Osprey Games’ Quaint Village Rails Card Game Out Now!

October 11, 2022 by brennon

Osprey Games has now released their lovely, quaint and incredibly fun card game, Village Rails. Matthew Dunstan and Brett Gilbert's new card game is out in the wild with some beautiful illustrations from the talented Joanna Rosa.

Village Rails // Osprey Games

Village Rails works for between two and four players and is a tight puzzle where you'll be putting down tracks to build train lines throughout the British countryside. Alongside finishing train lines, you'll also be working to satisfy the whims of the locals and gain extra money by finishing routes in spectacular fashion.

Game-wise, I think Village Rails falls into that category of "a big experience in a small box". Whilst the basics of gameplay are explained across two of three pages of the tiny rulebook in the box, the real meat of the game comes in working out where to place tracks and when to go big, spending your hard-earned cash on trips to secure you bonus victory points.

Village Rails - Components // Osprey Games

You can get victory points from a lot of different sources in Village Rails but you'll always be working to try and maximise your points through clever placement of tracks. Because the market is ever-shifting and other players will be snagging cards that you want potentially, you will need to have some contingency plans in place!

I've played two games of Village Rails so far and both were very different. The first was a smorgasbord of points and I got over 100 when the final score was added up. In my second game, I only got seventy-odd points! It's very interesting seeing how you need to tweak and change your plans when presented with new player tableaus and a new mix of cards.

I don't think Village Rails is going to be the game that fills out your entire game night but games play fast enough that you could include this at the beginning or end of a session with your friends. If you do want to take things to the next level, I could see this being really fun to play over a three-game series though, adding up your totals to see who wins outright!

Osprey Games has constantly surprised me when it comes to their games of late. Village Rails hits all the right notes for me, especially when packed into such a small box. Village Green, The King Is Dead, Undaunted, High Society, London and The Lost Expedition have all been excellent releases over the last few years.

If you're looking for a fun, compact card game I would certainly recommend snapping up Village Rails.

Are you tempted to snap this one up?