Circus Train
A game for 1-5 players designed by <PERSON>
“Why the hell shouldn't I run away with the circus?”
― <PERSON>, Water for Elephants
Introduction
I've been a gamer, in the sense we like to think of it on BGG, ever since I was introduced to Ogre thirty odd years ago. At the time, Ogre was published by a really innovative game company called MetaGaming, and they made a whole bunch of games that had as their basis some really interesting ideas. Some of them were hits and some were flops, but nobody could ever say they weren't original.
Over the decades, there always seems to be at least one company that has kept up that tradition of being the company making that kind of game, and at the moment, Victory Point Games fill that niche for me. My favourites from them include Nemo's War and Moonbase Alpha (both of which I've previously reviewed) and several of the games from their States of Siege series.
One thing I've always loved are games rich with theme, so it's probably no small surprise then that my favourite games have a rich thematic backdrop. <PERSON> novel Water for Elephants planted the seed of an idea and <PERSON> grew it into the brilliant game that is Circus Train.
In Circus Train, you are the owner operator of a prohibition era circus, trying to make a buck and outperform your opposition as you take your Greatest Show on Earth through the midwest and eastern US.
Components
I originally became interested in Circus Train when GMT was planning to publish it through their P500 program, but when VPG bought their laser cutting table and upgraded their game production to their Gold Banner standard, they pulled it back in house and released it themselves. The tradeoff of waiting for the GMT treatment of the game vs. having the game in hand now is well worth it as the VPG Gold Banner level of components are very good indeed.
The game comes in the trademark bigger 9x12x1 box that VPG is now getting known for with the slipcase cover. I lucked out in a sense because VPG had left some copies that were destined for Origins behind at their office and made them available if you called in. I phoned in and thus got one of the "convention exclusive" editions, which comes with a little bonus acrylic circus tent that you can use as a start marker.
The game has a lot of bits, and the graphic designers and artists had a lot of fun making all the pieces different, and hey, with a laser cutting table, why not! The boxed edition comes with a mounted puzzle piece connected board, over 250 game pieces, a die, and 100 cards, plus a glossy full colour 20 page rulebook. 118
Not to mention the paper game map, included in the Gold Banner boxed edition in addition to the mounted board. This game has a lot of stuff and just fits in the box. I think this might well be the most ambitious game, component wise, that VPG has produced to date. The laser table is clearly being put to good and ambitious use! I've used a divided container to hold the player bits external to the box as it was quite packed with the mounted board and all the baggies I had the bits in, but everything will fit back in the box without having to take apart the stand up train markers.
The counters are gorgeously thick and sturdy, and with the shapes being different gives a tactile differentiation above and beyond what the graphics and colours do. The cards are thick and well laid out, but you will want to sleeve them, especially the player cards, as they are uncoated. I've put mine in penny sleeves since there is minimal shuffling required of the destination and random event decks, and you never need to shuffle the player cards.
Image courtesy of VPG.
The board is very evocative of the era we're playing in, and there's room for everything on the map. Speaking of which, the map is really a lovely work of art and definitely helps to get players into the feel of the game. The deluxe edition comes with a mounted puzzle piece style map, and in my chats with VPG, every map is hand made because it's larger than their usual products and requires extra attention. The map depicts the northeast section of the US stretching from Omaha to Richmond and points north up to Winnipeg in the west and Montreal in the east.
On the whole, the quality level is most satisfactory.
Rules & Game Play
In Circus Train, the object at the end of the game is to have the most victory points. However, how you get there is rather open ended as there are multiple priorities you need to juggle in order to generate them.
The game is played over three distinct seasons - April-May, June-July, and August-September. 336