Rio Grande Games

IBERIAN RAILWAYS

Rio Grande Games has a long tradition of fine railroad-themed games. Many of these games have been the result of the long-standing partnership between Rio Grande and Winsome Games. The next game in the latest series of these games is due to be released in June 2021: IBERIAN RAILWAYS.

IBERIAN RAILWAYS is set in the Iberian Peninsula, which is mainly comprised of Spain and Portugal. The game allows the players to take the roles of early railroad entrepreneurs as the first railways are built in the area. Players must build railway track to connect the major cities on the peninsula.

The game mechanics will be familiar to anyone who has played games of this genre. Each turn, players must decide if they are going to add new railway track to the board or expand their existing track. Or, they can invest in the stock of businesses located in major cities on the game board. These investments will pay off for the player as soon as any railroad builds a track in that city.

There is one way that IBERIAN RAILWAYS is fundamentally different from most other railroad games: The players start with no money and have no way to build track without proper funding. In order to get the money they need to build railway track or invest in businesses, the players must take loans from the Bank of Madrid. Each loan provides $5 worth of capital that can be invested in the railroad. However, the loan costs $6 to pay back, and the players must pay interest on the loan each turn that it remains unpaid.

Players must generate income in order to stay alive in the game. They do this by connecting cities with their railway tracks. As their lines connect more and more cities, their income level grows. Connecting cities in which they have already purchased business investments will further increase their income.

Tracking building is very limited early in the game. This limit is slowly increased during the game. Each time a new city is connected to the railway lines, the limit is increased by one. This limit further complicates building in the early stages of the game. Players must plan their early moves with care to avoid taking additional loans, which will further hamper their ability to generate income.

Another interesting feature of the game is that a player may not take the same action on consecutive turns. Each turn, a player must select a different action than they took the turn before. Careful planning is necessary so that a player does not find themselves without a productive action to take in a later turn.

IBERIAN RAILWAYS will appeal to veteran train gamers as well as new players in the genre. The rules are fast and easy to learn. The game challenges players to seek out and make the right moves to balance their companies’ fortunes. IBERIAN RAILWAYS is coming to game stores everywhere starting in June 2021.

For more information on these or other Rio Grande Games titles, please visit our website: www.riograndegames.com. Author: Ken Hill, Production/Marketing Manager, ken@riograndegames.com.