Train robbery which outcome depends on luck – Colt Express

Hurried steps from the roof of the train and a few gunshots. The Union Pacific Express is being robbed on the 11^th of July in 1899. The bandits are here, to rob the passengers. Only one bandit can be the richest and now is your turn to strategize, or mostly, hope that luck is on your side so you could be the winner.

3D cardboard train with wooden figures inside the carts

The train that works as the board and the player figurines inside it. Yellow is the Marshal

The game is played on a 3D train. The players act as bandits who are small wood figures placed inside the train. There is also a Marshal that the players can move to make the game more difficult since no one can be inside the same cart the Marshal is. The prizes, such as gems, money bags or suitcases can only be placed inside the train carts and hold a value from 250$ to 1000$. The players need specific cards for their actions such as moving from one cart to another, climbing up and down, taking the money item or shooting or punching another player. Eventually, all your actions come down to which cards you manage to get for the round and how the other players use their cards. The winner will be the player who has got most money at the end of the game.

Character called Belle and different cards on the character sheet

Left to right. The bullet cards you give when shooting another bandit, your character card and your own deck

The bandits’ players can choose from

At the beginning of the game, you choose your bandit and organize your own bullet cards and deck in front of you with the goods you’ve collected. Every bandit has their personalized deck where they lift their hand cards. The bandits have special powers such as not being counted as a target for shooting if there’s another player available. This adds more to the game by personalized elements and, more to remember. During our playthrough, we usually forgot the special powers and just afterwards realized that something could have been avoided.

When a round starts, a card is revealed that tells the players how many cards will be played and whether they are played face down or not. Then there are two phases: scheming and stealing. During scheming the players play cards on their turn from their hand to a common deck. One hindrance to the game is getting bad cards that won’t fit your plan and you might need to skip a turn and take more cards from your deck instead. You can choose what actions you want or try to come up with a strategy, but remember, other players are also planning on what to do so keeping an eye on what cards they choose could be beneficial.

game cars with character images with different acction pictures, like arrows or a gun

the picture on the left shows a good hand with only personalized action cards, the right one shows a hand where you’ve got bullet cards “x” and need to skip turns to lift more cards

When all the rounds from the round card are played the common deck is turned around. Then starts the stealing phase and you together act based on the cards in the order they were placed. If the first player puts down a moving card, they move. The second player could have put down a punching card, thinking the first player was in the same cart with them. Since the first player moved, the second player can’t act on their plan. Some cards can be placed face down in the scheming phase, so all planning could be in vain if someone plays a card to move the Marshal to your cart and you’ll need to move to the roof. They could also play a card they steal the goods from the cart before you. Also, when another player shoots you, you must add their bullet card to your deck. If you are unlucky, you could get all the bullet cards and must skip turns just to get action cards.

It took us the first game to understand completely what we as players could do and how many different outcomes the cards could have. The rules were best learned during playing, and it felt logical in the end. Trying to keep calm when you can’t get your figure from the small train cart was a common occurrence during playing, sometimes the whole cart even fell. However, the added thrill of not knowing what others had chosen as their cards made the game enjoyable. I liked how we had different phases, first, you had to try and strategize and then you could see the moves and story unveiling. The game’s colourful visuals made it fun, and a 3D board was a great addition regardless of the occasional struggle.

Basic info:
Designer: Christophe Raimbault
Publisher: Ludonaute
Release date: 2014
Number of players: 2-6
Playing time: 40 min
Ages: 10+

Pictures: from the game Colt Express, taken by the author

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Karoliina Kotilainen

Exploration enthusiast who has a bad habit of speed-running new content to see it all. Preferably playing action-adventure RPG’s but sometimes she can be found arguing with friends in co-op puzzle games or trying horror games with eyes closed.

#strategy ##boardgame ##cardgame