🚂 Mini Express 🗺️ Map Pack Expansion 1 & 2
Created by Moaideas Game Design
4 New Maps & Deluxe Upgrades for the cube rail board game Mini Express. Get the Base Game and Expansions at the same time!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Wooden Tiles add-on + Death & Taxes mini-expansion
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Jul 21, 2022 at 12:15:38 PM
Hello Gamers!
We have three things to announce today: a new add-on upgrade, a newunlocked mini-expansion, and Livestreams tonight with Heavy Cardboard for the UK Map and the TW Map. Today's update will be a bit longer than usual, so sit tight and read on.
Wooden Tiles Upgrade Packs
The ALL IN pack includes contents of the Base Game pack
These are packs of full-colorUV-Printed Wooden Tiles upgrades for the Mini Express base game and Map Pack collector’s box. This is a separate paid Add-On, and can be used in place of the cardboard tiles to play the game. UV-Printing is basically water-proof and mostly scratch-proof(not claws- or knife-proof), so this would be a cool upgrade to go with the playmats.
Note that these upgrade packs do not contain the train meeples, unlocked wooden tokens, and status boards needed to play the game. If you really want a no-cardboard version of the game, perhaps we can arrange something later during the pledge manager phase. (We also need another playmat for the tracking board)
Death & Taxes Mini Expansion
This is a free unlocked Mini Expansion by Mark Gerrits that will also be provided in future non-exclusive versions of the Map Packs. This refers to the famous quote from Benjamin Franklin, and it is a tribute to Mini Rails, our first game designed by Mark.
In Mini Rails, if a company did not pay its taxes by the end of the game, then all shares of that company will be worth Zero Points for the players. This is a very core feature of Mini Rails, and a lot of negotiation & tactics focus on deciding which companies get to pay their taxes.
In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes — Benjamin Franklin, 1789
This mini expansion will provide an additional taxation board that can be used with any Mini Express map. When we were adding this mechanic to Mini Express, we want to do something that is similar but not exactly the same as Mini Rails, and can be added with minimal disruptions to the existing flow of the game.
After some testing, we settled on giving the players the option of paying a tax when they are building tracks for a company. The board above shows a 3-tiered limit on the maximum length/value of shares, and by paying the tax 3 times all limits will be removed. So if a company only paid its taxes once, at the end of the game its length tracker will be lowered to 7, decreasing the value of its shares.
This sounds simple, but there are quite some decisions to consider regarding when to pay a tax or not. You might want to connect to a city further away instead of using a track for taxes, and consuming an extra train meeple will also lower the price of buying a share for the next player. Finally, tracks are a limited resource in Mini Express, so if you wait too long, you may never get the chance to unlock the higher share levels.
We are still tweaking the numbers, so the limits above will probably be different from the final product. Â However, I am proud to say that we have successfully added another layer of strategy to the world of Mini Express, and I hope you will like it too.
Livestream with Heavy Cardboard
Join us for a Livestream Teaching & playthrough with Heavy Cardboard tonight at 19:00 EDT for the Great Britain map, and approximately 20:30 EDT for the Taiwan map. Yes, they will be doing back-to-back streams of both maps tonight! Check YouTube to find out what hour it is in your time zone, and be sure to tune in and watch them play!
We are thrilled to be working with Edward again on these livestreams. I really enjoy how he always gives detailed discussions of his decision process when playing, so that viewers can better follow the strategy that happens on the board. We have worked with Heavy Cardboard many times, and I can't wait to see what the HC team thinks of the new maps.
I want to thank you again for your incredible contribution to our campaign. You have been an invaluable part of this process, and we will not forget your support. Please continue to help spread the word about our campaign to all your friends and family.
Best Regards,
David Liu Producer @ Moaideas Game Design
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Here is a list of the contents we have unlocked so far:
Click on each item above to learn more about them. We have even more to show you in upcoming updates, so stay tuned!
Imperial Metal Coin
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Jul 21, 2022 at 06:26:17 AM
Hello Gamers!
We have now been through 2 weeks of the campaign, and it's thanks to your support that we can continue to make games like this. For the past 14 days we have reached 840 backers, $46,000 USD in funding, and unlocked 12 Goals!
A cardboard tile is also provided for all versions
Today's unlocked component is a Metal Coin imprinted with the official seal of the Japanese Colonial Government in Taiwan. Get your hands on this exclusive coin by pledging for the Map Pack collector's box!
This seal is used for the special rules in the Taiwan map, where each time a player interacts with the White company by Building Tracks or Buying Shares, they will gain favor with the Japanese government. The player who is currently enjoying the most favor will possess this seal, and will receive both a reward and a penalty at the end of the game.
This duality represents how the Japanese colonial period from 1895-1945 is viewed quite differently by various people in Taiwan. Some groups consider it negatively and emphasize the colonial oppression aspect of living as 2nd- or 3rd-class citizens. Yet for others, the colonial period was a time of strict yet fair rule, when Taiwan made major strides in agriculture, infrastructure, education, health care, public security, and governance.
The seal is also quite popular in some graphic design communities, and a few even used it as inspiration for new flag and emblem design proposals in official government contests, leading to disputes with people that are against anything from the Japanese colonial period. But I think it is appropriate to include this in our game, as a cool metal component will let you feel the weight of your decision of working with the Japanese colonial government.
I am glossing over a lot of historical nuisances to prevent this from becoming a great wall of text, so I'll stop here. If you are interested in the details, I would suggest reading the Encyclopedia Britannica's entry for Taiwan. I think it provides a good starting point for further research.Â
I will be returning tomorrow with another Mini Expansion, so be sure to check back and see what else we have in store. Thank you again for becoming a backer!
Best Regards,
David Liu Producer @ Moaideas Game Design
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Here is a list of the contents we have unlocked so far:
Click on each item above to learn more about them. We have even more to show you in upcoming updates, so stay tuned!
Wooden Bonus Markers & Add-On Poll Results
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Jul 21, 2022 at 04:05:55 AM
Hello Gamers!
We have passed the halfway point of our campaign over the weekend and I want to thank you all again for helping to make this happen; I'm grateful to all of you. In return, I would like to unlock another stretch goal for backers of the Map Pack collector's box:Â
These Wooden Bonus Markers are used throughout the expansion maps to mark each company's progression on the bonus track. During prototype testing, we just used a train meeple for it, but that would decrease the number of tracks you can build in the game. So for future retail versions cardboard tiles will be provided for this purpose, and the Map Pack collector box set will include these exclusive wooden tokens.
Note the markings on the wood. We have had trouble silk-screen printing small meeples in the base game, so we've opted not to use them this time around. Recently we found a supplier that can make transparent stickers with a matte finish that looks good when applied on wood, so I've decided to use stickers this time.Â
Of course, engravings would look even better, but the cost would also be higher, so perhaps I can save it for a monetary stretch goal later on.
Sample of matte transparent sticker on wood
Wooden Tiles Add-on
I made a survey poll on Friday to ask what backers think about a set of UV Printed Wooden Tiles that can be used to replace cardboard tiles in the game, and we have received about 100 responses so far. Thanks for filling it out on short notice, and there were some good suggestions too!Â
More than 2/3rds of the respondents are interested in this kind of Add-on, and most chose "All Cardboard Tiles of the Base Game" and "All Cardboard Tiles of the Map Packs". So, I'm going to introduce these add-ons to the campaign soon and let you know when I have more details.
There are a few backers that have asked about not buying the cardboard maps, and it will be easy to just buy the playmats and these wooden replacement tiles. However, you will still be missing the wooden tokens unlocked during this campaign (and train meeples of the base game).
Not sure how to handle this yet... If there aren’t too many requests, maybe I can manually add a pack of tokens to your order in the pledge manager. I don't want to make it a public add-on as that might cause confusion, but we shall see.
Please let me know what you think of this in the comments below, and I'll see you tomorrow for another component upgrade.
Best Regards,
David Liu Producer @ Moaideas Game Design
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Here is a list of the contents we have unlocked so far:
Click on each item above to learn more about them. We have even more to show you in upcoming updates, so stay tuned!
Atocha Station & Add-On Poll
over 2 years ago
– Sat, Jul 16, 2022 at 01:07:47 AM
Hello Gamers!
The campaign continues to go nicely, and I am incredibly thankful to everyone that has helped make this campaign a success. Today, in addition to showing you our new component unlock, I also want to have a conversation about a potential Add-On upgrade.
Today's unlock is the Atocha Station, an exclusive wooden token for use on the Spain map. In the Spain map, each company has a starting location on the capital city of Madrid, and also another near the edge of the map. The other starting locations will have wooden station tokens, so we considered it fitting to also include one for the extra location on the Spain map, and there is no better choice than the Atocha Station.
Poll for New Add-on
During our previous Jiangnan campaign, we provided an add-on upgrade that let you replace some of the cardboard tiles with UV printed wooden tiles. It turned out to be more popular than I excepted, and so I was thinking maybe we could also make that option available in this campaign.
Sample from Jiangnan. Both sides will be printed with full-color UV-Printing in the production version.
There are many ways we can do this: should we just do the share tiles & demand tiles to keep costs down? Or should we do a big pack with all tiles in the base game & expansion? But if we offered that, then do backers need the cardboard tiles? Would someone that also bought the playmats need any cardboard at all?
I have considered this from many different perspectives, but I cannot determine what is the best solution. So I’m asking you, our dear backers, to tell us what you think about this. Recently I have noticed that people are more likely to respond to polls, so I have created a survey for everyone to vote on here: https://www.surveycake.com/s/7B0n1
I really like to try out different forms of manufacturing processes, and crowdfunding really is the best way to let us do all sorts of crazy stuff at a lower risk. So, thanks again for becoming a backer, and please let me know what you think about a Wooden Tiles add-on!
Best Regards,
David Liu Producer @ Moaideas Game Design
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Here is a list of the contents we have unlocked so far:
Click on each item above to learn more about them. We have more to show you in upcoming updates, so stay tuned!
Hustle & Bustle
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Jul 14, 2022 at 08:22:27 PM
Hello Gamers!
We are progressing steadily with the campaign, and I can't express how thankful I am to everyone that has contributed to the campaign. In reward for your support, we're excited to announce that we're unlocking another Mini-Expansion today: Hustle & Bustle.
These tiles are used to introduce Dynamic Player Order to the game and will be included in Map Pack 1. A lot of the interaction in Mini Express comes down to collusion with the person before or after you in player order, and some groups have THAT GUY* who Always let the player sitting next to them win the game. (*I confess that would be me when playing Puerto Rico)
This was a potential issue that was identified early on, but as the playing time of Mini Express is much shorter, we decided to keep to a static player order. Â Besides, experienced players can mitigate the sitting order problem with the drafting of starting shares, and games that change player order from round to round are quite rare these days, so Dynamic Player Order would significantly raise the entry barrier for new players.
Front & Back of the tile
But now with the Map Packs, we have found a way to introduce Dynamic Player Order as a modular mini-expansion. The idea is very simple, every player will have one of these Railway Signal tiles in front of them, and it will be flipped to Red Lights after you finish your turn. Then, you pick any player that is showing Green Lights to take a turn; if everyone has Red Lights, then a round is done and all tiles are flipped back before you choose who goes next.
At first, I was a bit skeptical with the absence of a round order track, but in practice it works really well as a natural extension of the existing negotiations of Mini Express. If the player to your left does not want to work with you, now you can skip them and conspire with the player across. I wouldn't suggest this mini-expansion for first time players, but with experienced players this adds layers of depth to player interactions, enriching the table negotiations among the players.
Hopefully this gives you an insight into some of our development processes. Let me know what you think of this addition to the game in the comments below, and I'll see you in the next update!
Best Regards,
David Liu Producer @ Moaideas Game Design
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Here is a list of the contents we have unlocked so far:
