Imperial Steam is a big game and fittingly has a whopping 11 different actions you can choose from on your turn. Decreasing your influence is generally not great as it impacts turn order, your flexibility for hiring workers, and eventually end game scoring. However, if you have already taken that particular action this round, you must decrease your influence 1 step for each of your action hands already there. If any opponents have taken the action you choose, you can still take that action. Thus, at the beginning of the game, you can only take 2 actions, but then in rounds 4+, you can take 5 actions. Players start the game with 2 action hands, but gain additional action hands in later rounds. When it comes time to take actions on a given round, in turn order, you simply place one of your action hands on an action tile and take the corresponding action. There lies your first tough decision in Imperial Steam, with many more to follow. Turn order is super important, but so is having money on hand. Influence determines turn order, affects certain actions, and can score you money at the end of the game. Once you get rolling, it’s smooth train-riding from there…well, aside from a bunch of hard decisions you’ll be hit with, like a surprise pie-in-the-face from a clown.īefore the game begins, there’s a blind bid for influence. This is something crucial to be aware of in a game that’s all about making the most money (guldens).Īfter you set up Imperial Steam, your table will be filled with a variety of really nice quality boards and components that will probably appear intimidating initially. Alternatively, if anyone has connected Wien to Trieste, then you earn money for completed contracts, and you have to pay money for any unfulfilled contracts.
A key thing to note is that if no player has connected Wien to Trieste, all contracts are worthless. Before I describe how the Imperial Steam plays, allow me to explain how it ends first so you understand why I say "potentially" profitable contracts.Ī game of Imperial Steam will either end at the end of the 8th round, or at the end of a round when a player has connected their railway network from the starting city of Wien to the final destination of Trieste, way at the bottom of the game board. As players expand their railway networks and build factories, they can deliver goods that are in high demand and fulfill potentially profitable contracts. Players are tasked with carefully managing their workers, money, and resources needed to build railroad tracks and expand their railway networks. In Imperial Steam, 2-4 players compete to earn the most money in Austria during the Industrial Age. While I have yet to play Lignum, I have played a few games of Imperial Steam on a review copy from Capstone Games, so I can share how it plays along with some of my initial impressions.
I left Gen Con 2021 buzzing with excitement, mainly because it was my first time attending Gen Con and I had a blast, but also because Clay Ross from Capstone Games gave me an enthusiastic overview of Imperial Steam, a new route-building, economic, and logistics game from Lignum designer Alexander Huemer.