concept came about. Unfortunately though, the flavour text does nothing to explain why or how you’re building this railway. Some retheming makes sense - the lady in the lake offering you a steel bar for free is a cute touch. But a lot of it doesn’t. Why does the Questing Beast enable us to lay track? Why does Jousting excavate rubble? What’s the motivation or method the knights are using to build a rack and pinion railway in the 5th or 6th century? The fantastical setting doesn’t offer the same thematic underpinning as the historical one and a lot is lost in the process.
I think this scenario has some space if you want a relatively simple swap of actions to get a different lens on Mount Snowdon and the core contracts, or for those who were looking for a fantasy theme.
What do you think of this scenario? As always, I'd love to know.
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