String Railway Collection

• Designer: Hisashi Hayashi
• Publisher: play for keeps
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 14+ 
• Time: 30-45 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: 
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Originally published in 2009 and designed by Hisashi Hayashi (Yokohama, Trains, Metro X), String Railway is a 20-minute, 2-5 player game in which players create their own map directly onto the table, complete with borders, mountains and rivers, then build atop it a network of railways, all made out of string.

Following in 2011, the sequel String Railway: Transport (now renamed String Railway: Cubed) combined the premise of String Railway with the weighty decision-making of games like Railways of the World, producing a mid-weight 45-minute game. In the game, players start with a map of stations already built and must balance the desire to upgrade their engines, and fulfill bespoke delivery contracts, with the need to quickly build a flexible train network that can transport goods to a range of destinations.

The String Railway Collection packs both of these standalone games into a single small-box package and features vibrant updated artwork, improved graphic design, and a refined ruleset.

String Railway –

The outer boundary string is set up, generally in a regular polygon of sides equal to the number of players.  One player then places a blue river string from one edge and someone else sets up a mountainous area with the green mountain string.  Each player chooses a starting corner to place their starting station.   Each player also takes the one long string and four short strings in their color. A supply of station tiles is shuffled and placed near the board

On a turn, the player must draw and place a station.  It must be within the outer boundary string, and it cannot touch any other station nor string.  Some stations may have instant effects on them which must be resolved as they are being placed.  

Next, a player must place a railway string from their supply so that each end is connected to a station, and one of those ends is connected to your starting station or any other station you were previously connected to.  That particular string cannot enter the same station more than once nor can it cross itself (though it can cross other player’s strings).   Some stations have a limit on the number of players that can connect to it.

Once the string is placed, score points for it:

• Positive points for each new station that you are connected to (value on the station tile itself).  Some tiles offer different points whether you are the first player to connect to it or a later player.  Some stations offer a bonus if they are within the mountain area or other modifiers that are triggered when other players connect to it..
• Negative one point for each time you cross a previously placed string (though no penalty for crossing a string on top of a station tile)

Take point markers from the supply to track your points.  The next player then takes a turn following the same rules. Continue until all players have taken 5 turns (and used all their strings).  The player with the most points wins.  There is no tiebreaker.

String Railway Cubed – 

Each player gets the strings in their color as well as a purple wildflower depot.  Each player is also dealt a random delivery card.  The Engine cards are separated into numbered groups of 5.  The lowest group (1-5) is shuffled and each player is given one from this stack. The player who gets the lowest numbered engine is the start player.  That player places the border string on the table.  The next player places the mountain string and the next player then places the white depot somewhere within the mountain area.

Then a bunch of station cards are taken (based on player count – being a combination of depots and stops), shuffled and placed facedown somewhere inside the main border, trying to keep them equally spaced.  When all are placed, they are flipped up.  3 goods cubes are randomly placed on the white depot and 2 random cubes on each other depot. 

The game is played over 5 rounds, with turn order in a round being decided by engine number (going from lowest to highest).  On a turn, the player goes through three phases. Throughout the entire turn, the player has the ability to spend action points, the number of which is shown in the upper right corner of their engine tile.  Bonus actions can also be taken whenever they make sense.

1] Place Railway – place one of your strings so that each end is on a station (and optionally can run thru as many stations as the player likes).  For each time your string crosses a previously placed string (not on top of a station), you will have to use an action point. If your string is the first in the game to touch a stop, place 3 random cargo cubes onto that stop.  

2] Move cubes – Once you have placed your string, you can also spend action points to move a cube from one station to the next along one of your strings. If you move a cargo cube onto a depot matching its color, collect that cube and place it in your supply.  If you move a purple cube so that you fulfill a delivery contract, take the bonus shown on the delivery card

3] Upgrade Engine – Spend points to upgrade your engine (cost for the new engine shown in the bottom left of the new card). Take the highest numbered tile from the next group of engines.  Flip your engine (whether upgraded this turn or not) to the red exhausted side to show your turn is over.  When all players are done, the round is over, and all players flip their engines back to the blue side.

There are some Bonus actions that can happen at any point in your turn

• Place your Wildflower Depot – place the depot legally on the board and then place a goods marker to show what color it is.  Then add 3 random cargo cubes to it
• Replenish Cargo – spend 1 action point to place 3 random cubes onto a station
• Sell Cargo – Return a cargo cube from your supply to get an action point
• Draw Delivery Contract – take the top 2 contracts, choose one to keep.  There is a penalty for unfulfilled contracts at the end of the game

After 5 rounds, calculate your score by sorting your collected cubes into sets. Each set can only have one cube of a color, but a purple cube can be wild for any color.  Score the sets by size:  1/3/6/10/15 points for a set of 1/2/3/4/5 colors.  Next, score the delivery contracts.  Each fully fulfilled contract is worth 5 points while each uncompleted contract is negative two.

The player with the most points wins, ties broken in favor of the player with the lower numbered engine at the end of the game.

My thoughts on the game

As mentioned in the intro, this “collection” is essentially two distinct games that are packaged into the same box.  But other than remarking on how cool it is to have two different games in a single box and the fact they share some components – really you need to talk about each game separately.

String Railway – this is my favored game of the two in the set, mostly as it is simpler and more elegant.  There is admittedly a lot of luck involved – mostly in the order of the station tiles as they are flipped up.  Most of them have a special rule or scoring ability, and sometimes you’re just fortunate to be taking a turn when something advantageous hits the board.   The original game really has a pleasing organic development on the table as players place their strings around and over the earlier pieces.   Players can make some clever plays with their string to isolate areas or perhaps block other players from certain parts of the board.  You can also freeze people out of particular stations when there is a limit on how many players can be there.  In most games, there is also the important decision of when to use your long string.  You want to wait until there are enough stations on the table so you can max out the scoring with it, but if you wait too long, you might be shut out of particular stations or be forced to cross too many other strings thus incurring a larger penalty.  Anyways, for a short game (20-30 minutes), I don’t mind the luck factor in the tile draw, and this is a game that is always fun just in the playing; so I’m just looking for a fun filler where we get to play with the strings.

String Railway Cubed – Interesting, I would have thought that this would be more my jam, but I find the inexactness of the strings a negative when playing a more structured and complicated game.  Don’t get me wrong, I still like it – just not as much as the basic game.  The Cubed version wants to be more like a traditional rail game where you make a network and then deliver cubes.  It’s hard on some surfaces to keep the strings in one place (or you play with someone who always wears super baggy Bengals sweatshirts with sleeves that drag all over the place).  String Railway Cubed definitely wants to be a heavier strategy game, and the components can get in the way of that.    Once you get past that, there is a neat game here, where you have to manage your action points to either do things on the board or perhaps use them instead to upgrade your engine to get better actions (and more of them) in later turns.  As you only get five turns in the game, there are only so many times you’re going to want to use a bunch of your points to upgrade your engine.  Players should definitely watch for opportunities to complete the long Wildflower delivery as this will gain them a 7 point swing (5 for the card and +2 for not taking the penalty) as well as a wild cube which should really help the cube scoring.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Larry:  I have no idea how well String Railway has held up over the years, but when this first came out, I was charmed by how clever it was.  It felt like real out-of-the-box thinking to me.  I think the concept was better than the actual gameplay, but it still made for an enjoyable experience.  It was an early indicator of the level of innovation that was coming out of Japan.

Alison Brennan: I’ve only played the base game (I believe), where you get 5 turns – put out a card (representing a station, worth varying points for connecting first, second, etc, usually with restrictions on how many people can score it) and then place one of your strings on the table, expanding your string network outwards to touch as many stations and score their points as possible, losing a point for each string you cross (which can be worth it). It was too simple and had too few turns to engage me, but it did generate smiles at how neat the concept was and how pretty the table was by the end.

Dan B.: It’s been quite a few years since I played either game, but my recollection is that String Railway didn’t do much for me, and while Transport I thought was more interesting, I didn’t think there would be a lot of replay value. But I’d try it again.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

String Railway

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale, Larry
• Neutral. Alison, Dan B., Jim B.
• Not for me…

String Railway Cubed

• I love it!
• I like it. Dan B. (maybe)
• Neutral. Dale
• Not for me…