Well, the two Command and Colors sets felt unloved as RR Tycoon claimed the table for game night. Ya'll know I loves me some Age of Steam, so no tears here.
Eagle streamlined the game nicely. It took us around 2 1/2 hours with rules, which isn't much. I like several of the rules changes, in particular each turn has three actions instead of one build action and two deliveries -- it's more free form. As for the VP/Income track: tastes great, less gamey. Instead of just scoring VPs for each piece of track, you race to form important lines. The game has a fluid ending.
The rule that you most control the first link of each delivery has a huge impact, one I didn't grasp for a few turns. I like it.
The rest of the changes make the game forgiving and random. Instead of auctioning off all player order, you auction off start player. If you don't care you may go second or last. [In Age of Steam, you'll rarely earn second for free]. The modul cards seem unbalanced. I could have earned 6VP for having the most links. But another players card awarded him some VP for "most consecutive links." So we're in a fight. If either of those cards don't show, it's better for the other.
The deck of events isn't so bad, by comparision, since you auction off start player and most of the cards are visible at the start.
Some people will prefer the randomness. I prefer the original, but RR Tycoon still succeeds as a good AoS variant. I'll happily play it again. I just ordered AoS expansion #4; but see no reason to get this (particularly with the horrible board warping issues). Still, a happy game to play. If I had played this first, I think I'd still prefer Age of Steam, but who can say for sure?
Related Posts (on one page):
- Rails of Europe
- Railroad Tycoon Initial Thoughts