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If you’ve played Railroad Ink before, you’ll know the satisfying feeling of drawing neat little railways and highways on a whiteboard while trying not to smudge the ink. Railroad Tiles takes that same idea and gives it some physical weight. This time, the dice and pens are gone, replaced by cardboard tiles and wooden pawns.
It’s still about building the most efficient transport network, but now you’re doing it piece by piece. Over eight rounds, you’ll draft route tiles, fit them into your growing map, and place cars, trains and travellers to score points along your roads and rails. You’ll score points as you go for your pawns, and again at the end for cities, clean layouts, and connected routes.
It’s the same gentle puzzle at its heart, just with a bit more presence on the table and a lot fewer ink stains.
👥 1-4 players, ages 8+
⌛ Playing time: 45 minutes
📝 Designers: Hjalmar Hach & Lorenzo Silva
🎨 Artwork: Francesco De Benedittis & Marta Tranquilli
🏢 Publisher: Horrible Guild (review copy provided)
Gameplay Overview
A game of Railroad Tiles runs for eight rounds, each one following the same flow. Before the first round, everyone drafts one starting tile from a small selection to begin their network. It’s a small touch but helps shape your first moves.
At the start of every round, new route tiles are drawn from the bag to refill the drafting columns on the central station board. A placement token is then revealed and added under the clock tower. That token tells you which pawns, cars, trains or travellers, can be placed this round. If tokens are already on the board, they slide to the right, and if the line is full, the oldest one gets pushed off the end.
Players then take turns in order. On your turn, you choose one full column of tiles, move your pawn to the top of that column, take all the tiles and any star pawns sitting there, and add them to your map. Each tile must connect to something already placed, with matching sides: rails to rails, roads to roads, and empty sides touching empty sides. You can rotate or flip tiles however you like. If something doesn’t fit at all, it’s discarded. You’re also allowed to reject up to two tiles over the entire game, which can save you from some truly awkward draws.
Once all tiles are placed, players can add pawns according to the active tokens. Cars score along highways, trains along railways, and travellers can move between both, switching at stations. Each pawn scores immediately, up to five points. You can also spend a star pawn to place a different type of pawn than the one shown by the token, which gives you a bit of flexibility.
When everyone’s finished, the round ends. A star pawn is added to any column that wasn’t picked, and turn order is updated based on where players chose their tiles. If you picked from the leftmost column, you’ll act earlier next round. In a two-player game, one of the unused columns is randomly discarded each round using a coin flip token.
After the eighth round, you score for cities (groups of at least three connected town tiles), your biggest rectangle of tiles without holes, and any remaining star pawns. You’ll also lose points for having too many open routes, since anything beyond your first five costs a point. The player with the most prestige points wins.
Artwork, Components, and Visual Design
The look of Railroad Tiles will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s played Railroad Ink. It has that same warm, clean style, part map and part illustration. This time, though, the lines are printed on thick cardboard tiles rather than dry-erase boards.
The tiles are solid and pleasant to handle, with crisp colours that read well on the table. The mix of red rail lines and roads running through green and blue landscapes makes your map feel lively without being busy. By the end of a game, your area looks like a small city, full of details but still easy to read.
The wooden tokens are small but nicely shaped. Cars are blue, trains are yellow, and travellers are red. They’re simple, but they add life to your map. The white star pawns are a nice touch too, standing out just enough.
The station board in the middle of the table is both functional and decorative, with its clock tower illustration and clear layout for turn order and tile columns. Everything is practical and neat, which makes sense for a game about tidy connections.
Production quality is high overall, with good quality cardboard, clean printing, and wooden pieces that feel good to move around. It’s not overly flashy, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s solid and thoughtfully made.
Our Experience
Our first play of Railroad Tiles felt immediately comfortable. It carries over the same satisfying planning as Railroad Ink, but the drafting makes it a little more interactive. There’s always that slight tension as tiles disappear before your turn, leaving you with a backup plan you didn’t really want but now have to pretend was part of the strategy all along.
Building your network is satisfying. Each tile placed feels like a step forward, even when it’s a small one. Watching your roads, railways and towns come together is the real joy here. Scoring is quick and visible, so you always have an idea of how you’re doing, which keeps the game flowing nicely.
The rules are logical and easy to teach. The placement tokens give the game a nice flow from round to round, forcing you to think a bit ahead about when certain pawn types will be available. The game keeps moving forward without ever feeling like work.
By the final rounds, everyone’s play area looks different. Some are neat and compact, others are sprawling and chaotic. It’s fun to see how each approach develops.
We also played with the objective tiles, which add extra scoring conditions like connecting certain features or meeting placement goals. They’re simple but effective, and they mix things up nicely without overcomplicating it.
If you’re familiar with Railroad Ink, the difference is clear. That one is a personal puzzle where everyone works with the same dice rolls. Railroad Tiles adds direct competition through drafting and gives the puzzle a more tactile, physical feel. Both share the same DNA, but the experience is noticeably different.
Our Thoughts
Railroad Tiles feels like a natural evolution of Railroad Ink. It takes a familiar concept and gives it structure and weight. Seeing your network physically take shape is satisfying, and it’s hard not to admire your little city by the end.
That said, it’s not doing anything particularly new. It’s smoother and more deliberate than Railroad Ink, but not necessarily more exciting. The round structure is clear but can start to feel repetitive after a few games if you don’t add the objectives. The pacing is calm and steady, which some will love and others might find a bit too gentle.
The strategy makes you think, but it never turns into brain burn. You need to stay organised, close your routes, and plan ahead just enough to make things connect. It’s rewarding when it all works, but not punishing when it doesn’t.
We found it plays best at three players, where there’s just enough tension in the draft without too much chaos. Two players feels more like a puzzle duel, while four adds a bit of pressure but also more waiting time.
In the end, Railroad Tiles isn’t a game that tries to surprise you. It’s one that wins you over by being pleasant, balanced, and satisfying to play. It’s the kind of game that feels easy to bring out on a weekday evening, gives you something interesting to think about, and leaves the table looking great.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Horrible Guild.
