Strategy Train Game Features
- Empire Builder® digital version for 1 to 6 players
- Supports all common crayon rail game rules, terrain and events
- Play on a wide variety of game maps
- Play vs. AI (bots), others at your computer, live online vs. others elsewhere, and by email too
- Fast: humans can complete a match in under 20 minutes, expert humans under 10 minutes
- Fast: AI can complete a match in less than 1 second
- Hall of Fame logs the top scoring matches
- Board Game Assistant - city and load finder: click and they blink on map, great for beginners; customize to show your contracts
- Native Windows app that runs on most any computing device made since 2010
- EBP also runs under Linux via Wine or Crossover, or on a Mac via Parallels or Vmware Fusion
- iPad/iOS and Android devices via Windows Access or other emulators
- Designed by a top-ranked Empire Builder player and tournament champion
- Quality expected by elite strategy game players
- Also play online and via home network at your option for fresh, live competition beyond the AI bots
- Just connect with a friend via the Internet and play (no dependence on a third-party server)
- Play locally via your home network (router) too, privacy!
- Up to 6 players can participate in the same match
- Up to 70 spectators can observe the match
- Watch in real time as remote opponents build track
- Send messages to one or all players
- Auto-reconnect and resume in case connection drops
(Pbem)
- Enjoy the game vs. anyone with a copy of EBP and email service (screen shot)
- No need for everyone to be online simultaneously: EBP emails the match to the next player
- Automates the Pbem process for up to 6 players per match
- Event review shows a player all events since their last turn
- Scrollable banter box records comments from each participant
- Automove moves train for a player, reducing number of emails
- Nudge feature gently reminds a slow player to take his turn
- Remail feature recovers in case an email is lost
- Notify feature tells you who most recently took a turn
- Self-test checks email sending
- Optional manual email send mode works with all known email systems
- Allows you to participate in multiple Pbem matches concurrently
- Technical details in PDF
vs AI Bots
- Great for short breaks: experienced EBP users can complete a match vs AI in less than 10 minutes
- Choose from 0 to 5 AI bot opponents to see how game play differs
- Adjustable AI skill level means bots can both gently teach beginners yet challenge game experts
- Set bot skill level to Max if you want tournament-level competition
- We used Generative AI (in which AI teaches itself how to win) to refine Max skill bots
- Practice unfamiliar Game Variants (Open Contracts, for example)
- Try different strategies, EBP can deal contracts in same order repeatedly, if you wish
- Learn a new map before playing it with friends
- Bots can also add players to Online and Pbem matches of humans
- Full color game maps (geographic areas) and load icons
- Run full-screen or in a window
- Thumbnail mini-map with draggable viewport
- Scrollable game history automatically logs all match activity
- Contracts of all players are shown in a scrollable area, and optional separate window
- Watch Special Demands and Open Contracts in same area as your contracts
- Shows cash (when public) and on-board loads of all players
- A train trails behind each engine to show the direction of each player's most recent movement
- Color "thermometer" indicates the number of "cards remaining in the deck"
- Active events highlighted on the game map
- Offers a standard pull-down menu user interface for familiarity and ease of use
- Touch-interface supports tablets/pads: no keyboard, mouse, or stylus needed
- Zoom and scroll/drag main game map area
- Drag to allocate window space to map, contracts, and history as you prefer
- Mouse over cities to see what they supply, or loads to see where supplied
- Right click on city to find other cities that supply same loads
- Drag and drop your contracts into the display order you prefer
- Move your train or build track with a simple point-and-click or touch
- "Automove" moves your train to a distant location you designate
- Loads window lets you drag and drop loads for pickup and delivery, or use keyboard
- NEW! Cheat menu lets you manually override cash, engine, contracts and more
- Easiest: choose one opponent, and set its style to IA Newby, who plays like a novice
- To find a city, mouse over it on contracts to blink city on the map
- To find load suppliers, mouse over a contract's demanded load to blink those cities
- EBP shows cost or distance as you build track and move your train
- Information feature estimates your track build cost to any distant milepost you right-click upon
- "Build to" suggests a good track build route to the milepost you right-click upon
- "Suggest Plan" asks the AI to calculate a good load pickup/delivery plan for you
- Click on one of your contract demands to raise a load-pick-up reminder flag
- Mouse over cash box to blink any player's train on map and thumbnail
- Shows relative value of each load type to help you choose a good extra one to carry
configurable options
- Toughest: choose five AI bot opponents, all set to Hill style and Max skill
- EBP's Max skill level AI plays as well as human tournament finalists
- For a given load type, blink demand cities that have yet to be drawn from contract deck
- Turn off Events to reduce luck and emphasize skill
- Play in lightning fashion (blitz mode), with just a few seconds to complete your turn per round
- Play with a set of generated, randomized contracts, or ones you create
- Randomly scramble city locations
- EBP's AI opponents can help you up your game to win tournaments because they never run out of steam
- For the ultimate challenge, permit AI bots to deal themselves better contracts
- Modify or create maps with the EBPEdit map editor
(enable or disable
at your option)
- Backtracking - trains can turn around after loss of a turn
- Blitz mode - everyone plays simultaneously yielding an intensely fast match
- Borrowing (Mercy) - players may receive cash loans to build or rent track
- Circus - the Circus-type load waits in the city at which it is delivered
- Crossgrading - Fast/Heavy Freight trains can be exchanged at a lower cost
- Deal in deck order - contracts are given out in numeric order (i.e. without shuffling)
- Discard 1 contract - each player can pitch 1 contract per round
- Engines: standard - override a map's custom locomotives and instead use the standard ones
- Equal events - ignore events after a player meets victory conditions
- Equal-turns victory - each player gets the same number of turns
- Events - events can be enabled or disabled as you wish, even individually
- Extra-contracts start - each player starts with up to 6 demand contracts
- Extra load - each train can carry one more load than usual
- Fast trains - trains move at 1/3rd greater speed
- Honeymoon 2-player - reduces load quantity and city access, plus locks deliveries
- Light trains - trains carrying fewer loads can move faster (+1 to +3 per turn)
- Manual card entry - choose the "cards" each player is dealt
- No discarding - disallow pitching of contracts
- Open contracts - discarded contracts become available to all to deliver upon
- Pilgrims - Pilgrims can be transported for payment even without a demand contract
- Rebuild chance - players get an exclusive opportunity to rebuild their track destroyed by an event
- Restarting - allow players to restart if they get into a bad situation
- Slow freight - players start with a slow speed (usually speed 6) train
- Sudden death - play until contract supply is exhausted
- NEW! SuperPowers - choose your unique ability (move farther, event immunity, and 6 others)
- Switchback start - turn order reverses during initial build rounds
- NEW! Tiebreak - choose how much extra cash it takes to break ties for victory
- Ultra freight - players can upgrade to an extra fast (usually speed 16) train
- Verify connectability - EBP will disallow a build that would block an opponent from connecting all big cities
- Warehousing - one load can be stored at each city
- Warehousing (private) - warehouse in medium-sized cities is controlled exclusively by first player to build there
- Xspot novice - disallow load stealing on maps with Xspot load generation
- Choose an avatar image to display
- Choose AI play style and skill level
- Modify demand contracts or randomize them
- Employ 1 to 6 demands per random contract
- Import contracts from the Crayon Rails Deck Generator
- Reprice delivery payoffs on existing contracts
- Change money settings for starting cash, winning cash, terrain build cost, track rental fee, etc.
- Change play settings such as number of major cities to connect, ferry operation, warehousing duration, and more
- Choose which contracts are assigned Circus demands
- Randomize city locations: it's like playing on a whole new map
- Over 16 million different such randomized layouts possible for each game map
- Create your own themes (map backgrounds and load icons) via your favorite image editor
- Reports of city, load and terrain data
- Contracts and events already seen during match, and those still pending
- Most frequently used travel corridors
- Total load deliveries by load type
- Load deliveries by city
- Graphs of history of player cash and net worth during match
- Player statistics: track spending, payoffs collected, average payoff, use fees paid, use fees collected, number of deliveries, number of speculative deliveries, event hits, total distance moved, payoff/distance, turn time spent, and more
- Most reports can be printed, or copied to the clipboard
- Print the Map display with players' track to document your match (sample 6m PDF)
- Choose the text font and size you prefer
- Select the map colors you prefer for terrain, rivers, desert, etc. (dark mode compatible)
- Use icons or text for on-map display of loads supplied by city
- View contracts of all players in a separate window (great on widescreen or dual monitors)
- Show/hide map background and/or event display
- Choose map zooming direction of mouse wheel
- Toggle off unnecessary animation, best modern train game for motion-sensitive players
- Sound effects on/off, including an audible "my-turn" notification
- Text-to-speech reads game contents aloud
- Many display personalization features: helpful to users with limited vision
- screen shot with dark bgnd and large text
- screen shot showing zoom into map
- Supports: Windows mouse settings, keyboard remapping, third-party input devices, macros, difficulty settings, save points, assists, speed settings, color-blind options, training levels, and more per AbleGamers.com
(use at your option)
- Save games to and open from online (cloud) storage via FTP
- Play live online vs others
- Play by email vs others
- Employ online images as avatars
- Download saved games directly from web site links
- Browse this web site to view what's new
- Automated download and install of game updates
- Internet connection not required for other features, i.e. you can play offline too
- Modify or create maps with the EBPEdit map editor
- Mileposts: normal, hidden, mountain, alpine, jungle, forest, city, desert, swamp, water, tunnel and xspot
- NEW! three-milepost triangular cities, can be counted for victory purposes or not as map designer prefers
- Draw: rivers, ferries, ocean coastline, volcanoes, borders, and barriers
- Contracts: edit individually, as a group, or text import from other sources
- Events: Derailment, Earthquake, Fog, Meteor Strike, Rainy Season, Revolution, Shortage, Snow, Special Demands, Storms, Strikes, Tax, and more
- Print map, across multiple pages if desired (photo of assembled 6-panel print after lamination)
- Print payoff chart, loads chart, contract and event cards
- Collaborate: Save maps in the game-standard .ebm text format
- Cloud storage (optional): pause match on one device, easily resume it on another
- Fully tablet-compatible: fingertip touch control of all game elements
- Ultra-high resolution display support, including 8K UHD 7680 x 4320
- Quantum randomness (optional): truly random, non-deterministic contract draws
- Generative AI used to refine Max skill bot play
- Supports multi-monitor systems, remembering across sessions your preferred window locations
- Play live online with your friends, plus spectators (optional)
- Groups can play via your home network, without dependence on a third-party game server
- Play on your smartphone (remote desktop, or emulator for iOS and Android)
- Concurrent use of multi-core processors for high performance
- Free updates installed automatically upon your request
- Pull-down menu operation, no intuition/guesswork needed
- Usability: Form follows function
- In-game context-sensitive help
- Evolutionary upgrades, no jarring changes that require mass relearning
- Designed for the long haul: timeless graphics that age better than the trend of the moment
- Sustainable: upgrades upwardly compatible with content of prior versions
- Tech support from USA-based staff
- Prompt repair of any repeatable problem in current version
- Not a train simulator or action game, EBP is a turn-based strategy game
- Not bloatware: compact, efficient design makes things easy on you and your device
- Not scamware: no in-game purchases needed to facilitate play
- No need to be online to play
- No third-party software or add-ons needed (Windows XP through 11)
- No subscription or ongoing fees needed to continue play
- No awkward, clueless, help-devoid user interface
- No advertisements to interrupt play
- No credit card needed for free 30-day trial
- No third-party account needed to play
- For your privacy, none of the user tracking so often done by apps and online services
- No javascript needed to play or to use this site
- Just the game and a popular operating system like Windows needed to play, as simple as this gets
- No dependence on third-party services means EBP won't break when those services change
- Will not overflow display memory no matter how high future screen resolutions reach
- No real-time delays during play, so EBP can run as fast as future hardware can operate
- Can separately save an unlimited number of AI-played games per second
- Can access an unlimited number of saved games and maps without error
- Simple graphics mean EBP will still work when support ends for complex graphics drivers
- Registration costs about the same as one board game, yet EBP does so much more
- Hall-of-Fame remembers the top victories
- Thousands of users have played millions of matches
- Customers tell us EBP (and RBP) are the only modern games that run well even on their old laptop
- Game Replay plays back a match as if a movie so you can watch it unfold turn-by-turn
- Compute the "best trip" for any set of contracts
- Set up AI-only match, played repeatedly to gather statistics and analyze maps and strategies
- Fast AI stat collection: can run over 40 million game turns per day (benchmark: 3.6 GHz quad-core computer running 4-player AI max-skill matches on EUR map using map's default rules)
- View impact areas of any/all Events
- Compresses saved game files to minimize their storage space
- Authorized and endorsed by Mayfair Games