If it sounds a bit crackers, it is, but there's no denying the dedication to the hobby that these players demonstrate, nor can one deny that they derive quite a bit of pleasure from their railroading activities. A couple months ago, a company called Eden Studios did an extraordinary thing. The mechanics are simple, and the premise straightforward, but as I've written earlier for GDR in an article on boardgame conversions , the things that make a great boardgame often don't translate well to the computer. So it's something of a shock to find that in the case of Iron Dragon , playing the computer version is almost as fun as playing the real thing.
Trains can carry two or three loads and have different movement rates.
Each player has one train, and is responsible for building rail lines on which to run this train in order to collect as much money as possible. Iron Dragon does everything that game did, and more, and does it as a stand-alone product. Iron Dragon is a departure from other crayon games by Mayfair in that it takes place on a fantasy world. It's strategy gaming at its finest, with just enough luck thrown in to make things interesting. Everything about Iron Dragon suggests an incredible attention to detail and understanding of what makes this type of game appealing.