Linie Eins

(Line One) - Not to be confused with Stefan Dorra’s Linie 1, or Streetcar (Goldsieber). This was published as a promotional game by the "Aachener Straßenbahn und Energieversorgungs-AG" - the category "trains" is misleading, as the game circles around bus lines (the streetcar era is long gone in Aachen/Aix-la-Chapelle). The players have to acquire bus lines in the first phase, in the second phase all players have to ride these lines (no dice are involved here). Own lines are free, to use those of other players one has to pay a fare. The richest player wins after a predefined duration or after all target cards have been played (which can last several hours). Though the game is more fun and challenging than one should expect from this description its (many) components are detracting: Most cards are set with a typewriter, to get eight different playing pieces seven yellow wooden buses were lacquered in other colors - the buses itself are a little too big to use them in a reasonable way on the board, small representations of the board (for each player) are almost unusable due to low resolution. Nice touch: small cardboard trays help to keep the components separated.