Metro - a game for 2 to 6 players, ages 8 and upwards that easily plays within 30 to 45 minutes.
The objective is to place pieces of track such that your trains travel as far as possible before reaching their destination, ideally in the centre of Paris in which case the trains score is doubled. You get 1 point for each change of tile between the start and end point of your train.
Components
60 Track Tiles
"Metro Line" Cards
61 Subway Cars (16 Blue, 16 Yellow, 10 Orange, 8 Green, 6 Lilac, 5 Black)
1 Game Board
6 Coloured Pawns (one each of Blue, Yellow, Orange, Green, Lilac and Black)
1 Rules Booklet
Setting Up
Layout the Game Board and then shuffle the 60 track tiles and place them face down into a number of piles.
Give each Player a Subway Car Marker and the player then takes the Subway Cars of their colour as shown below:
- 2 Players use Yellow and Blue with 16 Subway Cars each.
- 3 Players use Yellow, Blue and Orange with 10 Subways Cars each.
- 4 Players use Yellow, Blue, Orange and Green with 8 Subways Cars each.
- 5 Players use Yellow, Blue, Orange, Green and Lilac with 6 Subways Cars each.
- 6 Players use Yellow, Blue, Orange, Green, Lilac and Black with 5 Subways Cars each.
Place the Pawns for each player by the 0 marker on the score board on the edge of the Game Board.
Now you are ready to start.
Game Play
Starting with the youngest player, each player then draws and places a tile sequentially.
There are 3 points to consider when placing a tile.
- Tiles may only be placed against an outer edge or orthoganally against a tile which has already been placed
- The arrow on the tile must match the direction of that shown on the board.
- Tiles may not be placed so that a Subway Car departs from and arrives back at the same station, unless that is the only possible move.
Once a length of track is completed such that a Subway Car can depart and arrive that Subway Car is scored. The Subway Car scores 1 point for each change of Track Tile, note that this may mean that one Track Tile is counted more than once. If the arrival point is in the centre of the board at one of the stations then the score is doubled.
Scoring occurs irrespective of the current player so that you can complete a length of track for a Subway Car for any player(s).
Your Tactics
Where to place a tile ?
Subway Cars at the corners are very vulnerable to being shorted and scoring as little as 1 point, so early moves may benefit from laying a tile to give your Subway Car some additional distance or scoring early for one of your opponents giving them a low value for that Subway Car.
The key to maximising your score is to try to get the longest length of track and ending up arriving at the centre of the board so don't necessarily take a direct route, look to see how you can extend your Subway Cars run.
Conclusion
This game can be played as a family friendly game where you optionally choose not to deliberately make other players Subway Cars arrive on the shortest route or a more adult game where such tactics are to the fore. Because it plays quickly and you could play with tiles open (similar to Carcassonne) then it is easy for experienced players to help those with less experience.
We played this game several times in a row, you could see our tactics evolving as we played and this game will make frequent appearrances in the future.
Optional Rules
Play the game being able to orient tiles in any direction.
The game ends immediately when 1 player has scored all of his Subway Cars. This will make you think twice about short scoring one of the other players because that's one less Subway Car for them to finish.
Play with 2 or more tiles in hand so that you have a choice of which to play, this is likely to lengthen the game as you will have more options to consider.
Additional Reviews
Details from Boardgamegeek
