Players: 2-6
Time: 1.5-2 hours
Difficulty: 3 (of 10)

This review is of the German edition by Amigo. It was also printed in English by Rio Grande Games, and I'd expect both editions were pretty similar. Currently the English edition is out of print, and the German edition nearly is.

This is a game where I have zero compunctions in suggesting the purchase of the foreign edition. You’ll need a translation of the rules, which you'll probably get from your online game store, but all the components are either international, or else show the English names of railroad companies. There's zero German language angst here.

The Components

Union Pacific comes with:

• 1 gameboard
• 131 trains
• 168 cards
• 150 bank notes

Gameboard: The gameboard is a 4-panel board printed on solid, linen-textured cardboard. It depicts a very plain map of the United States, with railways criss-crossing it. The railways meet at various cities, each with its name printed in a small, white font that’s unreadable from across a table. 10 of the cities are also hubs, each marked with the (more readable) name and color of the appropriate railroad company.

The tracks are depicted in four different styles and have overlaid boxes which are used to hold trains to mark ownership. Some of these boxes are color-coordinated with the railroad companies to show starting locations for trains (1 per company, except El Paso & Rio Grande, which has two starting spaces.)

Trains: The trains are molded with some minor, inset detail in hard plastic. They come in 10 colors, representing the 10 railroad companies.

Cards: The 168 cards are divided into 5 types: 98 railway cards; 4 dividend cards; 20 Union Pacific cards; 40 track cards; and 6 reference cards. All the cards are printed at approximately regular card size on medium-weight linen-textured cardstock with rounded corners. The cards are probably all printed full-color, but most feature entirely monochromatic artwork. Despite the limited pallette for the artwork, the cards are nice and will definitely hold up to play.

The 98 railway cards feature stock for the 10 railroad companies. Each lists the name of the company, how many stock cards there are, how many train pieces there are, and what track can be used by that company--all monochromatically in the color of that railroad company. Theoretically the color of the cards matches the color of the trains matches the color of the company on the board, though a number of the color matches are a fair ways off, particularly in card vs. piece. Orange, yellow, and red in particular were too similarly colored on the cards, which made matching a bit more difficult.

The 4 dividend cards are mixed in with the railway cards. They feature the same back and show a train on the front. They're used to initiate scoring rounds.

The 20 Union Pacific cards are special stock cards for Union Pacific. Union Pacific has no tracks or trains, so only the number of cards (20) is listed.

The 40 track cards each depict one of the four different types of track, and are required to take control of routes. Some are wild cards which depict all 4 track types.

The 6 reference cards, 1 per player, list out the 10 companies, their colors, their on-board symbol, how many cards are available, how many trains are available, and what track types are valid. They're well laid out and fairly vital for playing.

Bank Notes:Used solely for scoring these $1 (million), $5, and $10 notes are printed on paper in three colors (green, red, and yellow). They're Xerox-quality, and the only cheap component in the set.

Box & Tray: The box is large, but an appropriate size for the components. It comes with a wonderful tray with spaces for the cards and the 10 different colors of trains. There are also slots which the bills can be placed up in during play to make them easy to access. Overall, a great design.

Other than the bank notes, the components of Union Pacific are very well done, high quality pieces. However, many of them are also somewhat plain, particularly the board which is the central focus of the game. Still, because of component quality, Union Pacific earns an above average "4" out of "5" for Style.

The Game Play

In Union Pacific your goal is to gain majority control of the most lucrative U.S. railway lines before dividends are given out.

Setup: Each player starts the game with 3 random track cards, 4 random railway share cards, and 1 Union Pacific share card. Four railway share cards are flipped face-up next to the board and the Union Pacific deck is placed face down next to the board. The rest of the railway share cards are shuffled, with the dividend cards somewhat randomly inserted (one appears somewhat early in the deck, the other three in the middle).

The Board. The board features a number of cities with rails connecting them. Each connection is in a specific type of track (out of 4 options) and features a certain number of spaces (typically 1 or 2 spaces, though the Denver-Salt Lake City track has three spaces and the Denver-El Paso track has four). These spaces show ownership of that particular route, meaning that only 1 or 2 people can control most routes, but for those Great Plains routes 3 or 4 different companies can all share the route.

Eleven of the spaces on the board are colored in the colors of the railway companies (1 per color, 2 for El Paso & Rio Grande). During the setup one of the appropriate colored train is placed in each of these colored spaces.

It's important to note, because it's unusual, that the colored trains belong to the companies, not the players. Players will in turn own interest in those companies through stock.

Order of Play: At the start of a turn a player draws a track card, bringing his total to 4. He then may take one of two major actions: building or investing.

Building: A building round includes the following actions:

1. Claim a Route
2. Draw a Share Card
3. Exchange a Share Card

Claim a Route. To claim a route a player must first choose a company. This is probably a company that he either has a controlling interest in or else expects to soon have a controlling interest in. There must be a train left in the company's color, which the player takes from the box.

The player then plays a track card, which must be a legal track type for the company (every company has between 1 and 4 legal track types). Remembering to check for the right track type can be a pain, though generally if you're near the company's hub the track will be of the right sort.

The player then places the train on a route displaying the correct type of track, adjacent to a route which the company already controls, or else adjacent to the company's hub, and which still has a free space. You can only place one train of a color on each route.

This expands the size of the company, making it more valuable for future dividends.

Draw a Share Card. The player is then rewarded for his building by taking a railway share card. This may be one of the four face-up share cards (which are replaced if taken), or else a random draw from the face-down pile.

The rules also say that the player may take a share of Union Pacific, if he prefers, but Alan Moon, and most folks on the 'net, suggests this step be omitted. I agree.

Exchange a Share Card. After having drawn the player may then exchange any card in his hand for a Union Pacific stock.

I also agree with one more alternative rule here: place the exchanged card face-down at the bottom of the railway share deck, to obfuscate how long it'll be before the end of the game (because the dividend cards are already shuffled into the deck).

Investing: However, all those railway share cards in your hand don't do any good there. In order to earn dividends, you must actually invest. Here's the order of play if you instead choose an investing round:

1. Play Share Cards
2. Discard Track Card

Play Share Cards. Either play all of your share cards from one company, or else one card each from two different companies.

Discard Track Card. Since you didn't play a track card, you must now discard one to bring yourself back down to 3 cards.

Collecting Dividends: Throughout the railway shares deck are 4 dividend cards. Whenever one is drawn a dividends round immediately occurs.

Each railroad company generates dividends equal to $1 + $1/route claimed. The player who is the majority controller of that company gets the full amount, while the second place controller gets half that amount, rounded down.

In case of ties, the two dividend payments are added together, then divided among all tied shareholders.

In case of monopoly, both dividend payments go to the sole shareholder.

In addition, special payments are made for Union Pacific. There's a special chart, which shows increasing value as the dividend rounds continue. In the first round, UP is worthless, while in the fourth place round the top shareholder for UP gets $20 and the 5th place holer gets $4. There's a continuum between those numbers, and ties are dealt with as with the other shares, though monopolies don't give anything special.

Union Pacific control is a very major factor by the last round, and thus needs to be carefully considered by players.

Ending the Game: The game ends as soon as the fourth dividend is paid out. The player with the most money wins.

Game Variants

As noted above, I suggest two variants: don't allow Union Pacific shares to be selected, only exchanged for; and place exchanged cards face down under the deck.

Relationships to Other Games

Union Pacific is a revision of Alan Moon's earlier game, Airlines, which itself featured the card collection of his Get the Goods game and the networking of his Santa Fe game. More properly, it's a majority control game centering on set collection with a minor connection component.

Whew.

As a majority control game, Union Pacific harkens back to the grand-daddy of the genre, El Grande (1995). Moon has dabbled in the genre himself with San Marco (2001) and Mammoth Hunters (2003). Unlike those others, the "area" that's controlled in Union Pacific is abstracted. It's a company rather than a space on the board.

Set collection of course harkens back to Rummy and many other card games.

Finally, the connection component in Union Pacific is pretty minor, since it's just a method to increase the value of a company, and also a potential restriction. We find much more important connection elements in most other railroad games.

Union Pacific also draws comparisons to Moon's most recent train game, Ticket to Ride (2004). I find UP a more abstract, strategic, and thoughtful game, while I find TtR a more tense, evocative, and enjoyable game. They're very different beasts, in that UP emphasizes the set collecting aspect and features majority control, while TtR instead centers heavily along that connection gameplay, with set collection just a means to that end. (I called Ticket to Ride a connection-based railroad game centering on set collection.)

The Game Design

Union Pacific is overall a somewhat slow, but nonetheless strategically satisfying game. Here's some of the better design:

Tough Decisions: The choice of whether to build track, thus collecting more railway share cards, or else play your share cards, is always a difficult one, made more worrisome by the question of whether a dividend card will be coming up. This type of touch decision is the hallmark of a good game.

Delicate Strategic Balance: The careful management of your majorities and monopolies, versus watching out for other people getting the same is one of the joys of playing this game.

Good Random Control of Tracks: The random element of the tracks is very well controlled. If you ever don't have the tracks you want, you invest instead, which lets you draw and discard a track.

Here's some of the less desirable design:

Bad Random Control of Monopolies: Monopolies are a vital issue in the game, yet almost entirely controlled by random chance. Whether you can hold a monopoly, and whether your opponents can take it away entirely depends on which railway share cards come up when.

A Little Long: For the repetitiveness and dryness of the main action, the game runs a little long. Two-thirds or three-quarters of the length would probably have been superior (and, I suppose, is possible by playing to the third dividend).

Overall, Union Pacific felt like well-done, nicely strategic game without major issues, though also somewhat dry. I give it an above average "4" out of "5" Substance and expect to play it again.

Conclusion

Union Pacific is Alan Moon's classic railway game, centering on stock majorities, not connectivity. It's a well done game that requires real strategic thinking, but it's also a little dry and abstract. It's a recommended game, but probably not one you'll want to play constantly.