Bridge & Tunnels
over 2 years ago – Thu, Jul 14, 2022 at 01:12:22 AM

Hello Gamers!

A new set of wooden tokens has been unlocked! Use these exclusive Wooden Bridge and Wooden Tunnel tokens to mark your crossings between the four main islands of Japan!

When I approached designer Hisashi Hayashi to design the Japan map for Mini Express, we talked about how it is rare for train games to include all of Japan. Ticket to Ride: Japan came close, but they failed to adequately portray the island of Hokkaido. It actually comprises 22% of Japan's landmass, but it's shrunk to just a small blob on the map.

So early on we agreed to include deformations in the terrain, in order to fit all the main islands on a standard 3:2 map board. Such deformations are actually commonly seen in Japanese news & television, where they also want everything to fit inside a roughly 3:2 rectangle, so its not too radical for a native Japanese.

Hisashi was excited by the challenge of the map and began working on it right away. He soon completed the general layout of Japan with some deformations, and fitted all four main islands by placing Hokkaido on the top right corner. 

In addition to using bridges and tunnels to connect the four main islands, he also squeezed a ferry route to the southern island of Okinawa! It should be safe to say that this is the most complete map of Japan available in a train themed board game!

Thanks for viewing this quick update and for backing this project. We are working hard to make this the best it can be. Please let me know what you think about the Japan map in the comments below. I'll see you tomorrow with another Mini Expansion.

Best Regards,
David Liu
Producer @ Moaideas Game Design

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Here is a list of the contents we have unlocked so far:

• Spot-UV Cover & Tile Thickness Upgrade
• Wooden Starting Stations 
• Cloak & Dagger mini-expansion
• Wooden Underground tokens
• Dagger & Cloak mini-expansion
• Wooden Influence Limit Markers
• Extended Track Length Board
• Wooden Bridge & Tunnel tokens

Peak Steam
over 2 years ago – Wed, Jul 13, 2022 at 03:37:58 AM

Hello Gamers!

We pushed through the first week of our campaign and in that time we had over 700 backers and reached 390% of our goal! Thank you all so much for helping us reach this milestone so quickly! We could not have come so far without your help.

Seven Unlocked Goals and Counting!

Here is a list of the contents we have unlocked so far:

• Spot-UV Cover & Tile Thickness Upgrade
• Wooden Starting Stations
• Cloak & Dagger mini-expansion
• Wooden Underground tokens
• Dagger & Cloak mini-expansion
• Wooden Influence Limit Markers
• Extended Track Length Board (NEW)

Click on each item above to learn more about them. We have more to show you in upcoming updates, so stay tuned!

And today's new unlock is the Extended Track Length Board! This is an add-on board included in Map Pack 1 that will increase the maximum length from 15 to 20. Originally, it was quite hard to go over 15 in the base game, but now the expansion maps have some extra rules that provide bonus length to companies, we felt it was appropriate to extend the maximum length to 20.

There is always that guy in every group who just wants to pour everything they have into a single color, and with this mini expansion it can be a viable strategy if done right. Now a company's shares could be worth more at the end of the game even with fewer tiles, so if a company is experiencing a runaway in bonuses, you might want to keep a careful eye on those share values.

Thanks again for backing this project. We have been working hard to bring these maps and rules to life and we would like to hear what you think about them. Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Best Regards,
David Liu
Producer @ Moaideas Game Design

Influence Crunch
over 2 years ago – Mon, Jul 11, 2022 at 10:45:27 PM

Hello Gamers!

We are now on the 7th day of the campaign and I'm glad to see such a positive and supportive response from all of you! It's a new week, and I want to share another unlock with you:

Exclusive Wooden Influence Limit Markers for use with the Taiwan Map, cardboard tiles will be included in retail editions of Map Pack 1. This is a very unique mechanism that changes the game in a devious way. Each time you buy or build for the White company, you must lower the maximum value of the influence track in one of the three other companies. It's subtle at first, but as more players use the White company, the more you’ll be tempted to use it further and wreck the others.

Someone is leading by a large influence amount? Perhaps you can bring the ceiling down and close the distance, and also let them waste the actions used to gain those influence. Thus instead of securing an influence lead, just going for more second places might be a more efficient strategy, as you might get tied for first place after the limit falls and push the leader down.

Sounds very counter-intuitive? Well, this is kind of loosely based on the history of Taiwan in the early 1900s. At the time Taiwan was recently handed to the Japanese Empire as their first major colony in Asia, where they planned on using as a forward operating base for more imperial expansion into South East Asia. These colonial efforts resulted in tons of new infrastructure(some that are still of importance today) and effectively, modernization of the society. However, Taiwan remained a colony, and the local Taiwanese population were treated as second-class citizens, who experienced further unfair treatment in the decades leading up to WWII.

So, this Taiwan map is our take on what the businessman of the day may be facing. Investing & building infrastructure for Japan(the White company) is an effective way to boost up the economy, which benefits all of the companies on the map. However, you have to be careful about giving more power to Colonial Government, as that may or may not be good for you or your rivals.

Sorry for the slightly gloomy history in today's update. Rest assured that the tensions with Japan are all in the past, and that Taiwan is on good terms with Japan now. Some would say that we Taiwanese love Japan more than any other culture in Asia, and probably by a large margin. Hey, history is complicated.

Thank you again for becoming a backer, and also for reading through this long post. I will be returning again tomorrow with another mini expansion, so see you then!

Best Regards,
David Liu
Producer @ Moaideas Game Design

Livestream with Meeple University
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jul 09, 2022 at 03:28:09 PM

Hello Gamers!

Join us for a Livestream playthrough of the UK Map with Stella & Tarrant on July 10th, 9 am AEST-- that's Saturday evening US time. We will also be giving away a copy of Mini Express that will be sent out right away!

We are thrilled to be working with Meeple University again for this playthrough of the UK map! They have been reviewing our games for a long time and we can't wait to see what they think of this new map and its features. Check YouTube to find out what hour it is in your time zone, and be sure to tune in and watch them play, and join the discussion!  

That's all for this week, but I’ve got more coming on Monday. I’m excited to share more content as the campaign progresses. Thank you again for backing this campaign. It’s only the beginning of this new journey, and I’m so excited to have you all with me.

Best Regards,
David Liu
Producer @ Moaideas Game Design

Exclusive London Underground Tokens
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jul 09, 2022 at 02:14:02 PM

Hello Gamers!

We are now 48 hours into this campaign, and we are still rising strong! We are so grateful to have such wonderful support, and we couldn't have done it without each and every one of you! As a thank you, here is another daily unlock:

This is a set of 6 wooden tokens specifically for use with the UK map. The UK map is played as a map with 3+1 companies. Three of these companies will be played following the normal rules. The fourth company will be the London Underground, which can only build on the hexes surrounding London.

The only way to get this unlock is to back at the "Modern Island" pledge level and above to receive the Map Pack Collector's Box. In future retail editions of the Map Packs, normal white train meeples will be used to mark the construction of the loop.

If you are not sure what I am talking about, go check out the Gaming Rules! livestream tutorial & playthrough to see the UK map in action! Paul Grogan is a fantastic teacher and his playthroughs are super informative. We've loved working with him in the past, and we're sure you will enjoy the stream.

Thank you for taking the time to read this update. Your support means a lot to us, and we're excited to have you on this journey with us. There's a lot of great things yet to come!

Best Regards,
David Liu
Producer @ Moaideas Game Design