Railroad Ink - Shut Up & Sit Down Review

Quinn's are you thinking what I'm thinking that we should review railroad Inc no actually I was thinking that we should review railroad Inc based on the 2001 movie training day railroad Inc is a game designed by Roland right about drawing train tracks and roads up to six players can all sit around these four little dice and each round you roll them and everyone has to draw all those results somewhere on their map constructing a sticky web of connections as if you were a cross between a civil servant and spider-man after seven rolls of the dice players taught up their scores getting points for using these twelve exits in as few networks as possible for example in a entirely non game way if I was to draw this and connect these things isolate yours completely it's not how the game work that would get me eight points and if I did it again another hey eight points four three connections that's great I've drawn a nice version of what that looks like we can use this oh yeah you've done it properly well look that's gonna get you eight points for that and eight points for this however if you connected them as one big thing and that will get you 20 points and ideally if you can connect all of these exits up to one perfect network that's a whopping 14 valuev points that's unreal doesn't even bear thinking about also you're gonna get one point for every length of your longest road and every length of your longest railways that's one two three four five six seven eight nine nine points just that finally you're gonna get a point for every tile in the middle that you've used so you've got 3/4 at the moment it's pretty weak winds pretty much give me a break it was not even a really we were just doing the review it's not my best this is the best well no this is not the game not that I finally though you are gonna lose points as well for every end that doesn't match up like in this you've actually brought miraculously because you've made it up you've only got one point loss but for every part that doesn't quite neaten up if you've got a road that goes nowhere a track that just ends you lose a point which is great because it ties in with the fact that human brain doesn't want that anyway you want your little railway world to be as neat and tidy as posits a smooth rule that fits snugly with players as natural impulses hmm now we'll talk later about just how good this puzzle is and about the different expansions you get in the red and blue versions but can I just start by saying we have never reviewed a game that has blissed me out as much as this we were playing in a pub right and I was focusing on my little puzzle drawing tidy lines and the pub started playing this ambient house music and my brain just shut everything else out until my reality was just this game and I was there in the world of trains and I stopped thinking about money troubles of relationship anxiety I'd left all of that stuff behind and I could just take a ride down my longest road which was already a whole six spaces long and I thought to myself I could make this longer yeah I could make this longer and then you know I did I ruined it I ruined it by saying [Music] certain minutes I had achieved networking Nevada I thought I wasn't worthy I are you all right but the DOMA I've been are any of us alright I'll tell you what this game it's alright do you need a lie-down yeah the reason that railroading is such a happy little experience starts with the fact that you're joyfully drawing these fatness lights but the puzzle here is fantastic to long after the dice of below you're still constantly gambling selling off these connections out into this vast tundra of blank unknown never having any idea for sure whether or not your plans of a network will ever come to fruition a few turns in railroad inks teasing nature starts to become more apparent well it's easy to dream big and think I'm gonna make this incredible network it's gonna go on the range mmm Neverland actually tying together these small networks there's a lot trickier than you might think but you get to do it a lot more often than you'd imagine getting the perfect dice and tying up to their penning the perfect answer into a perfect box oh it feels good but then there's the other half of the time where you're getting dice that you just really don't want you have to use at which point the horrendous puzzle of where can that go you do this you vocalize it you sit around the table your friends and you all go ahh because you've just ruined your knee beautiful little so that's a strong foundation but then what elevates rowing towards greatness there's a couple of things the first buff is this beautiful presentation from artist marta tranquille but also players aren't restricted to only drawing the dice that are rolled you see everyone also has access to some one-shot powers and this tiny addition turns railroading from a fun distraction into a real contest so on three of the games and seven rounds you can deploy one of these legendary intersections creations of pure fantasy a road that goes in four directions Madame Matt but what these things do is they enable you to turn a game that's quite slippery and surprising into a creation that's smart and lets you be successful in letting you hook your desperate plans together these intersections really do transform the game despite all the decadent random chance in a game of railroading with these intersections at your disposal suddenly if you lose it always feels like you got outplayed you should have been my own ambitious you never should have spied that second Network railroad ink isn't a big experience but there is a real emotional landscape that you move through in the 15 minutes that it takes to play a game speaking of which Matt there's a meteor coming what I love you only only in the game oh good meteors are one of the sets of expansion dice that come bundled with railroad Inc the red edition lets you optionally play with meteors or volcanoes while the more adil 'ok blue Edition offers rivers and lakes and you can kind of guess how all this stuff works rivers do you have to draw but they can be crossed by a bridge result lakes are entirely optional but can offer fantastic connections between your map works by using docks volcanoes squirt out some lava every turn but you get more points if you choose to draw both lots of lava and meteors crash randomly around your board sometimes destroying your tracks but you get two points for each of your open connections leading into a crater letting you consume the delicious minerals what delicious minerals now these sense of expansion dice are the only difference between of the two editions of railroad ink which brings us to the question of should you get sapphire blue or ruby red pretty sure they just called blue and red should you get blood red or streets of sorrow blue the only thing I should point out at this point though is it doesn't really matter I agree both of these are great all for the different expansions are we fun so honestly you should just go for whichever one is more available or cheaper yeah I think I would add that like the rivers and lakes of blue kind of more soup the game's chilled out vibe but I would say that if you want a counterpoint to the chilled out vibe the volcanoes and meteors are quite exciting it's a spicy boy I think I prefer red I think I'm more of a relaxation on a boat let's go on a lake and also it's got an incredibly delightful color scheme on this yeah it's quite a dolt this one it is children this it yeah can I have can I have both no why don't they it's just I mean it's easy just do it sit there's no mid review turn around here waiting to pull into station railroad link is just great it's pretty it is accessible it's got some depth it's delightful its Moorish it's just a wonderful box and what a wonderful little box with little magnetic flaps just slide in there it's so nice yeah absolutely has to get the shall I sit down recommends badge yeah although I might warn people about the fact that there is no player interaction at all except for like well I mean if you play it by yourself it's the same as playing it with six people the only difference is that you can't at the end put everyone's tabs together and be like eyes kind of almost pretty oh that's nice that's like it's I wouldn't live there no the thing is though we have to mention that because some people that's really a big problem for but for us we didn't mind is one of these examples of the strange wonderful unknowable alchemy of board games and the fact that just because you're all using the same dice and doing different things with those same set of actions it feels enough like you've got a connection yeah you're kind of like you're sharing an experience together yeah and because you're sharing that experience it's kinda like going to the cinema together you know it's like yes you're not talking but you're kind of yeah you're kind of just it's working and you're maybe even afraid of doing it on your own yeah exactly sharing is great I love sharing things you know some people I love to share love yeah you do yeah money I'm one of nature's sharers you know I sometimes I have like a big stir then I'll be like you know what you can have some of this is yours and people don't be like us it's very generous of ya I'm a generous guy you know love and pastor that's kind of my deal yeah anyway I will see you soon see you soon bye thank you and thank you guys i swea see it thank you guys thank you for to choosing to watch our video on YouTube that of course has been a review of railroading Reds which Quinn's got and railroading oh you son-of thank you for watching this youtube video if you've enjoyed this video then you've got there's loads of others literally we've got loaded something on what we're doing with our lives which is reviewing loads of board games or sport game coverage I've got all that other things you can watch that's nice isn't it

Channel: Shut Up & Sit Down

Views: 159,493

Rating: 4.969501 out of 5

Keywords: Shut Up and Sit Down, SUSD, SU&SD, Board Game Review, Review, Board Games, Board Gaming, Boardgame, Board Game, Gaming, Tabletop, Fun Games, Quintin Smith, Matt Lees, Railroad Ink

Id: rC6PVAmP7Bg

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 16 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/StephenCroft]

I've played both Railroad Ink and Welcome to.

Both are good games that accomplish what they set out to do really well. But I would say Welcome to is far superior in terms of game play for us gamers. It almost feels like a eurogame with the different elements to control.

If I was introducing a game to non gamers, Railroad Ink is the go to in that case. Very easy, very compact and has enough decisions to keep all gamers captivated.

You can't go wrong with either but I would go for Welcome to any day of the week. If not buy it, a must try once at least.

Hope this helps.

[u/irrational_design]

Roland Wright is on a roll. Should we make him a write-in for the designer of the year ballots?

[u/irrational_design]

Is it just me, or is the red one... odd. The blue one has lakes and rivers. Pretty typical things to come across on a road or railway. The red one has... lava fields, volcanoes and meteor craters? What?!

[u/bentheemo]

Felt a little more flat (sedated?) than their normal videos, but I still really enjoyed it. Now I’m wondering if I should leave the Welcome To Kickstarter and just get this instead.

[u/[deleted]]

This game is intriguing me more and more, especially after SUSD previously said Welcome To was the only R&W worth a damn when they tried a bunch over the summer.

[u/GreatWhiteToyShark]

I've had this preordered since SUSD first talked about it on the podcast. I only really want one R&W and this one looks like the perfect option. Great review.

[u/georgeguy007]

Why did I burst out laughing within 5 seconds? Great video SUSD!

[u/R0cketsauce]

This reminds me of the On Tour kickstarter. Similar mechanics where everyone has to write the same numbers on their map and then score at the end based on how well they mapped out the tour.

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I think this one looks more fun and who doesn't like drawing all those rails and roads?!

[u/defeldus]

The best roll and write of the year because it allows creativity instead of min max pattern recognition.