First Impressions of Union Pacific

Time for some more cutting edge board game journalism with our first impression of Union Pacific… from 1999.

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All aboard the Union Pacific for a train ride across the United States! Now, my previous taste of a train and shares game, 1830, not having gone terribly well, I felt somewhat hesitant when this game was brought to the table top at Mid Con a couple of weeks ago. But, I will try any board game once, and boy was I glad I did!

Union Pacific does not deserve comparison to an 18xx game, it is far friendlier and simpler than any game in that group, even though it does have a tediously beige map. If we are to make comparisons to other games, image the lovechild of Ticket to Ride and Acquire. You can perhaps imagine my “aha” moment when I discovered it was from Ticket to Ride designer Alan R Moon!

 

 

So, you are laying coloured trains on lengths of track to connect cities. Each such connection you make boosts the value of the correspondingly coloured company, and each time you add a train you may also pick up a share. Hopefully in the same company you just helped! Or at least in another company that’s doing well? Or just in the Union Pacific line who has no board presence and just pays out money.

Where things get interesting is payouts for shares occur at random (yet predictable) times, and only first/second place shareholders get anything. Plus, to count, you must have played those shares on to the table on your turn, instead of laying track. But if you don’t build track carefully your companies might get blocked in on the map, preventing future expansion! Nightmare!

There are so many decisions to deal with. So while the components are showing their age, the gameplay remains surprisingly strong for such an old design. Sometimes it pays to be reminded of good games from yesteryear when we are so often caught up in the cult of the new. Union Pacific is definitely worth checking out if you get chance!