In a slightly satirical turn, Cleopatra’s Caboose uses many well-known Euro-mechanics. In this game, players place trains, construct buildings and utilize the special abilities of Egyptian Rail Baron Gods to build a network of rail throughout Ancient Egypt to deliver fruits to cities that demand them.
Players must be mindful of several things while playing the game, however. They have a limited number of actions, money and time. Money is used to win crucial auctions and place trains (and to construct the occasional Pyramid), while fruits provide money to the shrewd player who delivers them, or allows a player to construct buildings which will provide victory points and possibly increase a city’s Prestige.
At the end of the game, a final tallying of trains around cities and money in a player’s treasury will provide additional victory points, with possible bonus victory points for different types of buildings constructed and different types of fruits obtained. The player who can manage everything the most efficiently and gain the most victory points is the winner and becomes the new Emperor of Ancient Egypt!
Game Contents: 1 game board, 5 player aid boards, 12 double-sided City prestige markers, 60 card City deck, 59 card Auction deck, 10 Building markers, 6 Pyramid markers, 100 Trains, 6 markers, 5 Turn Order markers, 1 Starting player figure, 35 fruit cubes, 7 Egyptian Rail Baron God cards, 1 black cloth bag, money and rules.
Elijah loeffel –
Thought this could be a cheap cool game, but it has too many complicated mechanics for a simple game. We house ruled several things and were able to have a little fun, but the first time I played it with some board game friends we didn’t get past round 2 before packing it up and moving onto ticket to ride.
J. Hanses –
I’m surprised no one else has said anything about this game yet, so I thought I’d take a shot at it.Cleopatra’s Caboose is a tongue in cheek, complex strategy game, meant for people who want to see something like Railroad Tycoon in a board game format. You need to connect cities, build buildings, and deliver food to gather victory points and cash. Balancing money and food stores against buildings and track is tricky. Plan poorly and you’ll end up with valuable cards that are worthless because you can afford to “build” them for later scoring.The components are high quality and extremely durable. I was surprised at how well constructed everything is and the game is worth far more than Amazon has been selling it for of late. And the artwork combining 19th century steam fashions with ancient Egyptian gods is fun.I’d recommend it for any train or resources management game lovers.
AVP –
Received it as a gift from my gamer father. Normally I love Z-Man stuff, but I just didn’t get this one. It was difficult to learn and gameplay was tedious. Maybe we weren’t in the right mood? Maybe we just didn’t get it?Whatever the reason, it’s going in the ‘sell’ pile.
Kbilly –
Probably the most memorable part was my friend trying to build a theater and her husband said “But you need a blueberry to build a theater.” We all just broke into laughter. It’s a funny little game, with enjoyable game-play.