Railroad Ink: A well-polished roll-and-write
Railroad Ink is a well-designed, polished roll-and-write that comes in various flavours. Rolling dice, players build a road and rail network across their board, connecting the edges with as many entrances and exits as possible. It's a fun game for a while, but it lacks variety over back-to-back plays.
Railroad Ink: The Quick Stats
Score:
7/10
Number of Players:
1-6
Time to Play:
30 minutes
Railroad Ink is easy to learn and easy to play. It is enjoyable for a game or two every now and again, and a good one for when you don't want heavy setups and long play times. It suffers from being a little samey over a longer binge session.
What we loved:
The components are compact and good quality
The pens have funky erasers on the top
The game is really easy to learn
It's quick to setup and play
It's fun
What could be improved:
Can become a little bland and samey after a while
Not as mentally challenging as Ganz Schon Clever
The bonus board can be a little confusing
It doesn't have a huge amount of player interaction
Railroad Ink: Building roads and rails
Railroad Ink is a cute, compact roll-and-write from Horrible Guild. 1-6 players will roll dice, then draw connections across their wipe-clean player mat, attempting to connect as many entrances and exits to their grid as possible in the seven rounds of play. The dice have a combination of roads, rails and junctions that players must cleverly combine to create a sensible, functional road and rail network. The game is very simple with its components, only requiring an erasable pen, the dice and the player mat - meaning this is another good travel game.
How to play Railroad Ink:
In the basic game of Railroad Ink, players roll the four standard game dice, each of which has different rail and road connectors. Players then must use each die once to draw connections on their map board, starting at one side and slowly winding their way across the board to another exit point. If players are a little stuck or want to earn bonus points, they can utilise the bonus connections at the top of the pad, once each, to provide crossroads and stations. This can be essential when the dice just won't fall right for a player. At the end of seven rounds, points are awarded for bonus connections, longest routes, squares completed in the central area and the most exits connected. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.
Then it's just a case of using your fancy eraser on the top of your pen to wipe the mat clean, and you're ready to go again.
It's simple and in a two-player game pretty rapid!
The little touches make the difference
Considering this is a game that retails for around £20, Railroad Ink has an impressively high finish on all of its components. The pens are sturdy, don't seem to dry out too much and have their cool lids with the brush on. The dice are pretty posh and roll well, and the wipe-clean mats are easy to draw on and super easy to keep clean. Everything packs away very neatly in the small box, which gives this game a small storage footprint.
The different flavours of Railroad Ink:
The success of Railroad Ink has spawned a whole family of flavours. In the basic, original format game, you get Railroad Ink: Blazing Red Edition (which we have been playing here), and the Deep Blue Edition. Both come with additional custom dice to add as a playing variant to the core rules. In Blazing Red, you get two lava dice, and, as expected from molten hot magma oozing across your board, the lava dice destroy parts of your railroad and leave you with holes that need to be repaired. The more connections destroyed, the more points you will lose. You also get two meteor dice, which, instead of melting your track from below, leave a trail of craters that can be exploited for more points.
In the Deep Blue Edition, gameplay varies through the addition of water. Rivers and lakes provide extra means of transport with the added risk of flooding and destruction. Players must adapt to make the most of the new routes and opportunities, without overstretching and getting sunk!
Railroad Ink: The pros and cons in detail
What we loved:
The quality of the game's finish is very good, and being able to sit and quickly wipe away your game within seconds is a nice touch. Occasionally, as with most whiteboards, you may have a little residue left behind, but a quick wipe with a wet cloth and the marks are taken care of.
This is a very simple game to learn and teach; new players should pick up the basic game with the four core dice very quickly, and from there it's a case of finessing your skill rather than constantly re-reading the rules. Because it is a fast game to pick up, you can move on to having fun much sooner, which is always good to see in a game.
Railroad Ink is one of our choices when we're choosing games to take on holiday or on work trips. It's small enough to tuck nicely into hand luggage, and as with many roll and writes such as Ganz Schon Clever, it doesn't require a large amount of space to play in. If you have a flat space to roll four dice on, then you're good to go.
What we would improve:
Despite its different flavours and many variants, we found Railroad Ink to be very samey after a few games back to back. Essentially, there are only so many ways the links and connections can combine, and either you're going to have a good run from the dice, or you're not. Railroad Ink is a good palette cleanser or amuse-bouche on a game night. Play it in between games or as a quick starter at the beginning of the session, and you'll have a lot of fun. If it's the main board game of the night, you might find people become bored after a short while.
This is a very simple game, and that is a good thing, but if you're looking for a game to challenge you mentally, then this isn't it. Ganz Schon Clever is much more fiendish in terms of combinations and points scoring, whereas this game is all about reacting to the dice you roll. There are fewer proactive elements to it.
As with many roll-and-writes, there isn't a lot of player interaction during each game. A player's turn is a very insular action; you take your dice and make your actions, and then you go again, which means you'll end up chatting about stuff over the top, but you won't be competing hard against each other, or at all, during the game itself. We don't really mind this, but many people look for a more boisterous experience.
Railroad Ink: A summary
Railroad Ink is a lovely game that a wide range of people will enjoy for a few games every now and again. It's fun, very well executed in terms of design and has a quirky theme that players will love. It's easy to learn and easy to teach, but perhaps its gameplay is too reactive and insular to say it's a genre-defining roll and write. If you're looking for a present or something to take on holiday, then Railroad Ink should be on your shortlist.
Expansions and Related Games
Expansions
Railroad Ink has a host of different game variants and expansion dice, depending on the version you have. As well as red and blue Railroad Ink, there is also Railroad Ink Challenge Edition. In yellow and green versions, the challenge edition answers the criticism around the lack of player interaction by turning the creation of networks into a race with bonuses. Each game comes with new dice and different bonuses that players can achieve.
There are also dice expansion packs for Railroad Ink, such as the Electricity expansion pack, which introduces power grids and lighting into your dice pack. Each expansion includes four dice and, depending on the pack, can interact with either the core game versions or the challenge versions of the game.
Related Games
Roll and Write games have become incredibly popular in the last five years. Alongside award winning games such as Ganz Schon Clever, there is also Paper Dungeons, Welcome To and the Next Station series of games. All are compact, great for holidays and will suit a wide range of age groups.
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Railroad Ink: Frequently Asked Questions
What are the differences between the different editions of Railroad Ink?
Railroad Ink comes in many different flavours, each with its own unique game variant. In red form, you need to battle lava and exploit minerals from meteors; in the blue game, you are sailing rivers and avoiding flooding. The challenge versions introduce a more competitive version of the game, encouraging players to try and race to complete challenges that will land bonuses. Which game you choose will be down to the price and personal preference of the variants on offer.
Is Railroad Ink good for children?
Railroad Ink is listed as good for children 8 years and over. There are pens and dice which could prove risky for younger children, but also, there are detailed rules on how to read the dice, the game variants and how to play them and the bonus connections. Some children may find it too complex to be fun, but they will enjoy scribbling on a wipe-clean mat!
Is Railroad Ink a good filler game?
Railroad Ink is very quick and easy to play. It's simple to teach too, and this makes it a very good game to start a board gaming evening with, or as a simple short game to play in between longer plays.
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