Country: Germany

During the second third of the 19th century, a rapid development of railway transport got under way. All over the world, the railway networks were growing and steam engines accelerated the progress. 175 years ago, on December 7 1835 to be precise, the first German train powered by a steam engine started operating between Nuremberg and Fürth, transporting passengers and goods. In England’s region of Wensleydale transport of goods via railway tracks was started 13 years later.
First Train to Nuremberg is a revised edition of Last Train to Wensleydale. You take the role of a railway promoter, backed by the investments of hundreds of local landowners. Your aim is to build lines that can make a profit from the transport of passengers and goods. However, money is not the only resource you require. Many locals will oppose your schemes and only with influence in the government will you be able to build over their land. Your company is far too small to be able to have its own engine works, so contacts with the major operators will help you acquire second-hand trains and rolling stock. You will also need to be on good terms with the two local railway companies. Without their support you will not be able to link to their networks, nor will you be able to negotiate the sale of your lines when they become unprofitable (as they surely will).

With First Train to Nuremberg now two players can fully enjoy this extraordinary train game as well. Instead of cheese and stone, now beer and mail will be transported, besides passengers of course. There is a new challenge when transporting passengers: They can travel first class now and thus you will gain more victory points but on the other hand, you have to buy trains that are more expensive. Additionally, you may benefit from the first connection between Nuremberg and Fürth and receive extra victory points, which may be crucial for winning the game. What’s more, you may play the original game of Last Train to Wensleydale on the flip side of the game board, or almost so. Some slight changes of the original rules work with that map as well as the rules of the first edition.

The players act as traders trying to get victory points for building a network of offices, controlling cities, collecting bonus markers or for other traders using the cities they control. After controlling a line between two cities with your pawns you can decide to build an office (and maybe also establish control and/or get a bonus marker) or to get a skill improvement from some of the cities.

Players have to improve their traders' "skills" for the following effects: getting more VP from offices in their network, getting more available action points, increasing the number of available pawns, and getting the right to place pawns and get more special pawns.

This game appeared originally as Wettstreit der Händler at the Hippodice competition.

The 2012 rerelease of Wallenstein tweaks the 2002 title from designer Dirk Henn and publisher Queen Games, while including two new expansions.

The setting and game play of the two games are mostly the same. In 1625, the Thirty Years' War is underway, and military leaders like Albrecht von Wallenstein and Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim are roaming the country, fighting for land, and trying to establish the best of everything for themselves. The game lasts two "years," with players taking actions in the spring, summer, and fall, then possibly suffering from grain shortage and revolts in the winter before scoring points for the year. After two years, the player with the most points – with points being scored for land and buildings under one's control – wins.

In each of the "action" seasons, ten action cards are shuffled, then laid out, with five face-up and the rest face-down. The five bonus tiles (which provide extra money, grain, or armies) are also laid out. Each player then secretly assigns one of his county cards (or a blank card) to each of the ten actions on his individual player board, in addition to bidding for player order and choice of bonus tile.

After revealing that round's event card and determining player order, players carry out actions in the order determined earlier, revealing which county is taking the current action, then revealing the next face-down action, thus giving players some information about when actions will occur, but not all. Taxing a county or taking grain from it can increase the chance of a revolt during winter, but without money you can't deploy troops or build palaces or churches and without grain you increase the chance of revolt.

Combat and revolts are handled via a dice tower in which players drop army units and peasants (colored wooden cubes) into the top of the tower and see which ones emerge in the bottom tray (representing the fighting forces for that combat) and which get stuck in the tower's baffles to possibly emerge in the future.

Wallenstein includes two expansions: "Emperor's Court," in which a player's army tokens that fall from the dice tower at the start of the game become courtiers who compete for favors (special actions) from the emperor; a player can convert armies to courtiers during the game, and whoever has the most courtiers in the court's entrance hall each turn gets first shot at the favors available. "Landsknechte," which can be used with "Emperor's Court" or on its own, consists of a set of four cards for each player stacked in a particular order. If after determining turn order, a player controls counties in four different regions, he removes the top card from the stack, then takes one of the bonuses (such as money or armies in the tray) shown on the newly revealed card. This stack resets after winter ends.

Reimplements:

Wallenstein (first edition)

Similar to:

Shogun