[23/52] Game Engine-ering: Railway Empire DLCs Ranked

We're going to introduce a new sub-series this week. If you haven't noticed in our previous "software development" projects, I'm a big fan of game design and engine analysis. We're going to apply some of these ideas in our consideration (and ranking) of different DLCs for the great game "Railway Empire". Get ready for a tier list!

Metrics

We're going to identify several key mechanics for the core game and across scenarios to extract specific metrics (more qualitative than not!). We'll consider these metrics for each DLC and rank them on a S/A/B/C/F grade. Of course, these metrics are heavily weighted by how closely related they are to the parts of the game I enjoy! So, your mileage may vary.

At its core, "Railway Empire" can be described as a non-Cartesian Factorio. It's a basic logistics management game, with some degree of operations scheduling (I think of it as a fluids transport problem!). The non-linearity of the networks you build, as well as the relationships between different goods you transport and produce, mean that geography in particular is a key consideration. Building lots of tunnels and bridges, with no thought for terrain, will be exceedingly expensive. There are also considerations for predicting and planning how resources will be gathered and distributed, as well as the usual "economics game" mechanics like investment, buyout, and research.

But one thing that makes scenarios particularly interesting in Railway Empire is the degree to which they treat historical context with a lot of love. In the core game, this means real considerations for issues of technology development, trade patterns, transcontinental rail routes, and the critical difficulty of crossing the Mississippi. In various DLCs, this means fun insights into contemporary technology & politics, as well as entertaining lessons in geography and historical events.

So, our basic metrics for consideration are:

• Topography: Is it balanced & realistic, well-utilized over the whole of the map, varied (but not too asymmetric), and a good mix of challenge and feasibility?

• Scenario: Are there unique mechanics and decisions in the scenario? Are the objectives challenging? Does the scenario contribute to replay-ability?

• Learning: Are there interesting insights into history and geography? Do you learn about interesting real-world events, trade patterns, and historical characters?

• Artwork: Are different models and other artwork customized for that particular scenario? How many custom entities (like engines, player avatars, resource trees, and landscape features) are interesting and unique to that scenario?

With that outlined, let's get going.

Argentina (South America)

This expansion actually includes three scenarios (Argentina, Brazil, and Peru), even though they are each the same map and scenario from three different perspectives. But it does give you three perspectives of development in South America, with significant impact on patterns of growth and impacts of geography.

The map is a healthy variety of geography that covers a decent amount of the continent. You can appreciate how complicated a continent South America is, and how challenging it would have been to develop rail networks across different countries.

Good things about this DLC include the fact that there are multiple scenarios. The characters and personalities you encounter are interesting and entertaining, and there's a great variety of geography. There's a decent spread of cities (though with one void in the middle that forces a specific predictable pattern of north-south arteries).

But the geography is not particularly well balanced or distributed (good luck if you play a competitive match starting out in Chile!). Resources aren't particularly unique.

As a result, I dropped this one in "B" tier.

Australia

The Australia background menu art is great--something I actually hadn't originally considered. But the best thing about this DLC's scenario is the historical perspective. You are shepherding the growth of an entire continent from it's origins as a penal colony all the way to robust and industrialized independence.

The custom mechanism in this DLC (a "settlement" mode that lets you customize the manner in which new cities are established and developed, and in turn lets you "unlock" different resource sites) is interesting, and while it can be a little annoying it's nice to have a greater degree of customization over how the map develops over the course of a game. But there's a real sense of history as those cities develop and a good degree of replay-ability as a result.

But the geography is very uneven. You will be resource-constrained throughout much of the game so having the cash on hand to build through coastal mountain regions (or gather resources buried in their foothills) can be expensive the moment you move away from the narrow strip of relatively-even coastal ground.

I originally put this in "C" but I ended up moving this to "A" tier as I went through it for review. The artwork really isn't bad and I really do appreciate the novelty of the "settlement" mechanic and the way it allows a degree of customization.

Canada ("Great Lakes")

Half of this map is going to be familiar from the core game. You can tell how much of the original northeast and midwest scenarios are reused here for the United States portion of the map. But being able to build out heavy arteries along the St. Lawrence channel is rewarding and the mechanic (a snow-storm that slows down a significant portion of trains in the northern part of the map) adds an interesting twist.

The goods are also interesting and a "trading center" mechanic gives you the flexibility to get key resources even though they aren't available (or producible) domestically. But the scenario itself (even when not playing "easy" difficulty) is pretty "meh". You don't have the same sense of growth and "unlocking" you get from the Australia DLC. The beginning is a little bit tricky (though not crazy, you are just very constrained with respect to the resources you have access to) but once you get your arteries going and a portion of the resources are unlocked, you can sleep-walk your way to presidency.

I ended up putting this one in "C" tier. It wasn't challenging or innovative and I simply didn't get the same sense of buy-in.

France

Some good things about this scenario: While there are some interesting historical aspects to the scenario story line, the big winning point is the fact that you choose partway through between two branches or alliances. This determines which direction of the map you migrate towards during the middle portion of the scenario, as well as how difficult your final objectives are.

But even then (and with the "region" unlocking mechanic), you don't use much of the map, and the portion you do use doesn't force you to grow much or include much consideration for the topography, which is particularly bland. There are a few interesting places along the edges (including a criminally-underutilized northeast corner, where you practically ignore Belgium; Luxembourg; and most of Alsace-Lorrainee) but you never really "have" to play through them and what's left simply isn't challenging.

I almost dropped this into "F" tier because the game play is so blasé. I ended up putting it in "C" tier because the "split" scenario story line is redeeming. There are also interesting variations on resources. (Whereas wine is a rare / higher-tier resource in Australia, it is a much lower "fundamental" tier in France. THE FRENCH NEED THEIR WINE! At least according to the developers.)

Germany (and surrounding areas)

"Patchwork" is the name of this scenario, so it's no surprise you have to "unlock" access to different regions. But Germany has a great cross-section of historical events during the unification of the country from various regional principalities--and the railway (in conjunction with some interesting historical characters) plays a key historical role in how this region is unified.

The map is also huge, with a significant variety (while well-distributed) of topography. You also learn a lot of interesting geography--different regions and cities across Germany (and surrounding countries, like Poland and Austria).

The scenario is also challenging--satisfyingly so. It gets quite difficult in the second half, and by the end (after many unsuccessful attempts) I found myself compiling spreadsheets that tracked the growth of different cities to hit the final objective. There are 10 cities that have to grow beyond 120,000 residents, which (in this game) is a big reach that requires a lot of coordination and "logistical nuking" of specific cities with multiple warehouses and dedicated lines. Careful planning, some luck with promoters, and consideration of how key goods can move around quickly within critical "clusters" of cities ends up being very important.

I had to go pretty hardcore to beat this one, but it was very rewarding. I bumped this one straight to the top--"S" tier all the way.

Japan

First thing about Japan--for one DLC, you get three maps (all of Honshu and Hokkaido; northern Honshu; and southern Honshu) and two scenarios. The scenarios focus on earlier Japan (northern Honshu) as the emperor decides to open up and industrialize the country, and later Japan (southern Honshu) as you attempt to consolidate private networks into a national rail line.

The geography is definitely unique. Going from Tokyo down to Kyoto is not easy--this is a mountainous island chain, after all. There is also a "traveler" mechanic that looks at specific properties of particular routes and where passengers "want" to go (based on attractions and other factors).

But the thing that stands out most in this DLC is the degree of art customization, which blows every other DLC out of the water. The player avatars are all customized (Don Lorenzo is a sumo wrestler, for example) with their own Japan-related twist, and the resources are almost completely unique. The objectives are challenging, the region-unlocking patterns are unique, and the landscape artwork (including the towns, engines, and forests of seasonally-pink cherry trees) are simply wonderful. You can tell this DLC was a real tribute and act of love.

Of course there are fundamental limits (even for the more focused maps) imposed by a linear geography, so you don't get as great a use of the overall "space" within the map (e.g., compared to the more rectangular Germany). But that's the worst thing I can say about a great DLC. "S" tier, all the way. Wonderful stuff.

Sweden (Scandinavia)

This map includes middle & southern Sweden, a corner of Norway, and almost all of Denmark. There is a decent mix of topography (though building routes out to Denmark are pretty fixed, and the mountains in Norway just saturate the topography with challenges). There is also a "snow" mechanic (like Canada), but unlike Canada it covers a significant portion of the map (not just the northern "slice"). Norway regions, for example, are practically unusable during the winter. In fact, the snow mechanic is probably too much--instead of penalizing trains to 5% (or so) speed, it should probably be 20% or 25%.

But there are some redeeming aspects. There is some insightful and humorous dialog from your advisor, and interesting consideration of historical context. But the scenario itself is very "meh" and unremarkable. The final objectives are both optional and practically impossible (with very strict time limits). Expansion into Norway is inevitable and by the time you get access to Denmark (a full 30% or so of the build-able map area) the scenario is basically over.

For that reason, I put this one in "C" tier.

GB/UK (Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales)

The fact that these scenarios give you a historical narrative is nowhere more obvious than in this scenario. The super-basic locomotives you start with are literally some of the earliest trains that ever existed. There's a real sense of history in building out the very first rail networks, and a consideration of how important those events were for the industrialization of England in particular.

The resources aren't bad, and there are a lot of custom engines. But the geography is poorly utilized and it's hard to look past how irrelevant (both difficult and not worth the mediocre reward) Ireland and Scotland are. (Did you know you could build a bridge across the Sea of Ireland!? Apparently this is a thing.) This geography is horribly utilized everywhere outside of England, and the scenario itself never reaches beyond that area.

They probably should have either done three separate maps (where you could better expand upon and utilize the unique geography in Scotland and Ireland) or purely focus on England and Wales itself. This would make better use of the more-rectangular area of central England, because you can't really do anything productive in the northern and western areas of the map.

The scenario itself is challenging-ish; it's one of the first scenarios where you really have to think about deliberate growth for a city beyond 100,000 (needing to coordinate multiple stations, etc.). This is a good DLC but it could have been a lot better. The historical context and unique engines are great though, so overall I ended up putting this one in "A" tier.

Mexico

This scenario is fun. It doesn't have the challenge or efficient utilization of size & geography that Germany does. But it's a great scenario that gives you appreciation of the complex topography of Mexico and the challenges involved in building out a Mexican rail network.

Another entertaining part of this scenario is the choice or "split" scenario that forces you to choose (largely as a function of where you deliver key resources) between two different historical allies, which has an impact on where you grow and how you place an emphasis on different resources. Both allies also come with an entertaining script of dialog.

Another interesting part of the game is the cross-border relationship with cities and other locations in Texas & the southwest US. You get a real appreciation for key cities like Monterey, even as regions like the Yucatan are relatively underutilized, across an interesting path of topography.

For these reasons I put this in as a solid "A". There isn't a lot of customization of artwork and locomotives, and not a lot of competition with other rail networks. But the "split" choice does give you a degree of replay-ability that you wouldn't otherwise get from the challenge of the scenario itself (it wasn't the easiest one, but I definitely wasn't whipping out my Germany spreadsheets!)

Winners and Losers

Of course, we haven't dropped anything into "F" tier. But I'll force myself to choose a winner from "S" tier and a loser from "C" tier.

Between Germany and Japan, I'd select Germany as the winner. The map area is just much better utilized and as a result the topography (which is already more balanced) feels much bigger.

Between the "C" tier candidates, I was torn between choosing Canada and France. I don't think either one is horrible, but in the case of Canada the scenario simply wasn't that challenging or interesting, and at least in France you had the "split" scenario story line, whereas in Canada you didn't even have that much of a unique map to play with. Sorry Canada, but into last place you go.

Conclusion

While it has a learning curve, Railway Empire is a fantastic game if you're looking for a less-linear Factorio alternative with some interesting educational twists. It's a classic spiritual successor to the Tycoon series and the DLCs are a work of a love for trains that really shines through. You really do get something for your money.