Strategy Train Game Features
- Empire Builder® computer 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, or live online vs. others at remote computers
- Play by email too
- Fast: humans can complete a match in under 20 minutes
- Fast: AI can complete a match in less than 5 seconds
- Adjustable AI skill level means bots can both gently teach beginners yet challenge game experts
- Hall of Fame logs the top scoring matches
- NEW! Board Game Assistant - city and load finder: click and they blink on map, great for beginners; customize to show your contracts
- Works on most Windows computers (98, XP, 7 and others) without the need for special drivers or browser
- Designed by a top-ranked Empire Builder player and tournament champion
- 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 need for a special server)
- Play locally via your home network (router) too
- 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
- Requires no "virtual currency" purchase to facilitate play
(Pbem)
- Enjoy the game vs. anyone with a copy of EBP and email service (screen shot)
- Automates the Pbem process for up to 6 players per match
- Emails the match to the next player so they can take their turn
- 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 for compatible SMTP email service
- Allows you to participate in multiple Pbem matches concurrently
- Technical details in PDF
- Employs a standard Windows user interface for familiarity and ease of use
- Run full-screen or in a window
- Zoom and scroll map
- Thumbnail mini-map with draggable viewport for easier zooming/scrolling and city/load locating
- Full color maps and load icons
- 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
- Ask the AI to suggest a good pickup/delivery plan for you
- Scrollable game history automatically logs all match activity
- Contracts of all players are displayed in scrollable window
- Click on one of your contract demands to raise a reminder flag
- Drag and drop your contracts into the display order you prefer
- Watch Special Demands and Open Contracts in same area as your contracts
- Cash and on-board loads of all players are displayed
- Mouse over cash box to blink player's train on map and thumbnail
- Point and click to move train or build track
- A train trails behind each engine to show the direction of each player's most recent movement
- Automove moves your train to a distant location you designate
- Autobuild suggests a good build route and displays total cost
- Autobuild sound effect provides feedback when the feature is used
- Loads window lets you drag and drop loads for pickup and delivery
- Color bar shows the number of "cards remaining in the deck"
- NEW! Supports play on touch-based devices like tablets/pads running Windows
(enable or disable
at your option)
- NEW! Autobuild - click distant mp and EBP suggests a good track build route
- Backtracking - trains can turn around after loss of a turn
- Blitz mode - everyone plays simultaneously yielding an intensely fast match
- Borrowing - players may receive cash loans to build or rent track
- Circus - the Circus load remains in the city at which it was delivered
- Crossgrading - Fast/Heavy Freight trains can be exchanged at a lower cost
- Discard 1 contract - each player can pitch 1 contract per round
- Equal-turns victory - each player gets the same number of turns
- Events - events can be enabled or disabled as you wish
- 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)
- No discarding - disallow pitching of contracts
- Open contracts - discarded contracts become available to all
- Pilgrims - Pilgrims can be transported for payment even without a demand contract
- Restarting - allows 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
- Switchback start - turn order reverses during initial build rounds
- Ultra freight - players can upgrade to an extra fast (usually speed 16) train
- NEW! Verify connectability - EBP will disallow a build that will block an opponent from connecting all big cities
- Warehousing - one load can be stored at each city
- Xspot novice - disallows 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
- Import contracts from the Crayon Rails Deck Generator
- 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
- 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
- NEW! 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.
- Use icons or text for on-map display of loads supplied by city
- Many display personalization features: helpful to users with limited vision
- View contracts of all players in a separate window (great on widescreen or dual monitors)
- Show or hide map background
- Show or hide event display on map
- Choose map zooming direction of mouse wheel
- Turn automatic map zooming on/off
- Turn train animation on/off
- Turn sound effects on/off
- Enable and choose an audible "my-turn" notification
- screen shot with dark bgnd and large text
- screen shot showing zoom into map
(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
- 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, 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
- Save games locally or NEW! Online (cloud)
- NEW! 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
- Sum stats from multiple instances running on multi-core computers
- Fast AI stat collection: runs ~10 million game turns per day on a quad-core computer
- View impact areas of any/all Events
- Compresses saved game files to minimize their storage space
- Context-sensitive in-game help system supplied in both HLP and CHM formats
- No advertisements to interrupt play
- Authorized by Mayfair Games