Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Lunar Rails is another offering in the same Mayfair Games series of commodity trading games such as Eurorails, Russian Rails, India Rails, etcetera.
Lunar Rails is a terrific game for the entire family. The concept is that you are creating rail lines to gather commodities from cities and ship them to other places on the moon that need those commodities. It's rather simple, yet complex. The game is not perhaps as educational as Eurorails (where you end up learning the locations & geography of Europe), as you are building your rail lines across the moon. You need to pay attention to whether your shortest distance is to travel across the surface or over to the far side of the moon.
We have found that the game is always refreshingly challenging and different. One strategy may work well one time, but may be disasterous in another game. There is a lot of strategy, a bit of luck, and a lot of fun. It is very addictive, easy to learn, and quite entertaining. We've found that kids above the age of 10, adults, and everyone in between enjoy the game thoroughly. We haven't played the game with anyone who didn't immediately go out and buy a copy.
This game works very well for two people, even better for three or four. However, it is time consuming. Games tend to take 2.5-4 hours (Mayfair games are notorious for under-estimating the amount of time needed to play a game!)
For those who have the game already, this helper may pare down the play time a little bit: We've always use a variation of the "fast game" - start with 70 mil. Euros, take three turns to begin, and each turn is 12 mileposts (upgrades take you to 16 mileposts). A game for two people, starting with this "accelerated start" we can get a game done within 1.5-2 hours.
My other recommendation is that if you buy this game, you may need to get another set of crayons. You don't need "wipe off" crayons - just get the very cheapest crayons you can find, which wipe off the board even better than the "wipe-off" type. The more inexpensive the crayons, the more wax content, which helps them to wipe off easily. Just be careful that with any crayons you use, you don't write too hard (particularly on the water parts of the board) - you can wear off the print.
If you enjoy games like the "Settlers of Catan", or perhaps the "Ticket To Ride" games, you'll probably love this game. It is less complicated than games in the "Settlers" series, but very challenging.
Click Here to see more reviews about:
Lunar RailsThe most recent (as of June, 2003) of Mayfair's line of train crayon-rail games. Here you can make deliveries to any part of the moon, which is why they used the double-hemisphere map. You can connect from the edge of one map to the corresponding point on the other hemisphere's map. One addition to the events are meteors. When they strike, any rail connect to the point they strike or connecting to any of the 6 dots around that are destroyed. Other events include Decompression, Solar Flares, and Cosmic Rays.
Get 32% OFF
Click here for more information about Lunar Rails
