All aboard! The Skyline Express is leaving for its maiden voyage and people will start boarding soon. As a train manager, your task is that everything runs smoothly and every passenger finds its right spot in your carriages, keeping in mind every passenger has its own preferences.
1-4 players
30-60 minutes
Designers: Michał Jagodziński & Kamil Langie
Artist: Jarosław Wajs
Publisher: Thistroy Games
https://thistroy.com/
Over the course of three rounds, players draft passenger tiles from the Main Hall of the gameboard, and place them on their player boards, trying to match the two goal tiles of that round. By taking extra actions, you will be able to make passengers change seats or even exchange them with passengers in the Waiting Area.
Personas (white) are passengers with specific preferences that allow you to score points each round when they’re seated correctly near the aisle or the window, and with the correct fellow passengers in their carriage.
Each time you manage to completely fill a compartment, you’ll gain a ticket, which you can spend to retrieve an extra action token or gain Service Tiles. This brings us by the third way to score points, as at the end of each round, you’ll gain 2 points per set of passengers depicted on your Service Tiles.
The player with the most points at the end of the game has proven him/herself worthy to become the future boss of the Skyline Express!
I honestly have to say I’m fully blown away by this design. The iconography on the main board for the upkeep and the extra actions is very clear, and for being a prototype, this looks better than some other games I’ve seen.
Skyline Express may come with easy rules, but the gameplay itself is a tactical puzzle, with players having to adapt to the available passengers and the new goals each round. The replayability is already huge because of the many different goal times included in the game, but it also comes with an expansion in which you’ll have to take care of your passenger’s luggage, adding an extra puzzle to the game from which you’ll be able to gain small bonuses! I’ve noticed they even added scenarios that modify some rules and add changes to scoring!
If you’re into family games with a high puzzle-aspect, I’d highly recommend you to check this one out! It’s now on Kickstarter!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thistroygames/skyline-express-0
***We played Skyline Express with a prototype copy of the game, so please note the final version may slightly differ from what you see in the photos***
Tabletopping 