1) There are now N-1 ‘2X’ cards (N = number of players in the game) and they
are openly displayed for ‘drafting’ along with the 3X, 4X, Branch and
Boomtown cardsK-BAN'S KORNER
Santa Fe Rails & Clippers
Of all the limited edition
(numbered print run of 1200) White Wind Games, Santa
Fe was my favorite – yes, even
compared with Elfenroads (Summer
1993 GA REPORT). It’s hard to believe that 10 years have flown by since Alan
R. Moon paid homage to Wolfgang Kramer’s Wildlife
Adventure (later updated by Herr
Kramer to Expedition).
Why shouldn’t a game designer go back to an earlier design and with years of
hindsight, make a tweak here and there to improve something that was already
pretty damn good and attempt to address the few suggestions that gamers made
over the years. For Wildlife Adventure,
the critiques centered around the chance cards and inflexibility to branch or
bow a route. Expedition
took a family game (that was so much more, once you got past the cutesy animals)
and made it into a gamer's game. With a few colored adhesive dots you could make
some very minor changes to your Wildlife Adventure
board and then play WA
by the Expedition
rules. What’s strange about this entire scenario is that Alan Moon has chosen
to revise Santa Fe
not once but twice in the same year from different publishers, with Santa
Fe Rails, released by GMT, and Clippers,
released by Eurogames.
Santa
Fe Rails (GMT
Games, 2-5 players, 60 minutes; $45)
Fast
forward with me now (and first read Herb Levy’s vintage 1993 Santa
Fe GAR review to get re-acquainted
with the mechanisms). The map board of the western half of the US has barely
changed. Four new ‘short line’ terminals have been added, but that’s about
it. The cardboard ‘tracks’ from Santa
Fe
have been significantly upgraded to notched wooden ones. The city cards still
have the helpful location indicators for those geographically challenged.
Now for the changes in Santa Fe Rails
1) There are now N-1 ‘2X’ cards (N = number of players in the game) and they
are openly displayed for ‘drafting’ along with the 3X, 4X, Branch and
Boomtown cards
2) SFR adds a single ‘3X’ card (3 tracks placed in both track-laying phases but no bonuses for connecting to cities and they are returned for drafting next round after use)
3) SFR adds a single ‘4-in-one’ card ( 4 tracks placed in one phase but none in the other) with regular bonuses earned for connecting cities (and returned after use)
4) Boomtown markers (black wooden disks with a ‘4’ or ‘5’ on them are used, in conjunction with Boomtown cards, to upgrade low scoring eastern cities by 2 points each.
5)
Short Line Cards – 4 new rail lines that are triggered by the
appearance of a
card from the city deck (drawing player replenishes
immediately). The 4 short lines have 6-11 tracks
The
main critique of Santa Fe
was that a fortunate draw of a city card towards game end could easily negate
the hard fought battles to control rail lines to reach destination cities that
preceded it. Santa Fe Rails
addresses this issue by adding some new ‘chrome’ as indicated in #’s 2-5
above. These new features add some additional strategic tension as more
different colors can reach a city than previously. So do you display that city
card you've been hiding or lay a large number of
tracks? Do
you forego connection bonuses to lay 6 tracks instead of the standard 2 or do
you lay 4 tracks and still earn regular connection bonuses. Don’t like these
changes? Then you could easily play Santa
Fe on a Santa
Fe Rails game by simply removing some
cards and the short line tracks. In our playtesting we’ve found that the
Boomtown markers seldom get used as there is almost always a higher scoring
alternative available.
An
often forgotten rule from Santa Fe
allows a player who has just used a "2X" card to discard unwanted city
cards when they take their second track-laying turn and replenish from the city
card stock. This can be a very effective way to bounce back from a hand of
ineffectual city cards.
I think that the changes that Moon made in Santa Fe Rails were mostly for the good. One gripe I have is that starting a "short line" in Sacramento makes that city score too easily, making its card too valuable. We haven’t played the optional terrain rule yet. With this scenario, players start the game with $3 additional but must pay an additional $1 for tracks laid across mountains or rivers ($2 additional for both).
CLIPPERS (Eurogames-Descartes, USA; 3-5 players; $34.95)
Clippers
uses the basic SF system but on the high seas. The mapboard is literally a sea
of blue (set in the Pacific Ocean) dotted with islands. The places for 
the
trade routes (tracks) are light blue. Each Shipping Line (RR) has a clipper ship
to indicate the end to be played on. Additional clipper ships are used as
branches. Now the differences to Santa
Fe Rails:
1) There are NO CITY CARDS in Clippers.
Players get 12 teeny, tiny port markers with flag symbols. 7 port markers are
pre-assigned to you by the start card that you randomly received along with your
nationality (US, UK, Japan, France, Germany), but 5 are yours to place, one at a
time as one of your turn options. One option even lets you MOVE a port marker to
any unoccupied port space.
2) one 3x card is free and works as in SFR
3) three 2x cards (work just like in SF/SFR)
cost $2
4) one 5x card (works like 4x in SFR)
costs $1, regular bonuses
5) one Port card (to move one port marker) costs $4
6) purple clipper line works like short lines in
SFR but only from American Samoa and
only when 2 different lines have reached
there
7) bonus of $2 for first colored line to a port, $1 for
2nd color (no 2nd color bonus in SFR/SF)
As a result of these changes, there is more strategic tension in Clippers than Santa Fe Rails, as the choice is between playing option cards ( 2x, 3x, 5x, port) or placing a port marker on the board but only laying single 'track' (old habits die hard) each turn. In effect, you select your own cities in Clippers and have more control of your destiny than with the luck of the cards. Paying for your option cards gives you pause to consider whether the risk is worth the reward. I really like the improvements in GAMEPLAY in Clippers, making it more of a gamer's game, with more perceived control.
Clippers
does have its problems, though. As mentioned all over the net, seeing the light
blue routes on a sea of blue requires decent lighting. The port markers are way
too small. (This could be remedied by using Dragon's
Gold sized wooden disks in 5 different
colors. [Dragon's Gold
was featured last issue.]) The board tends to form along the perimeter as
players rush to influence clipper line (trade routes) toward their double
8-point ports. As a result, it almost takes cajoling to get that second colored
line into American Samoa and get that damn purple clipper company rolling. Don't
get the purple company rolling and the game ends way before your can get your
remaining port markers down. I've been wondering if the start positions were
playtested extensively or not. Maybe giving each player only 1 starting port
marker in their "8" island (instead of 2) would make for a more
balanced board.
So the question begs to be asked – if given the choice to own or play either Santa Fe Rails or Clippers which one do you choose? If you want to feel that you influenced every point you earned and are willing to forgive an awful set of components, then Clippers is your choice. If you want a slightly improved version of Santa Fe with even nicer components, then Santa Fe Rails is for you. I will probably keep all three editions, but consider the source. ;-) - - - - Steve Kurzban
(Riding the rails continues as K-ban tracks down TransAmerica!)
Editorial Clippers Dschunke Santa Fe
Santa Fe Rails Starship Catan Theophrastus