Imperial Steam Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Imperial Steam, an economic board game published by Capstone Games. Imperial Steam is an 18xx game that seeks to take this train genre into new and interesting directions.

Unless a more knowledgeable reader corrects this in the comments, so far as this reviewer has read, 1829 is the first 18xx train game. Published in 1974, that would make the concept and structure of 18xx nearly fifty years old, without many signs of dramatic alteration. They feature heavy economic decisions combined with route strategy and market manipulation and are generally regarded as an enjoyable formula with many expansions.

There are some other titles that aren’t exactly 18xx but take similar approaches. Age of Steam (2002), Iberian Gauge (2017), and even Brass: Lancashire (2007) are notable titles with twists on the concept. Now, in the form of Imperial Steam, there’s another adaptation of the train formula. Interestingly, this game moves away from the traditional formula of strategic track ownership/manipulation and focuses more on players building economic engines from building factories, delivering resources to cities, and using influence with hub cities.

It’s a worker placement Euro game with an industrial era train game flavor. It plays 2-4 with 4 being the best way to play. At that player count, expect a 3-hour game, but it will likely be cut down with experience depending on the analysis paralysis tendencies of the players. For a learning game, stick with 2 players.

Imperial Steam has a mostly simple play structure. Over a series of rounds, players will use workers (hand tokens) on locations taking actions such as lay track, acquire resources, and possibly increase their influence by spending money. As is appropriate, money is