Comment by esafak
Is there a board game equivalent? I'd like to play with my kid, without us staring at a screen.
Is there a board game equivalent? I'd like to play with my kid, without us staring at a screen.
The shortest, simplest equivalent I know that has most of the same 'spice' is Chicago Express/Wabash Cannonball. At first you think it's a game about building a company that tries to get to Chicago first to claim the prize money, but then you realize that this is really about making money, and that maybe the best thing for you is to completely wreck any and all attempts to have anyone, ever, get to Chicago. Plays in an hour, instead of 3+ in your typical train game with this kind of mechanics.
There is also 1830 and few others
https://www.dicebreaker.com/themes/train-game/best-games/bes...
In order of complexity:
- Thicket to Ride series: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/17/game-ticket-to-...
- Crayon Rails series: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2010/crayon-rail...
- Cube Rails series: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/18979/series-cube-...
- Age of Steam (with hundreds of print-n-play maps available): https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/86/game-age-of-ste...
- 18xx: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/19/series-18xx
There are (several) other “train games” that are mostly one-off implementations with a train theme (often route/network building and/or tile placement, but sometimes not), but all of the above are families of several games that share a common system (components) and board game mechanisms, so once you play one, it’s often easy to understand/pick up on others in the same family.
The first, Ticket to Ride is probably the most accessible, and therefore one of the more popular options. But the others definitely offer a deeper experience, if you can handle the (increasing) complexity.