Railway Empire
Capturing the complexity of building a transcontinental railroad makes Leif Johnson a mostly happy management man…
Capturing the complexity of building a railway makes Leif Johnson a mostly happy management man.
August 1867 saw a band of Cheyennes in Nebraska try to thwart the railroads that were porting unwanted change through their homelands. Tying a “big stick” to the tracks, they cheered as it derailed a handcar, prompting them to slaughter all but one of the passengers. There’s none of that in Railway
Empire, even though the campaign’s opening chapter also kicks off on the flat, tutorial-friendly expanses of the Great Plains in the 1860s. The map itself is geographically accurate, with the gentle ripples of the plains erupting into the crests of the Rocky Mountains, but much like this history, it’s only the broad strokes of the real thing. This gives direction in both the campaign and the scenario mode – which tasks you with projects like rebuilding the South’s railroad network after the Civil War – but don’t go into RailwayEmpire expecting to learn much.
You may be guided through the tutorial by Thomas Clark Durant, one of the head honchos of Union Pacific as it aimed to complete the eastern half of the Transcontinental Railroad, but the map itself is sprinkled with cities like Miles City, Montana and Grand Junction, Colorado that didn’t even exist in the 1860s. Thunderstorms sometimes obscure parts of the map, but there’s no sign of the buffalo herds that were driven to near-extinction, partly to clear the path for the iron horses. As entertaining as RailwayEmpire can be, it often comes off like a die-hard capitalist’s reverie, free of all the little inconveniences aside from direct competition that would prevent a profit.
Going from A to B via C-ville
RailwayEmpire does a good job of showcasing a railway’s complexity. Consider the actual act of laying tracks; the shortest route between two towns may be the fastest, but it also means you’re missing out on picking up out-of-the-way goods like wheat and cattle on the path from Omaha to Denver. The idea, then, is to put small stations near these farms so you can more easily transport their goods to the cities who want them.
RailwayEmpire keeps it fun by sticking to an overseer’s perspective. So while you often have to deal with the challenge of laying tracks through mountains, you’re more concerned with finding the money to do it. The campaign is smartly designed to ease you into
RailwayEmpire’s challenges, with the opening chapter starting on the easy contours of the Great Plains in the 1860s but then jumping backward to the 1830s to pit you against competitors on the East Coast. The setting then shifts to Civil War logistics, then to building bridges over the Mississippi River, and at last to the western half of the Transcontinental Railroad as it cuts is dangerous path through the mountains of America’s far west.
We’d have liked to have seen the actual history used to greater effect, but RailwayEmpire’s existing design comes into its own with the Free Mode, which enables you to build your networks free of objectives. The mid19th century saw the US giddy with the potential of a shockingly effective new transportation technology. This comes across beautifully in RailwayEmpire: there’s constant excitement as the rails snake across formerly empty expanses of prairie.