Every so often we have a "Game Night" at Dart, where some of the employees will stay a few hours after work to play fun board and card games.  This is a review of Steam (the Basic Game).

Steam is a strategy board game for 3-5 players designed by Martin Wallace and published by Mayfair Games.  This may be the "heaviest" game we have played on a Dart game night.  There were three of us playing and it lasted several hours.

In Steam, players take on the roles of railroad executives, upgrading their locomotives and building track over hexagon-spaced terrain in order to deliver goods between cities.  The game employs what is often referred to as a "pick up and deliver" mechanic, where in-demand goods are delivered from one location to another in order to score points.  Each link of track used to deliver a good scores a point for its owner.  The key to the game is to build a widespread network so that goods are delivered over many links and therefore score many points.

Steam is part of a family of train games by designer Martin Wallace.  Other similar games include Volldampf, Age of Steam and Railroad Tycoon (with Glen Drover).  Steam compares favorably to these titles, especially for players new to the genre.  Play is streamlined in Steam, as it lacks the auctions in Age of Steam, and the open-ended action choices in Railroad Tycoon.  Instead, there are a set number of rounds of three distinct phases:  an action tile selection phase (providing some benefit for the round, such as the ability to build 4 tracks instead of 3), a build track/urbanize phase, and a deliver goods/upgrade locomotive phase.  Players can therefore concentrate on how to maximize their actions, rather than figuring out what actions to take.

I really enjoyed Steam.  Connecting two cities geographically a great distance apart, delivering goods over several-link chains, even just getting out of debt for the first time - all invoke a sense of rewarding accomplishment.  There is also great tension between your turns, as you hope the other players do not build track where you want to, or deliver goods that you were hoping to deliver. 

My fellow Dart employees also enjoyed the game. 

According to Jason, "It was pretty good; more of a strategy game than others we've played.  If you do not invest in a solid infrastructure in the beginning, you may jump out to an early lead, but you'll be out in the end.  It was definitely entertaining."

Ed says, "I liked the game.  It was a bit long, but it was easy to understand and I enjoyed playing it.  I also liked the fact that my hometown of Utica was on the board." 

I also liked that the map was largely from areas that I am from and am familiar with (though it is disappointing that Binghamton, my college town, is misspelled on the board as "Binghampton"!).

Overall, Steam gets high marks as a strategy game that can be played by hardcore games, as well as casual gamers who do not mind an occasional heavier game that will take a few hours to play.

Find out more about Steam at Boardgamegeek.com