Rail Europe Map by
cairnswk Guide by
stahrgazer Click image to enlarge. Introduction Wagonways, roads of wooden rails for horse-drawn carts, were being used in Germany as early as 1550. By 1776, iron had replaced the wood in the rails and wheels, and Tramways spread through Europe. In 1789, Englishman, William Jessup designed flanged wheels. This groove that allowed better grip on the rail was a feature of locomotives. Built by Richard Trevithick, the first steam locomotive began iron-hauling operations in 1804, 20 years before locomotives in the United States; the beginning of Europe's modern railways.
Now the Conquer Club player has a chance to travel Europe's intricate railways, from 3-stop stations as small as original wagonways to infamous 9-stop stations like the Orient Express. Rail Europe is
"Larger and has different play than Rail USA. Mixes the lineation of Rail USA assault lines with more standard style bonus zones, in conjunction with assault barriers at some stations," (cairnswk).
show: Classification
Size: Very Large – 83 regions.Features Double Dipping – Regions show up in multiple bonus zones (rail hub station regions like Venice J/K/L). Naming Challenges – Region names are written in a complex way occasionally causing deployment mistakes. (City station abbreviations and rail bonus zone letter designation like WAW Warsaw O) Assault Barriers - Region names form impassable barriers between rail lines in the same city station, like Brussels B that cannot assault Brussels H or O.
show: Characteristics by Bonus Zone
Zone…………………..…Regions……Interior……Shielded…DoubleDip........Bonus
Recommended Play Flat rate or no spoils team play, especially quadruples teams, is loads of fun on this map, with or without fog; but escalating works, too. Because of the linear aspects of the map, select chained reinforcements.
How to play Rail Europe With no bombardments and no alternative Victory Condition, the only way to win is to conquer every rail station region from every opponent.
show: Two Player
Each player begins with 27 regions in either two- or three-player games. Ö ln to effectively block the only path into the Vilnius Express. Another important line is the M-line, the Baltic Express, which has two assault points: Sprague (H-line) and Helsinki (G-line). Ö ln, Venice, and parts of Paris; a position in the A-Line; and station regions along the southern rails like P and F, which are longer rails for zone bonuses, but with limited access if the opponent can strengthen. For example, the F-line appears to be adjacent to Paris; but there is no F-line station region in Paris, so the only access is by assaulting the E-line.A mistake made frequently enough to mention is to assault multiple regions to capture a bonus, leaving insufficient defenses and a string of 1-troop regions. In counter-assault the opponent can easily conquer that string of weak regions to hold the bonus plus a substantial region count advantage.
show: Spoils
Escalating Flat Rate Surprise! Flat rate is recommended above escalating on this map. All spoils settings are viable for Rail Europe, but predicting the game winner based on spoils is far more likely with escalating than flat rate on Rail Europe. Those who normally avoid flat rate like the plague (because they do not want spoils predicting the outcome of the game) might want to give flat rate another chance for a little love here. Flat rate spoils makes a dynamite setting on this map. Honest! Nuclear spoils can be interesting play for this map. Because the map is so large with so many variable bonuses, nuclear is unlikely to be a game predictor, provided the player remembers to spread defenses rather than keep large troop stacks on only a select few regions. No Spoils makes a fun, strategic game for three or more players because of the many bonus zones available. For 1v1, choose flat rate; it can offset the first-turn advantage which exists on just about any map, even if the size and complexity of Rail Europe lessens the problem.
show: Manual Deployments, Multiplayer, Terminator, and Assassin Games
As you can see from the table below, the Manual setting enables a sizable first deployment, giving the first player an advantage that can decide games in the first round. While this is especially true with only 2 or 3 players, even with more players, the starting player can take a sizeable lead. In general, manual deployments are not recommended for this map, but if you must try them, invite more players for a balanced game.2-Player: 27 regions (29 neutral regions). Auto: 9 deployments. Manual: 54 deployments. 3-Player: 27 regions (2 neutral regions). Auto: 9 deployments. Manual: 54 deployments. 4-Player: 20 regions (3 neutral regions). Auto: 6 deployments. Manual: 40 deployments. 5-Player: 15 regions (8 neutral regions). Auto: 5 deployments, Manual: 30 deployments. 6-Player: 13 regions (5 neutral regions). Auto: 4 deployments. Manual: 26 deployments. 7-Player: 11 regions (6 neutral regions). Auto: 3 deployments. Manual: 22 deployments. 8-Player: 10 regions (3 neutral regions). Auto: 3 deployments. Manual: 20 deployments.
show: Team Games
The map can support doubles, triples, or quads team play.2-Team Doubles: 20 regions (3 neutral regions). 6 starting deployments (Manual: 40). 3-Team Doubles: 13 regions (5 neutral regions). 4 starting deployments (Manual: 26) 2-Team Triples: 13 regions (5 neutral regions). 4 starting deployments (Manual: 26) 2-Team Quads: 10 regions (3 neutral regions). 3 starting deployments (Manual: 20). very carefully . No spoils team play is fun, too. Targeting a player for elimination early in the game is less likely; instead, fighting over bonus zones will reveal the best candidate for elimination. The only real difference from 1v all strategy for team play is that generally each team will try to focus on clearing an area of the map. Be careful with that, however, because with that tactic, a teammate can be isolated for easier elimination.
show: Additional Notes
Some Bonus Zones to Focus On N: Vilnius Express. The only entrance to N-rail is through WAW- O to WAW-N, and WAW-O itself is hard to get to. The path to WAW is through PRG-O from KLN (C,H,O) which can be reached from BER-H, BRU-H, BRU-O, or FRT-C; The only other way in is through a right-side path from BUD-P to the front door at PRG-O. There is no middle path and the end path is a blind end, so that single entry at Warsaw through Prague can be strengthened for easy protection, once taken; even if Prague-O is lost, there are still two more regions to take before the N-line is broken (Warsaw-O and Warsaw-N).M: Baltic Express. Reached only by HEL-G to HEL-M (from STK-G:HEL-G, in turn from OSL-G:STK-G or STK-G:MLO-G); or SPG-H to SPG-M from SPG-H through BER-I:BER-H.G: Scan Rail. A longer rail with a sole entry at Hamburg. If the G-rail has a lot of neutrals, it may not be worth taking; instead, focus on taking and holding Berlin and Hamburg as defense and strike out from there. B: Benelux Express. Hamburg is the east end of this bonus. With its multiple access points, the B-line may be harder to keep, but it is worth looking at, if only to prevent the enemy from taking it.A: British Rail . In the northwest, this line usually has a lot of neutral regions, and with its multiple accesses at Paris (PAR-C:LON-C and PAR-D:Lon-D ; either of which hit LON-A) may be hard to defend, but if the drop is reasonable, do consider taking that bonus and certainly do not let the enemy hold it if you can help it.F: Rail Iberia. This rail in the southwestern corner has only two interior and exterior assault regions, at IRN-F:IRN-E and MRS–F:MRS-E. This 7-region rail for a mere +2 bonus is usually not worth taking, but it is also a line a player does not want to lose to the opponent. Other lines people may notice are relatively isolated are the P: Ukraine Rail , the D: Sim-Orient Express , the K: Ven-Sim Orient Exp and the L: Trenitalia , toward the south. Focusing on those lines is not generally profitable, except to keep opponents from taking them; they have more access points than the lines in the northeast. The remaining lines are even more congested: C: InterCity Express , E: Train a` Grande Vit`e , H: Nord Express , I: EuroCity Express , J: Orient Express , O:Trans Europe Exp , and Paris . Inter-Rail Assault Points] LON – A (to A: British Rail) PAR-B and HAM-B (to B: Benelux Express) LON-C, PAR-C, LAU-C, KLN-C, MUN-C (to C: InterCity Express) LON-D, PAR-D, LAU-D, VIE-D, BGD-D, ATH-D, SOF-D, IST-D (to D: Sim-Orient Express) PAR-E, IRN-E, MRS-E, NCE-E (to E: Train a` Grande Vit`e) IRN-E/F and MRS – E/F (to F: Rail Iberia) HAM-G and HEL-G (to G: Scan Rail) PAR-H, BRU-H, KLN-H, BER-H, SPG-H (to H: Nord Express) HAM-I, BER-I, BUD-I, SOF-I, ATH-I (to I: EuroCity Express) PAR-J, VEN-JKL, SOF-J, IST-J (to J: Orient Express) PAR-K, VIE-K, VEN-JKL, FLN-KL, ROM-K (to K: Ven-Sim Orient Exp) VEN-JKL, NCE-L, ROM-L (to L: Trenitalia) HEL-M and SPG-M (to M: Baltic Express) WAW-N (to N: Vilnius Express) MOW-O, WAW-O (to O:Trans Europe Exp) MOW-P and BUD-P (to P: Ukraine Rail) Dead Ends IST-D/J ODS-P MOW-M SPG-N THM-G LIS-F CDZ-F EDB-A GLW-A WAW-P IRN-F, MRS-F (no direct assault to Paris) Settings to Avoid The region names and intricate assaults are a barrier to playing freestyle or speed; 85% of the games use other settings.Freestyle. Less than 15% of the games on this map are Freestyle games; most of those are low ranks. Speed. Only about 10% of the games on this map are Speed of any type. Freestyle/Speed combination: Only 2% of the games combine the two settings. Manual with few players. 54 troops (2 and 3 players) or 40 troops (4 players). The first to play has an attacker's advantage that could wipe out opponent stacks and conquer paths of singles for a strong region count advantage; and take unassailable bonuses; in the first round. Greasemonkey with Clickable Maps and a great computer system interface (lots of RAM) with Conquer Club. Note that Greasemonkey will not work with some browsers.
show: Similar Maps
If you liked Rail Europe, try the other Rail maps:Rail USA Rail Africa Rail Australia Solar System Waterloo Supermax: Prison Riot!
show: Other Related Strategy Guides
dunno what I was drinking that morning... apparently not enough coffee.
