Union Pacific

In Union Pacific, the players are railroad tycoons and atock market speculators. By expanding the rairoads and acquiring the majority of the companies' shares, the players are trying to end the game as the wealthiest player.

The large game board shows a map over USA and it's railroad network. On each section it is indicated how many companies that can open a route on it. For instance, four companies can open a route between Denver - El Paso, while only two companies can open a route between New York and Buffalo.

When it is a player's turn, her can choose one of two actions:

1. Open a new route and draw a share card
2. Invest shares (that is, playing share cards on tha table)

This may seem simple, but these two choices give the players lots of headaches throughout the game. To get share cards, you need to open a route. This is done by playing a suitable track card and placing a train of the company you want to expand on a free route the board. Then you draw a share card, and you can choose between drawing one of four cards that lays open on the board or the top-most card in the share deck. But share cards on the hand is not worth anything. To get dividends, a player must invest his shares, which is done by playing share cards, placing them in front of himself on the table, visible for all players. You can either play two shares from different companies or as many as you want from one company.

The game proceeds like this with the players either opening new routes and drawing share cards, or investing (playing) shares. The goal is to have the majority in as many companies as possible when a dividend card is drawn.

Dividend

At the start of the game, four dividend cards are shuffled into the share pile. When a player draws one of these, dividend is being payed out. The players count the number of routes each company has opened, and the player with the share majority in each company receives 1 million for each route this company has opened. The player with the second largest majority in each company receives half the amount, i.e. half a million for each opened route.

Union Pacific is a special company, bacause it is this company that owns all the railway lines, so they don't open new routes. The shares for Union Pacific is not shuffled into the share deck, but placed in it's own pile. After a player has opened a new route and drawn a share card, he or she may exchange a share from his hand with a Union Pacific share. The UP shares must be invested in the same way as the other shares, but since UP does not open new routes this company pays a fixed dividend.

Winning the game

After the fourth and last dividend the players count their money. The richest player is the winner!

Evaluation

Union Pacific is a splendid game. The author, Alan Moon, has with this game given us a perfect example of brilliant game design. The game is driven forward on an almost ingenious way and completely without downtime. The game requires that the players pay attention and plan ahead, without being too complex. The various game mechanics is put very well together, giving us a dynamic and exciting game: To raise the value of the various companies you need to open routes. The player who gets the most dividend of a company is the one who has invested the most shares in this company, but the rounds you invest you are not allowed to draw new shares. The dividend cards that are shuffled into the share deck is another stress factor: How long do you dare to wait before you invest?

Production wise is another element where Union Pacific holds a very high standard. A large, nice (a bit simple looking perhaps, but very functional), nice little plastic trains and cards and bank notes of very good quality.

Union Pacific is one of my absolute favorite games. Everything is so perfectly connected: It has the right playing time, the right complexity of the rules, outstanding mechanics and a suitable amount of X-factors. I have introduced Union Pacific to a lot of players, from "hardcore" Avalon Hill players to more novice players (with experience from Monopoly etc.) and everybody has felt that Union Pacific was an outstanding game.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Union Pacific!

Reader comments

Remo :

Mr. Moon må ha en transportfetish, men det spiller ingen rolle så lenge han fortsetter å utvikle spill av denne kvaliteten! UP er ikke nødvendigvis revolusjonerende, men det er velfungerende. Mitt største ankepunkt er den relativt lave muligheten til å påvirke andre spillere direkte, men her har det allerede kommet opp ideer om kjøp og salg av aksjer, men det må jo testes ut først. Sjekk brettspillguiden.no

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