T-Shirt Tuesday: Empire Builder

Previously on Cartophilia:

Railroad board games with great maps: Railways of the World (Railroad Tycoon), Ticket to Ride and Settlers of America: Trails to Rails.

However, there is an entire category of rail games not yet covered here; the so-called "crayon games". The grandaddy of these game from Mayfair is Empire Builder. In this game, you actually get to DRAW ON THE GAME BOARD with special wax crayons, or depending on the board, dry-erase markers. In Empire Builder, you build track routes between cities of North America by drawing the connections. Build an efficient network and deliver goods between these cities to make the most money.



Empire Builder is just the beginning. Also available, Eurorails:


[Boardgame map photos from BoardGameGeek]

Other Mayfair crayon rail game maps include Britain, Australia, India, China, Russia and Mars!

In these games you cannot help but learn a few things about the geography of these countries and regions. Which brings us to the T-shirt for today: Everything I know about U.S. Geography I learned from Empire Builder, available from Off World Designs.



Actually, I already knew a fair amount of geography before playing these games, but they are great fun nonetheless.

HT to Phil (Thatsaabguy)