Buy Transamerica

All aboard that's coming aboard! Choose your engine and start building your very own railroad network across America. As you lay down your tracks, you must strategically decide how you are going to connect five undisclosed cities before anyone else. Tunnels and bridges require extra tracks, but connecting to someone else's hub will afford you a much broader playing field. Be careful, though. Whoever you connect to can take advantage of your network, too! From award-winning designer, Franz-Benno ...

• Railroad theme
• Classic Eurogame
• For 2-6 players
• Takes about 30 minutes
• Includes one game board, 85 tracks, 35 city cards, 6 start markers, 6 locomotives, one starting player card and rules

This Board Games give to us some advantages, like this :
1. A great little rail game
Transamerica distills the essence of a rail game. Players add tracks to a shared railroad network, competing to connect their 5 cities before anyone else does. The simple rules take less than 5 minutes to learn. The game plays quickly, too, finishing in around 30 minutes. Players with more time will be happy to play a few rematches.

The game plays well at different levels. Younger or inexperienced players can enjoy it as a fun game that teaches a bit about U.S. geography, while expert strategists will find a reasonable amount of depth and replayability relative to the simple mechanics.

A rare plus of this game is that it scales well from 2 to 6 players. It's balanced and lively with as few as 2, and it doesn't bog down with a full 6.

2. Medford-Helena-St. Louis-Houston-Jacksonville
Transamerica is surely a fabulous game. For as simple and easy to explain as it is, it provides a ton of entertainment. The idea is that you get 5 cities to connect in the USA-- one in each region: East, South, Midwest, Heartland, and West coast. The first person to connect all five of her cities wins the round, and other players lose points equal to the number of tracks needed to complete their network. You may employ others' rails once connected, so the trick is to anticipate where others are going to build and let them lay the tracks closer to your out of the way cities. Knowing when and where to connect is what separates good from great players here, along with a healthy dose of luck since some cities are painfully out of the way (Boston!). The game is great with 4+ but is acceptable with 3 and unique yet not as exciting as a 2-player feud. All in all, no hesitations in picking up this gem.

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Better than settlers?
Is it better than settlers? Ehe. If I wrote this review 2 months ago, I would have sworn this was a great game. Light, fast paced, high player interaction, explained in 2 minutes, played in 20 minutes. However, after two months of play I have seen some glaring flaws. The luck element is just too high. I have played a game where the lucky winner went out in the first round - a five minute game with no strategy. I have then played a game that lasted an hour and a half and bored everyone to tears do only to bad luck in darwing the destinations.

Bottom Line: Is it fun? yes. Is it worth buying for a couple of months. Sure. Is it for kids? As long as they can read.
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