Train of Thought Touring Snowdonia - Scenarios Special

Recently this series has been focused on providing strategy tips and game design commentary on Snowdonia’s many scenarios. With Snowdonia Grand Tour and Special Edition now live on Gamefound, we’re getting 11 new scenarios to add to the existing 18. Today I want to dive into the nitty gritty of what a scenario actually is.

Why do we play them? What makes a scenario good? Which scenarios are right for your playgroup? How do these new scenarios shape up against the existing ones? Join me as we answer all those questions and more.

What is a Snowdonia scenario? Why do we play them?

Snowdonia’s scenarios are what gives it its unique DNA amongst Eurogames. Rather than a fixed or mildly varied set-up, Snowdonia is designed to be experienced across multiple scenarios. A scenario features any or all of: Different stations, different contracts, different actions, new resources and altered or added mechanics. Each one offering a new interpretation of the core system and giving players fresh insights into it that they can take with them to other scenarios.

Some would say that these scenarios are all variants of the original Mount Snowdon scenario. They might be played because a player is seeking more complexity, a different game-feel or just some novelty. But I would argue it’s now impossible to play Snowdonia without playing a scenario! To me Snowdonia is its core system. Even on its first outing, Snowdonia had another scenario in the box. This isn’t a base game with a lot of expansion variants, this is a web of different board games all interconnected by the same base mechanics.

Through that lens, I choose the scenario I want to play for a given session based on the entire experience it offers. There a few categories I broadly separate them into.

What are your categories?

1. Purist
Complexity Level: Simple
These scenarios are ones that stick very closely to the base rules. These are good for players learning the game, those wanting to keep it simple or those looking to test their fundamentals.

Examples:
• Mount Snowdon (Special Edition, Deluxe Master Set, Original base game)
• Blaenau Ffestiniog (Deluxe Master Set, Original base game)
• Britannia Bridge (Deluxe Master Set)

2. Expansions
Complexity Level: Intermediate
Like the purist scenarios, these keep the majority of their changes conservative but will have one or two clear standout twists that change things significantly. Perhaps a new resource or a way one of the core actions is used. The majority of Snowdonia scenarios fit here.

Examples:
• Stockton & Darlington (Special Edition) - A new resource, shares, allow players to re-use their contracts or score them multiple times. Trains can also be upgraded, becoming stronger than normal but at the risk they explode.
• Demerara-Berbice (Grand Tour) - Trains are available immediately and the event track is mostly empty, giving players lots of freedom.
• Jungfraubahn(Deluxe Master Set) - The scenario has far more rubble than usual. Dynamite allows players to make much bigger excavations.

3. Reimaginings
Complexity level: Intermediate
These scenarios are still very recognisably Snowdonia but in addition to the sort of twist you’d see in an expansion scenario, will change something fundamental about the way players play the game.

Examples:
• Qinghai Tibet (Grand Tour, Deluxe Master Set) - All players must manage their supply of oxygen each round to decide what strength workers perform their actions at.
• Tokyo Metro (Grand Tour) - There are five intersecting railway lines rather than one, greatly increasing the options players have and the game states that can develop.
• Darjeeling Himalayan (Grand Tour, Alubari) - Players excavate and take control of tea estates. Harvesting tea as a new resource that can then be used to boost the power of actions.

4. Transformations
Complexity level: Complex
These scenarios start to push the boundaries of Snowdonia’s design space. They still use the same core worker placement loop. Many of the core concepts around resource management and points scoring still apply… but here you will see big changes to most actions, primary activities and game end conditions.

• La Belle Epoque (Grand Tour) - Players are no longer building a railway and must solve a murder mystery via a deduction game.
• Cleobury Mortimer (Grand Tour) - The railway becomes just one small part of the game as players also dynamite hills, herd sheep, earn favour with the railway company and collect tickets for a completely new contract deck.

Interesting! Do these categories tell us anything else?

I think the categories are useful when analysing the scenarios in the game over time. In general, scenarios trend higher up that scale the further into the game’s lifespan you go. In fact, before Grand Tour, I would argue there weren’t any scenarios in category 4 at all.
I’m of the opinion that this increase in scenario personality is a good thing though. If a scenario’s changes are too conservative, it doesn’t stand out much and its existence becomes difficult to justify over the tightly tuned Mount Snowdon.

What makes a scenario good?

Great question! Good is obviously subjective, but when I’m rating a scenario I’m usually assessing it on the following criteria:

• Interest level in decisions - How interesting are the choices I’m being offered by the specific quirks of this scenario?
• Novelty - Does the scenario reveal something new about the core system to me? Does it recontextualise anything I already know about it? Is the novelty on offer superficial or meaningful?
• Identity - Does the scenario have a clear niche vs other scenarios? How well does it fill that niche?
• Theme/Immersion - Do the mechanics of the scenario evoke something of the location or the railway in question? Do I feel transported?
• Elegance - How cleanly does the scenario manage to provide all of the above? How good is the quality of experience offered vs the amount of rules or admin to manage?
• Replayability - How compelling is the scenario to return to? Is it well balanced with a variety of possible strategies?

The more of these criteria a scenario fulfils, generally the more favourably it is perceived. With significant deficiencies causing lopsidedness. For example a scenario high in novelty but low in replayability can feel gimmicky. A scenario high in interest but low on elegance might be deemed clunky. A scenario high on elegance but low on Identity could be written off as bland.

How does Grand Tour stack-up against these criteria?

I’m biased, but I would say they stack up very favourably. The scenarios in Grand Tour are a significant evolution of the game compared to those in Master Set. They're the culmination of 13 years of scenario design. This is the best version of Snowdonia out there.

How does it compare to Deluxe Master Set (DMS)?

Grand Tour and the DMS have slightly different ethos’. The DMS was focused on completionism. Offering everything ever made for Snowdonia. Special Edition and Grand Tour instead focus on quality over comprehensiveness. We set a high bar for scenario quality and anything that didn't pass that bar didn't make it in.

Grand Tour offers certain experiences that the DMS simply can't. The new boards open up design space enabling more complete and bespoke scenario treatments. The Tokyo Metro's five lines, La Belle Epoque's murder mystery or the Liverpool Overhead Railway’s horse race just couldn't be done practically with cards.

More generally, many unique scenario features feel less like one time curios on the track and more like considered mechanics that permeate the way each scenario is played (though those signature Snowdonia charms remain). The surveyor is also worth mentioning here, this is by far and away the most interesting they've ever been. Graduating from a place to spend spare actions to a fully fleshed out part of the game system.

So it's all out with the old and in with the new? I quite like the Master Set!

So you should! That’s why we took some of the Master Set’s finest scenarios and ported into Grand Tour. Trans-Australia and Qinghai Tibet represent the best that the existing library of Snowonia scenarios has to offer. Both of them are included in Grand Tour and even slightly improved. The excellent spin-off game Alubari is in Grand Tour too as the Darjeeling and Himalayan.

Several other great scenarios in the DMS such as Daffodil Line, have been used as the base for a more thoroughly developed Grand Tour scenario that can explore those concepts in greater detail.

To demonstrate, the Daffodil Line includes track where players need to add rubble rather than remove it and a new points-scoring resource, daffodils. The Florida overseas railway in Grand Tour offers the same 2 mechanics but fleshes them out. There are more interesting ways to get rubble and more interesting ways to use the scenario specific resource, rum. It then goes two steps further by adding a set of variable G actions that accumulate as the game goes on and unique trains.

Wow, this sounds really cool, how can I play them?

In early 2026, we will be opening late pledges for our Gamefound campaign! If you would like to be notifiedwhen this happens, sign up to our newsletter “The Mountain Dispatch” here.

I’ve also been frustrated with my Deluxe Master Set’s errors. Is there any way I can help fix them?

Yes! We’re making the Final Fix Pack, a product designed to fix all the prominent errors in the Master set. We want to work with the community to make that happen and are currently recruiting assistants from the community so we can work together to catch all the mistakes.

Sign up here and we’ll be in touch soon.

Sign me up! I never realised there was so much to scenarios.

Yup, and there's so much more that could be said. They're the lenses through which the beauty of Snowdonia really gets to shine. I’m so excited for players to get their hands on all the awesome new scenarios in Special Edition and Grand Tour. What are your favourite scenarios from the Deluxe Master Set? Which scenarios are you most looking forward to? Let me know!

Jaya Baldwin