Station Master is a cute little bidding game by Chris Baylis, published by Mayfair Games.
Players: 2-6*
Playing Time: 30-60 minutes
Difficulty: 2 (of 10)
* Works with 2, but is fairly simplistic.
The Components
Station Master comes with:
- 112 cards
- 36 passenger tokens
- rules
The Cards: The cards are of average size and weight, with rounded corners. They’re printed full color, but you really wouldn’t know it because a very simple, largely monotone, palette of colors is used.
15 of the cards are (blue) engines. These cards each depict a train, a size (3-8) and in some cases some special info on the train. There are several different pieces of art among the trains.
The other 97 cards form the Station Master deck. Here, again, very simple palettes have been used: good green carriage cards, bad red car cards, and special yellow event cards. The green & red cards all contain values while the yellow cards contain full info on how to use them. There isn’t as much variety among the artwork on these cards, though I expect there’s 15-20 different pieces total. A lot of the art looks like early twentieth century period drawings, but much of the color is lost through the decision to monotone each card.
Overlal, I felt like the cards were entirely usable, and of good quality, but unfortunately fairly dull.
Passenger Tokens: There are six tokens each for six different players (black, red, blue, white, yellow, and green). Each one is a small plastic poker chip with a number on one side (1, 2, or 3) and a Mayfair logo on the back.
Rulebook: An 8-page black and white rulebook that uses gray-scale and looks like it was laid out for color. It was attractive, easy to follow, and had some nice reference, including a list of yellow cards and special engines.
Box & Tray: This game is packaged in the same small box that Mayfair has used for Freight Train and more recently the new Modern Art; It's a nice, portable size. There is also a tray inside that keeps the cards in place.
Overall, the components in Station Master were fine, though I really wish the cards were more exciting. I’ve given it a "3" out of "5" for Style.
The Gameplay
The object of Station Master is to load your passengers onto the nicest trains.
Setup: Each player is given a set of 6 passenger tokens (3 "1"s, 2 "2"s, and 1 "3") and three cards to start. A number of engines are laid out equal to the number of players plus one.
Engines. Each engine has a size between 3 and 8, which determines both carriage and passenger limit. In addition, there is one special freight engine (which makes red cards good and green cards bad) and a pair of executive class trains--which work well with executive class carriages.
Order of Play: Each turn a player decides to take one of two actions:
- Play a Passenger; or
- Play a Card
Play a Passenger: A player takes one of his passenger tokens and places it face down on one of the engines; each engine has a limit as to how many passengers can be played on it, equal to the engine size.
Play a Card: A player takes a card from his hand, plays it, then draws a card to replace. There are four broad classes of cards:
Green Carriages. These passenger carriages have values from +1 to +6. They're played following engines; passengers like them (though they're worth negative on the special freight train).
Red Carriages. These various transport and freight cars have values from -1 to -6. They're played following engines; passengers don't like them (though they're worth positive on the special freight train).
Executive Carriages. These 1st class and executive passenger carriages are worth +6 to +7 behind executive class engines, but -3 to -4 elsewhere. Like all the earlier cards, they're played behind engines. Apparently, executive class passengers are particularly snooty.
Yellow Events. These special cards let you move around already placed cars, discard them, take them from the discard, etc. There's also a caboose which makes a train leave immediately, a standing-room card which lets you add a passenger even if the train's full and more. Most of these cards are played, then discarded, though a few are played on a specific train (as the aforementioned standing room and caboose).
Ending a Train: A train ends when it gets a number of cars equal to the engine size or else when a caboose is played. At that point the train's value is calculated by summing all the cars. Then all the passengers on the engine are flipped face up. Each player earns a number of points (positively negative) equal to the total value of his passengers times the value of the train.
The engine and all the cars are discarded. Each player gets back all his passengers for future use. A new engine replaces the old one.
Ending the Game: The game ends when the last engine leaves the station.
Relationships to Other Games
Thematically, Station Master is a train game, a popular genre, particularly at Mayfair who publishes Empire Builder, 1875, Freight Train and more. However, Station Master doesn't play much like other train games: there's no track to lay, no goods to move, and no stock to collect.
Really, Station Master is a bidding game with a minor victory bluffing aspect, since you get to hide which passenger values you're putting on which trains (and, in fact, that lets you do some pretty clever things, like drop a "1" on a train after you think your main opponent has placed a "3", then after you've lured him into a false sense of security, drive it into the ground). Reiner Knizia's entire Titan: The Arena series of games is a good example of another bidding game with bluffing components.
Station Master's method for jointly determining train value through card play also reminds me of any number of games, mostly by Reiner Knizia, including Gold Digger and Kingdoms (both of which are actually bidding games too, as it happens, though neither allows real bluffing).
The Game Design
Station Master is a fine game though I didn't feel like it added much to its genre of gameplay. Here's some of the elements I liked:
Fun Bluffing: As already mentioned, I thought the bluffing worked well in this game, since the swing between the three types of bids you could play was very notable & it allowed for some devious play.
Good Tension: There was a good tension between whether you should play a train or play a passenger on any turn, as neglecting either could lead to lost opportunities.
Good Partnerships: As with many games in this genre, victory partially depended on forming good "partnerships" during the game, on a train by train basis.
Fun & Simple: Beyond that, the game was simple, but fun.
Here's some of the elements I didn't like:
Possibility For Large Point Swings: There was a possibility for very large point swings if a player managed to send off a particularly good train. I suspect this was partially a result of unfamiliarity with the game, but, still, both games I played were clearly decided by one good set of plays.
Limited Control: Individual control over the game felt somewhat limited, especially as the number of trains decreased right at the end of the game. This was also clearly a game where control would decrease as the number of players increased (though this was somewhat alleviated through the addition of more engines for more players); overall, since two-player games were too simplistic, I'd guess the sweet spot for the game is 4 players, with 3 probably being pretty good and 5-6 OK.
Overall, I thought the game played fine, but nothing really stood out, so I gave it an average "3" out of "5" for Substance.
Conclusion
Station Master is a railroad-themed game of bidding and bluffing. It's got solid mechanics, and it's a short game, but nothing particularly called to me in the design.
Review Summary