Also, having Mur on was a blast (and it reminded me that I’m behind on “I Should Be Writing” because I didn’t want her making me feel guilty about not writing). Please bring her back again, although you have to fear her becoming more popular than you, like Garrett’s wife has on his show – heck, that’s why my lovely wife Christina will be kept off future episodes of Boardgame Babylon…;)

…ERB

Great show! I enjoyed it more with your wife as a co-host. Hope to hear her more on The Vintage Gamer, as well as maybe a little more of you on Geekfu. By the way, she is right-Lunar Rails is the best of the lot. I widh my Iron Dragon addicted game buddies would see the light, though.

And truthfully, stacking your money only does so much. Once you start cashing in for fifties, people get a pretty good sense of how much you have, even if you have a single on top.

Speaking of experience, I’m going to assume that you are the Steve associated with this FAQ, which does a better job summarizing the different games than we did. There’s also a list of variants, which some people might find useful.

I’ve been a subscriber to the Vintage Gamer since episode #8 and really enjoy the show.

The idea of bringing your wife on was genius. The rapport that you two have really comes through. I like that you both bring your own lively perspective to the review of the game and comment on each other’s play style. In fact, I’d love to hear more from the people you actually play the games with. Bring them on as guests, too! It lets us know a little more about you. Hiding your money, eh? Sneaky, Jim.

Empire Builder is less complex than 18xx, and less of a brain burner than Age of Steam. The crayons included with the game are softer than the common Crayolas, and they wipe off the smooth map with a paper towel.

1. Depends. An inexperienced group of 4 can take up to four hours to play. An experienced group can knock a game off in an hour. I’d say that the average time is about 2 hours, assuming everyone is focused on the game and avoids analysis paralysis.

The main thing that takes all the time is planning out your deliveries — if you don’t know the map well, you spend a good deal of your downtime and your turn just trying to find the cities.

I don’t recommend playing the game with more than 4, btw. It takes way too long between your turns, the map gets too crowded, and black and yellow are wretched colors on the board (black doesn’t wipe off easily (see below), and yellow is too hard to see).

2. I haven’t played either Age of Steam or 18xx, but my understanding is that Empire Builder and its ilk are less complex. There is no stock/trading aspect to it, for example.

3. Whoops, that would have been a good thing to cover during the show… the crayons are specially treated to wipe off the board when done. However, if you don’t wipe them off right away, some residue can remain behind. Because of that, some people lay down a sheet of plastic and use transparency pens instead.

When the crayons run out, you can use china markers or grease pencils.

1. How long do the Empire Builder games take to play?
2. How do they compare to other train games? Are they similar to Age of Steam? 18xx?
3. How do the crayons work? Do you just wipe them off when done? Do they damage the board?