Whose train car is it anyway?
Any train fans here? 😄 I have to admit, I am no expert when it comes to trains or train themed board games, but I think Movers & Shakers will be loved by many! It is the newest upcoming game from @quinedgames , the publisher behind great euro titles like Carnegie or Stupor Mundi. You might also know designers Nuno Bizarro Sentieiro and Paulo Soledade from games like Nippon or Asian Tigers. 🙃
You play as a railway 🚂 magnate in 19th-century Bengal, transporting goods between Benares and Calcutta, fulfilling contracts, and investing your profits as you see fit.
We had the pleasure to try the prototype last week, so let’s see what we discovered! 🕵️♂️
The highlights of the game are the trains themselves (naturally) and the way you can load up freight cars and move them along the board. It’s a highly interactive experience, as any player can put their own goods cubes into anyone’s trains (if they’re at an appropriate station), and any player can move anyone’s train. Trains can also push each other forward due to the narrow tracks. In bigger junctions it’s possible to split or merge trains, adding a very interesting layer to the whole movement puzzle. 😉
The other highlight is the action selection itself. 👉You have 6 slots on your player board, and you will play 6 cards into them, one per turn. When placing the card you decide whether you cover the top or the bottom part of the slot, then activate both the card’s action and the board's uncovered action. It's a fun dilemma to think about what order to do things in, and with every decision you also give up some effects.
Cards mostly just give train movement or crate loading effects in different values, but some of them have a conditional stronger effect - if you manage to plan ahead to meet the requirement.
Turns are snappy and you are also highly invested in what others are doing (as they are often inadvertently or not moving your cars too), so downtime is really minimal. It's all about cunningly filling your cubes into cars and letting others push your trains forward. 😁
A prototype of this game was kindly shared by the publisher for us to try out. Just a heads-up: all the components are prototypes, so things might look or play a bit differently in the final version. For more details, check out our content policy.
