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First Train to Nürnberg
Author: Martin Wallace
Publisher: Argentum Verlag
Year: 2010


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Already in 1835, before railway transport commenced in the British Wensleydale area, the first steam engine started operating in Germany. Passengers and goods were transported between Nürnberg and Fürth. In this revised edition of Last Train to Wensleydale the players have the difficult task to build lines that can make a profit from the transport of goods and passengers. Similar to the first edition, players build track, purchase second hand trains, transport goods and passengers, and sell their lines to the big railway companies when they become unprofitable.

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The map is divided into areas containing grey and yellow goods cubes, and on the railway stations in the villages red and green passengers are waiting for the train. Each round players try to gain influence points in an auction. There are six boxes with differently coloured influence points, and players bid on those boxes with investment cubes. When you are outbid, you take back the bid and try a different box.
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When all players have successfully claimed two boxes, the influence points are added to the four influence tracks. The player with the highest number of white points plays first in the subsequent track building phase. A series of track links should start in a red or green town, or continue from a track built in previous turns. Each track costs one investment cube or influence point, and when entering or leaving a red or green town, an influence point of the corresponding colour has to be paid. Additionally, the angry landowners (white pieces) have to be silenced by spending one white influence point.
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Then, players can buy trains to transport the goods and passengers on the board. The player with the highest number of brown influence points plays first. A player can choose between buying a train at the cost of 1-3 brown influence points, or transporting one good or passenger if he already possesses a train. The different trains can contain different numbers of passengers and goods.
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Goods may be transported if the player has a connection from the good to any town, and green or red passengers can be transported if a player can move them over his own tracks to a corresponding city (green or red). If more than one player can transport a certain good or passenger: first-come, first-served! The goods and passengers yield immediate victory points, and at the end of the game a complete set (grey cube, yellow cube, red passenger, green passenger) results in two additional points. The trains can only be used for one turn: next turn, the players have to buy new trains again!
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After the transport, a profit-loss calculation is made. Each transported passenger and yellow cube is worth 1 pound, while each grey cube scores 2 pounds. From this total, the number of track links on the board is subtracted. The result can very well be negative! This is recorded on the profit and loss display, which is used to determine the player order for the next round. Finally, each player may sell one series of track links to the big red or green company in order to minimize the penalty points in the following rounds.

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The tracks should start in a red or green town and end in a town of any colour. This requires the investment of one influence point (red or green) for each two tracks sold. The tracks in the players colour are then replaced by red/green tracks, and all towns connected to the red or green network from now on count as red or green (or both!) towns. In the future, red and green passengers can be transported to these towns, but it also costs one red or green influence point to enter or depart from these towns.

The game takes 4 or 5 turns. At the end of the game penalty points are awarded for remaining track links on the board, bonus points for complete sets, and victory- or penalty points for the position of the profit and loss display.
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While the landscape on the board of the previous but similar house edition from Martin Wallace 'Last Train to Wensley dale' has been compared to a plate of liver and onions, someones entrails, or a puddle of vomit, the new edition looks marvellous. The game plays well with 2 players -the previous edition was for 3 or 4 players only. The hilly surroundings of 'First Train to Nürnberg' are more friendly than the Wensleydale area, where players tended to get hopelessly stuck in the valleys early in the game. In 'First Train to Nürnberg' there is enough space for everybody, resulting in a fairer game. 'First Train to Nürnberg' is in every aspect as good as, or better than, its predecessor, and has enough additional rules and extras to be worthwhile.

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Game designers seem to have this deep fear that players may discover a winning strategy on a 'fixed' board. This results in the most artificial attempts to introduce variability. This is also done in 'First Train to Nürnberg': all cubes are placed on the board, and then every cube that ended up in an area where it doesn't belong (yellow cubes belong in the lowlands, grey cubes on the hills) is removed again. This is a lot of (boring) work, and it negatively influences the duration of the game! Luckily, the rest of the game is smooth and rather quick: 90 minutes for a 4 player game.
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First Train to Nürnberg has all the ingredients for a successful game. There is interaction, during the auctions and on the board, and many challenges. Will you try to go for immediate victory points, or for complete sets, what is the most efficient route, when will you sell to the big companies, and what colours of influence points do you need for all this?

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The competition on the board makes the game really exciting, and it is of crucial importance who plays first in the building- and transport phase.
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There's also good news for the people that liked Last Train to Wensleydale, but got a bit nauseous from the graphics of the board: the back side of the Nürnberg map features the familiar Wenseleydale map, but then redesigned in the new style!
© 2011 Barbara van Vugt

First Train to Nürnberg, Martin Wallace, Argentum Verlag, 2010 - 2 to 4 players, 12 years and up, 90 minutes


Yet another good reason never to buy the -first- house edition of a 'Martin Wallace'
Good and original train game. But the box is hideous!
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