Train of Thought: Touring Snowdonia - Deep dive into Trans-Australian Railway

Last time, we looked at the Jungfraubahn, an explosive climb up a mountain in the freezing cold full of exciting opportunities in the Swiss Alps. Today, we are looking at a scenario that’s almost entirely the opposite: A mostly flat railway through the brutally hot Australian outback that will consistently challenge you. Welcome to the Trans-Australian railway. Let’s explore together.

Changes - Weather + Water

The first big change is the weather. All 8 of the fog contract cards here are replaced with extreme weather. Extreme weather repeats whatever the current weather type is and then triggers either a drought (if the weather is sun) or a flood (if the weather is rain). Both of these interact with the new scenario resource, water.

Drought will require you to pay water if you want to participate in excavation and track laying. Floods instead place water tokens onto stations, moving up along the track. If that water isn’t removed using excavate actions, the entire station is worth 0 points at the end of the game.

Water is a new resource, obtained primarily via the stockyard. It can be taken in place of a cube, max once per turn like coal. However, water doesn’t go into the bag and is instead always available. You can’t take water and coal in the same action. Water is used to pay for access to digging and excavating during droughts, to activate the special effects of scenario specific trains and to pay for actions in the Nullarboor Plains (A stretch of track and stations encountered in the latter half of the scenario).

These changes can increase the turbulence of Snowdonia’s weather substantially. No fog means the work rate tracks will change every turn and the chances of a lopsided game dominated by a single weather type are increased. Drought at first seems a more lenient effect than fog, but can actually be more punishing; because it is triggered by sun, it spikes work rates meaning if your opponents have the water to work there but you don’t, you could really miss out. Flooding in the early game is less of an issue, but can become terrifying in the late game where it threatens to rob you of points you’ve already invested precious actions and resources into you. These additions stretch your resources and your actions,  forcing players to choose between water and the ever-powerful coal, between unflooding stations, or excavating rubble.

Nullarboor Plains

As if the strain there wasn’t enough, the Nullarboor plains (defined as the track cards either side of Cook) demand even more water from players, asking for 1 for every B,D or G action performed there. That said, there are potentially big rewards here, the 2x multiplier to track points speaking for itself. 

Stations

The stations in Trans-Australia are for the most part fairly normal, though the colours at the top are indicative of different rail gauge types which certain contract cards will score for. The track here is ever so slightly longer than usual also, using 14 track for 2 players and 15 at all other counts.

As for the rest: Some free water in Melbourne is nice. And given we can value one water at about 1 coal, the water spaces in Cook and Kalgoorlie are appealing too. The huge points totals on the excavation spaces in Perth can be pivotal; even if your game plan has mostly led you elsewhere, you need to keep an eye on these once they’re close: A well deployed double excavation contract here could net someone 21 points and 9 rubble for contracts!

Contracts

The contracts here don’t bring any particularly new effects, but add scoring for cards based on gauge. To score a particular kind of gauge, a player must have markers on stations or track matching that gauge type. If the crossed out shovel symbol is present, then those markers cannot come from station excavation spaces. 

These sit in an unusual place where how valuable they are heavily depends on where the markers to score them are coming from. For example, if all 5 of your standard gauge markers to score 14 points are coming from track, that’s a terrible deal vs the 40 you could usually score for that. If, however, they're coming from stations, then the deal looks significantly sweeter. 

Interestingly, moreso than is usual for contracts, these gauge cards’ appeal varies heavily with player count. For example take contract 7 above, there are only 8 narrow gauge spaces in the game at the end of the railway. The odds of you getting 5 of those to yourself in a 5 player game seems like a pipe dream, but in 2 player, pretty doable!

Trains

The trains here have relatively similar effects to those in the base game but with the twist that none of them can actually use their bonus abilities in the top right without water. I think on the whole this makes all of them a slightly less valuable proposition than usual because water and coal are at odds with each other in this scenario, often demanding you choose between the 2. So, for the most part, the effects here are coming at the cost of hiring your 3rd worker for another turn. 

That said, a well timed +2 excavation from the Overland, double build with XPT or extra push of the Surveyor via the Indian Pacific can make a big difference if timed correctly. So if you do find yourself with a lot of water, perhaps because the extreme weather has filled your game with more floods than droughts, then these are still important to consider.

Surveyor

The Surveyor here is sadly back to being a little bit of a hard sell without support from contracts or other effects. 7 actions for 22 points is already middling, but once you add in the extra water costs required to navigate the Nullaboor plains, it becomes hard to justify.

Jaya’s design thoughts

This scenario definitely ups the adversity for players a fair bit, the longer track, the droughts, the Nullarboor Plains and the weaker trains all demanding you put in more effort than usual to earn rewards while floods then threaten to take the hard earned prizes away. In general, most players prefer things that make them feel strong in games to those that make them feel weak, but the toughness here feels appropriate for the hostile environment of the Australian Outback.

It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it provides another distinct play-feel to other scenarios and that’s always a good thing in my book. Plus, as a more experienced player, it’s fun to have to encounter some tough choices as the resources dwindle and the weather changes wildly.

Speaking of which, it’s also really fun to see the weather being played with in more depth here. It’s such a simple but easy way to evoke a sense of location and is one of the less often changed parts of the game. Floods and Droughts can create urgent senses of crisis which is exciting.

How do you feel about this scenario? Do you like the challenge? Or do you prefer some of the more easygoing scenarios? 

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