Empire Builder (board Game) - Strategy

Strategy

Although there is some luck involved in Empire Builder and related games, depending on the cards that are drawn, the outcome is usually determined by the skill of the players. Players experienced with a particular board will have the advantage of knowing the busiest traffic routes and which cities are most valuable to connect to. Strategy consists of the careful balancing of several conflicting priorities:

• Maintain sufficient capital to build track to new cities when needed. This is less important later in the game when the player should already have a network capable of making most deliveries using existing track. It is usually advisable to always keep a small amount of cash on hand in case repairs are needed due to natural disasters.
• Build an efficient network of track. Especially later in the game, income is determined by how quickly the player can navigate the map. An ideal network covers the main traffic corridors with spurs linking to lesser used cities to be built as needed. Networks with awkward corners or that force the player to take indirect routes should be avoided. Isolated area at the edge of the board should also be avoided in general.
• Make the best use of, meaning earn as large a profit as possible in as short a time as possible, the contracts on hand. The winner is the player who can make a certain amount of cash the soonest.
• Upgrade engines. A faster engine means the ability to make deliveries faster so this is usually the higher priority. Additional capacity increases the ability to combine loads (see below) and offers better protection from derailments.

In the early part of the game players will generally spend most available cash to invest in track and engine upgrades. After a certain point, players will concentrate on taking profits in order to win the game, so building track will be restricted to repairs and building spurs required to make specific deliveries. In the early game cash is short and networks are undeveloped, so players will generally only make low to medium value deliveries. Late in the game players will generally prefer high value deliveries, though sometimes a lower value load is made in order to trade in a card with little promise. Renting track is usually advisable only in the later part of the game when a large profit can be made to offset the additional cost.

An important concept is that of combining loads. This consists of finding two or more loads whose sources are close to each other and whose destinations are close to each other so they can be combined into a single trip. Ideally, this halves the travel time taken per load. At the beginning of the game this is important for another reason in that less track must be built per load. In this case, loads may be combined in the sense that they cover similar routes even if they go in different directions. The idea of combining loads is especially important in the initial build since the player is not constrained to build on existing track. A good initial build combines two medium value loads to earn back the investment in track while providing a foundation to build an efficient network.

As an additional tactical consideration, players should pick up loads to fill unused slots when possible. This offers the player protection against derailments since the unneeded load can be dumped instead of a load needed for delivery. Additionally, the player may draw a serendipitous contract calling for the load to be delivered with little additional travel.