TRAINS & CARGO

A 2-6 player card game from Sträckspelsfabriken.

COLLECT CARGO, LOAD IT ONTO YOUR TRAIN, AND SEND THE TRAIN TO SCORE POINTS...

...those are the basics of Trains & Cargo, the largest game released by Sträckspelsfabriken.

PRINTED IN THE US WITH WORLDWIDE, EU-FRIENDLY SHIPPING!

Creating card and board games is my biggest hobby, and Trains & Cargo is my biggest release yet in terms of components. I have spent countless hours of my free time building, test playing, photoshopping and fine tuning it. The result: an immensely satisfying game that works great both individually or played in teams.

Selected as a Staff Pick by The Game Crafter
TRAINS & CARGO was a STAFF PICK on The Game
Crafter following a successful crowd sale campaign.

"Get ready for a small game that packs a great punch! We were excited to receive this game. We were not disappointed and loved how unique Trains & Cargo is. We felt that $50 was a little steep for a game that was moderately sized. But the fun we had was definitely in the $50 game range!
Things we loved: the laser cut wood tokens, the small and concise helpful rule book, the simple themed artwork, how clear and appealing the player cards were and last but not least — the game play.
Our little group of three players couldn't play Trains & Cargo just once... or twice... we played three times and wanted to play again. We definitely recommend this game!"

— BoardGameCapital.com

HOW TO PLAY

In Trains & Cargo you collect cargo of different types, load the cargo onto your train, then send it off to score points based on the market values at the time. You can play Market Cards to manipulate the values and naturally, it's in your best interest to keep your own cargo up while holding that of other players down. During team play, you will need to find common ground with your team mate through the cards you play as you share the same train.

Upgrade your locomotives, steal cargo from opponents, force players to send their trains at unfavorable times, obtain bonuses for longer trains, and much more!

The game play in Trains & Cargo is varied, options are plenty and you'll always feel like each choice makes a difference.

THE ROUTE BOARDS

Trains & Cargo comes with three unique Route Boards that add flavor to the game. You can play either with or without the boards.

When playing without, you load cargo tokens behind a wooden locomotive figure simply by placing them in a row on the table. When playing with the Route Boards, however, you load your tokens onto designated spaces on a board.

The boards provide bonuses for various types of cargo, train lengths, and more, and there are three different boards to choose from in the box:

CITY ROUTE:
This very short route favors Passengers (blue tokens) by doubling their market value. A risky board that can be very rewarding if used at the right time.

INDUSTRIAL MOUNTAIN ROUTE:
This route of mid length favors Timber, Steel and Coal by giving them a pretty hefty point bonus each. Not as extreme as the City Route, and a safe choice if your storage is overflowing with these types of cargo.

COUNTRY SIDE ROUTE:
The longest route in the game, the Countryside Route provides a very small point bonus for Livestock and Grain. It makes up for the low cargo bonus by giving bonus points for longer trains. A powerful route that will have you send trains less often, but which will yield a lot more points when you finally do.

THIS IS TRAINS & CARGO:

FREE OF PLAY MONEY — THAT'S A PROMISE!

I had a simple goal when setting out to make this game: that it wouldn't be yet another "sell stuff for money, spend that money to buy more stuff" kind of game. Such games often favor players who do well early on, causing imbalance and resulting in some players not having a good time.

To get around this I have greatly reduced the economic aspect. In fact, you don't spend money at all! You are limited by the cards in your hand and can collect cargo only by playing Cargo Cards. Anyone can get lucky and obtain valuable cargo, keeping the game fair and fun to the very end.

An early prototype of the game.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

Luck isn't all though. The excitement lies in decision making, and you'll feel that every decision matters. Just because you've collected the cargo and now have it in your storage doesn't mean you have any points. In fact, it takes multiple turns for your cargo to turn into points.

Your next step is to load your Cargo Tokens onto your train grouped together two and two. Two tokens represent one train carriage. Loading cargo is a turn in itself during which you are not allowed to play any cards. You can also spend a turn to upgrade your locomotive in order to send off longer trains.

Sending your train and all the cargo on it is your last step. Only then is the cargo transformed into points, based on the market values at the time.

STEAL

CARGO FROM OTHER PLAYERS

TEAM UP

AND SHARE TRAINS TWO-AND-TWO

PLAN AHEAD

BY PLAYING CARDS WISELY

DECIDE

BETWEEN TRICKY OPTIONS

QUOTES FROM PLAYERS

on The Game Crafter:

"Very entertaining game. Strategically challenging with high replay value."

"I LOVE this game! [With all the components] I thought it would be difficult to learn but I couldn't be more wrong!"

"I love the artwork! The colors and elements of the game are so cute! I highly recommend it!"

"I got so obsessed with the game that I wanted to play it all the time! It's never boring and always different."

"I have played it with friends and family at a number of occasion. They all give thumbs up. I can strongly recommend it."

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

MARKET CARDS:

EFFECT CARDS:

CARGO CARDS:

MARKET BOARD:

ROUTE BOARDS:

CARGO TOKENS:

Cars + Coal + Food + Grain + Livestock + Passengers + Steel + Timber

RULE BOOKLET:

NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP

PRINT-ON-DEMAND AT THE GAME CRAFTER:

All games produced by Sträckspelsfabriken are invented, designed and play tested by myself. The latter is of course done thoroughly with the help of others, but there's no big brand or team behind the process.

The games, including Trains & Cargo, are printed on-demand in America by a manufacturing company called The Game Crafter, and sold via their online shop. They're pretty awesome! Great quality, good service and a lot of flexibility for game creators such as myself.

Cost-effective?

Of course, print-on-demand comes at a cost. I could print 500+ copies in China at a fraction of the cost of The Game Crafter, and sell at a greater profit. But it's an incredibly crowded market and without a publishing house backing me or a massive marketing budget odds are I would end up with a box of 490 games that would never get sold.

That's why, with Trains & Cargo, I have decided to use The Game Crafter. The game becomes available to anyone who wishes to own it, and while slightly more costly, I get to create and make available to the world a product that I love and am proud of.

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER:

Sträckspelsfabriken is a one man show (with loads of help from friends and family) that invents, designs and self-publishes card and board games. My name is Johan and this is my greatest hobby.

You can imagine the time, effort and money put into Trains & Cargo — editing the game, writing and proof reading the details of the rule book, designing all the cards and game box, setting up this website, not to mention the countless hours of test playing my ideas. It takes months for a game to be ready and published from when I seriously start focusing on an idea.

I do all of this because I love and enjoy it, at a financial cost that's far greater than what I can ever hope to get back. But if you're here, reading this, it must mean that you have at least a slight interest in what I do.

And nothing means more to any creative person — be it an artist, musician, or card game maker — than when someone shows appreciation for your work by buying it.

While I have a ton of ideas I would never publish a game that I wouldn't play myself. I take pride in releasing games that work, are balanced, bring something new to the table, and/or I feel are commercially suitable. On the main page you'll learn more about the games I've created, what's coming in the future, and the process and efforts that go into making each individual game.

Most of my games are published as print-on-demand on American website The Game Crafter. They're great, because their online shop and world wide shipping services allow me to make my games available to everyone. I don't have to sit on a box of 500 copies of a game of which most might never be sold. Self-publishing a game is a massive undertaking, and quite frankly, if it wasn't for TGC you probably wouldn't be here right now.

Thank you for reading! If you have questions, suggestions, concerns or just want to say hi, please reach out. I'd be happy to hear from you!

ENJOY THE GAME!

GET IN TOUCH...

Game questions, suggestions, concerns or just to say hello...

 

spel@strackspel.se

NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP