Empire Builder

Huge Empire Builder board game fan. Been waiting for this all year, and the Kickstarter physical game which hasn't arrived yet. Got the notice yesterday at work it was available, couldn't try it until today in the afternoon. Was fully aware it did not include AI to play against. Downloaded it, tried to find an open game. Nothing. Hosted a game and sat there, nothing. Exited the game and came back in a few times. None of my settings changes stuck. Had to turn off the music every darn time (I'm a "no background music" gamer). ALL RIGHT. I have a game under my belt now. Had to sit in a lobby until someone showed up. They creamed me - I had bad cards for many turns (that's not an issue, it happens). The tutorials go by too fast - I should be able to get a walkthrough when there ISN'T a human being waiting for me to play. It does work. There's a lot of promise. It moved from a "no" to a "yes". Needs: -Bigger text. I'm 51, and even with my bifocals it was hard to read the cards and city names. -Automove. If I need to go somewhere several moves away I shouldn't have to keep putting 9 spaces ahead. - I should be able to tell the game "I'm going to [city]" and everyone doesn't have to wait for me to click that on my turn. -If I have zero money and can't upgrade or build track, I don't see a need to have to click to complete my build phase. This and the above slows down the game for the other players. -There's no communication. I don't expect to have a conversation with the opposite guy, but a little "hand wave" something would be nice. Hearthstone has a thing that you can click with a preset "hello" "good move" etc that speaks in the other guys language, I don't see why a game that REQUIRES you to pplay with others doesn't.

I'm an experienced Empire Builder tabletop player and so far i've played about half of one online game, enough to get a feel for the interface. It's pretty intuitive for experienced players, although a couple of times I "dropped" a load instead of "deliver." Gotta be careful on that screen. There are some nice features that will make the game easier for new people, in particular, the ability to click on a load card and have the cities involved light up on the map. The game will also automatically draw your track, which might be good for newbies. Experienced players will want to draw their track one dot at a time to get exactly the right route. There was a glitch that ended our game prematurely, but that's to be expected since the game has only been out a day. Overall, I loved playing online and can't wait to get all my friends who live in other countries hooked up so we can play together.

This game is a good start but is half baked. 1. No save in Multi-player 2. Skips player phases during game after 30 seconds. 3. No AI opponent in single player 4. Some of the mile post don't pin properly. ( Chunnel for example ) 5. Map is oversized for smaller monitors and has to be scrolled to see whole playing area. This is what I found after 8 hours of game play. Developers - Hit me up when these are addressed. Otherwise skip this title for now.

This was my first introduction to the game as I haven't played the physical board game, but I'm enjoying it. The basic gameplay loop is fairly straightforward: build out your rail network from city to city, pick up goods where they are available, and deliver them to where they are requested. The strategy around money management is where it gets interesting. Building (or re-building after a natural disaster wipes out your track) isn't free. More than once early on I found myself dumping cards to try and pull a viable delivery route. Once you get a hang of the flow of the game it's a fun, surprisingly in-depth strategy game with a healthy dose of randomness from event cards to keep you thinking on your feet.

I have thoroughly enjoyed playing this on-line version. It's been a great way for me to play one of my favorite games with friends who live in different states (and even different countries than me). In the past, I've only been able to play the game with my friends when I would see them at conventions once or twice a year and now we can have a regularly scheduled game. The interface is very intuitive and easy to follow. The game plays just like the actual board game and is very easy to understand. I'm looking forward to being able to play many more games with both old and new friends. I also like having a voice chat open during the game with my friend so that we can banter back and forth just like we do in the tabletop version.

As a huge fan of the original physical games, I love how this was put together for online play! My gaming friends have spread across the country since we began playing, and we are excited to be able to play again together virtually. Highly recommend for fans of the Empire Builder games and board game fans alike. Can't wait for more maps!

Empire Builder has been a very welcome surprise. The digital game design is pretty fantastic. The play is smooth and very fluid. Like most great games, getting the idea of how to play isn't difficult, but figuring out the strategy to win sure is. It's a very compelling strategy/resource management game that allows you to tour all over Europe. Build your path and make your mark but beware of the gales and the floods! I had a lot of fun learning the game and trying to tune some strategies to get the win! If you enjoy a good solid strategy game, its worth your time to check this out! I'd recommend it to any strategy board game enthusiast!

I've loved these crayon based games for decades so I'm thrilled to see an adaptation for the PC that more people can access. Thanks for putting it together!

The game is really well made, a one-to-one conversion of the board game, where the computer does all the thinking for you: no more calculation errors, no careless mistakes when moving the locomotives, etc. But what I find really unfortunate is that there is no save function. Especially in games with four or more players, a game can drag on a bit - and postponing it to another day would seem quite natural to me. Strong computer opponents in solo mode would also be a nice feature. Otherwise, keep up the good work and good luck with realizing your plans.

I love this game. The developers have done a great job of capturing the fun of the board game while taking care of some of the more tedious tasks for you.