Nippon Rails review — Chugging across Japan

The Empire Builder series of "crayon rail" games started in 1982, and the first edition of the Japanese map Nippon Rails was released in 1992, back when they sold games in tubes. This review is for the boxed second edition of Nippon Rails, released in 2011, and features several component upgrades from the original and a complete update on the card deck. I grew up playing the Empire Builder games with my family, so I have a lot of nostalgia for the series as a whole. I remember Nippon Rails as being one of the more challenging entries, as it features a narrow map and a few chokepoints that restrict access to certain areas. The novelty and charm of this classic series still holds up, and Nippon Rails remains one of the top maps for me, thanks to the limited space available.

While not directly related to Nippon Rails specifically, Mr. B Games recently ran a Kickstarter for a fancy upgraded version of Empire Builder: Europe. I'd highly encourage fans of the series to check it out while late pledges are open, solely out of my selfish desire to hopefully get deluxe versions of the rest of the series (especially the sci-fi/fantasy ones).

Rules & Components

The rules for all modern (i.e., non-tube) Empire Builder games are split into two books, one for the universal rules of the Empire Builder system and one for the map-specific rules. Typically, and in the case of Nippon Rails, these specific rules are fairly minimal and are only a couple of pages long. The rules are all pretty simple and can be both quickly learned and taught, so I have no issues with them.

Unlike the original version of the game, this second edition includes plastic load chips that are both colored and have the name of the load printed on them, which is such a vast improvement from the original black-and-white nameless chips of yore. The box insert also has a tray full of little slots to keep these chips organized, which helps the game run smoothly as everything has a place.

It’s worth mentioning that the crayons players will be using to draw their train tracks on the board are also good quality and shouldn’t snap on you unless you’re pushing way too hard on them. I would recommend against playing as yellow, though, as it can be hard to see on the map.

Gameplay

Empire Builder

For those unfamiliar with the Empire Builder series, the entire line of games shares the same core mechanics and goals. Players are racing (however slowly) to be the first to both connect a specified number of Major Cities and earn a set amount of cash. The exact numbers for both of these goals vary depending on the game, as some maps are larger or smaller than others. These maps are made up of a grid of mileposts, interspersed with icons for cities or terrain features such as forests or mountains. Players will spend up to 20 million of their cash per turn to draw lines connecting these dots and icons in their color of crayon, building their network however they see fit. While normal mileposts only cost 1 million to connect to, features like mountains cost 2 million, and alpines cost 5 million. Balancing a route’s cost against its speed is one of the most important skills in the game. Once they've laid some track, each player begins moving their pawn along their rails, occasionally renting rails from other players if necessary, to pick up the goods produced by the various cities and deliver them per Contract cards.

These Contract cards each provide three options of goods to deliver to different cities, along with their rewards based on the distance to the nearest producer of such goods. Longer trips can pay some big dividends, but another player may be able to complete a plethora of smaller deliveries without needing to build a long route, so some cost-benefit analysis should always be at the forefront of players’ minds. The offerings tend to be fairly widespread, so players can typically find something that's feasible, if not ideal. In the event that none of a player's 9 total options work for them, a turn can be sacrificed to discard them all and redraw a new hand. Mixed into the deck are various Events that resolve as soon as they’re drawn, typically to the detriment of some players.

The Empire Builder games are never something I would describe as "snappy" or "punchy", as a lot of modern games often aspire to be. If a player has built all the tracks they can or want to for the moment, they’ll have more than a few turns of just moving their train from City to City while they work to complete their Contracts until something changes. Much like the locomotives featured in them, these are slow and ponderous experiences. If you want a highly competitive, fast-paced network builder, then this is not the game for you. But if you enjoy a relaxing experience that can be enjoyed with a hot drink and plenty of unrelated conversation over top of it, I'd recommend having at least one of these entries on your shelf.

Nippon Rails

Now, while my previous statement about Empire Builder games still holds true, Nippon Rails is certainly the *tightest* of their maps. The size and shape of the Japanese archipelago prevent players from spreading out nearly as much as, say, Australia. Many cities are tricky to get to, especially on Shikoku, not to mention the ferries and the Hokkaido-Honsu Tunnel.

In Nippon Rails, getting to Hokkaido is a bit of a challenge. Everywhere else, connections across water, where possible, simply incur a hefty fee and nothing else. But to reach the northernmost region of the map, players need to either build into one of the ferry docks or construct the Hokkaido-Honshu Tunnel by sacrificing a fair bit of time and money. The ferries are cheaper, only costing 6 or 8 million depending on which port the player is connecting to, but they eat up a lot more travel time as they end a train’s movement when crossing and restrict trains to half movement for the turn after as well. After two players have connected to a particular ferry, no other player is allowed to, and they’ll need to build a different connection if they want to reach (or leave) Hokkaido. The Hokkaido-Honsu Tunnel, on the other hand, is much faster (just 4 mileposts in total) and more exclusive (only a single player can connect to it), but is significantly more expensive at a whopping 20 million! Because players can only spend 20 per turn, the second edition added a new rule that lets a player break this limit and spend 21 million just once so they can connect both ends of the tunnel to their track.

Another major change from the rest of Empire Builder is the goal. Typically, players don't need to connect to every Major City and can ignore one of them. Due to the smaller size and fewer Major Cities, though, networks building across Japan must reach all four of the Major Cities—turning the ferries and tunnel mentioned earlier into an absolute necessity. The monetary threshold remains the same as many other Empire Builder games, at 250 million.

While the most obvious changes from the first edition of Nippon Rails are all the component upgrades, something I’d mentioned earlier was a rebalancing of the deck, including twice as many events and raising the payout of each Contract, so the game plays faster. While I won’t get into the numerical details of all these cards, I will say that they added a “Godzilla Attacks Tokyo” event. Since every game needs more Godzilla included, I am all for this.

While the entire experience is still decidedly the hallmark calm of Empire Builders, the restrictions players need to work within easily make this one of my favorites in the entire line (second only to Martian Rails). This is also, in my opinion, the best map for 2 players since players will still be competing for prime routes across the board, as opposed to the maps that can support up to 6 players without extra rules. Nippon Rails can be played at higher counts as well, but be prepared for a particularly nasty game as there simply isn't that much room on the map.