Trains: Rising Sun - Tips & Strategies

Trains: Rising Sun introduces Attack cards as a new type of action card. There are five of these, and one counter. Should you purchase them?

Politician: Everybody passes a card to their right, then you return a card from your hand to the Supply. At a 4-drop that by itself produces no cash, this card is kind of terrible. Yes, it lets you potentially chuck 2 Waste (one you pass to your neighbor, and the replacement you get from your other neighbor), but if you are passed Waste, the net value to you is at a minimum the loss of a single Waste card. It also gets worse the thinner your deck becomes. It can be useful against opponents running an ultra-thin build, but if they are doing that, then you are probably already somewhat disadvantaged. Avoid this card.

Protesters: A 4-drop that produces 1 cash, and forces each other player to discard a Rails card if they have one. Fantastic for slowing down other players’ gallop towards the endgame — buy yourself some time to set up a longer-term strategy.

Regulations: Every other player with a Waste in their hand puts one on top of their deck. As a 3-drop that produces no cash, this card is marginal; yes, it can slow your opponent down by dictating 20% of your hand when it hits correctly, but it may only be useful in the mid-game. Players relying on thinning strategies will not be as affected by this, and it is likely to end up being a dead card.

Roundhouse: Every other player discards the top card of their deck; if any Waste are discarded, you gain 1VP. This card is amazing, in that it either rewards you if your opponent gets the benefit of discarded Waste, or it gets rid of something they were hoping to draw. At a cost of 4, and producing 1 cash, this is easily one of the best Attacks overall. In addition, it makes Regulations better by comboing with it for VP.

Unhappy Passengers: The cheapest, most cost-effective Attack, costing only 3 cash and producing 1 each time it is played. It forces all other players to discard down to 4 cards, which most of the time will be the loss of only 1 card. That isn’t much — in the mid-game it is likely to be a Waste card more than anything. It messes with thin-deck strategies, however, potentially forcing them to discard something they could have used.

Legal Counsel: The one counter-card lets you cancel another player’s Attack. This 2-drop action can also be used on your turn, allowing you to spend one cash to draw 2 cards. Due to the cheap cost and the utility of the card, if Legal Counsel is available, just say no to Attack cards.

Trains and Trains: Rising Sun both have large standalone game boxes, but can easily be combined into a single box without using a custom insert. The longer-term problem is what to do with the map boards, as if you own the base games plus any of the GenCon promotional maps distributed by Alderac, or the Trains Map Packs, a single box isn’t going to cut it anymore.

You could store the maps in a second game box, but I prefer to keep all of my map boards for the game in a messenger bag. It makes for simple, easily accessible, and transport-ready storage; also, most messenger bags will have enough room for all currently-released maps, and several more into the future.