Isle of Trains Review

Isle of Trains Review

Isle of Trains is a set collection card game for 2-4 players, designed by Dan Keltner and Seth Jaffee, published by Dice Hate Me Games. It was part of the Rabbits Kickstarter, designers were challenged by Dice Hate Me Games with making a card game using around 54 cards and limited components.

The ultimate goal of Isle of Trains is to complete contracts for points.  You do this by upgrading your train engine and building train cars in order to hold cargo.  There are primary contracts, once you fulfill a primary contract, you can then fulfill the secondary contract, which costs more cargo but gives you more points.  You can only have one contract going at a time, so it’s important to finish the secondary contracts.

Isle of Trains packs a strategic game into a very small box.  Each card has various uses (currency, cargo, train car) and it takes a game or two to really dial in the anatomy of the card.  You also have many choices to make each turn.

Do your upgrade your train cars or save your train cards in order to load cargo once opponents have upgraded theirs?  There are also a couple different ways to earn points.  You earn points on your train cars, but also through buildings and special effects on caboose cards.

While you want to focus on getting those primary and secondary contracts, you also want to make sure you have a couple other ways of gaining points.

Isle of Trains has great quality on the cards and fantastic art.  The art is very whimsical and the cards are labeled well.  Once you learn the iconography, it’s easy to figure out what each card does.  There’s also a card reference sheet for more details on the train cars.

I can definitely recommend Isle of Trains for players who want a strategic challenge in a small box. The game is fun, filled with choices and has quality cards and art.

2 Player Experience

• Decisions can be harder since every play you make directly harms or helps you.
• You feel less inclined to build good train cars because your opponent will benefit directly from it
• It’s a balance between fulfilling your contracts yet making it hard for your opponent to fulfill theirs.
• Overall, two player is less exciting than a 3 or 4 player game, but the harder strategic decisions makes it still very fun.

4 Player Experience 

• You want to make your train cars attractive to other players so that people will load cargo onto your train
• Decisions are based on what works best for you, and you don’t have to be as concerned with your opponents.
• You have to do more shuffling as there are more cards in play than in 2 player.
• Overall, very dynamic and fun with four players

Feature Image Credit: YouTube