Railway Empire

Capturing the complexity of building a transcontinental railroad makes Leif Johnson a mostly happy management man…

- Leif Johnson

August 1867 saw a band of Cheyennes in Nebraska try to thwart the railroads that were porting unwanted change through their homelands. Tying a “big stick” to the tracks, they cheered as it derailed a handcar, prompting them to slaughter all but one of the passengers.

There’s none of that in Railway Empire, even though the campaign’s opening chapter also kicks off on the flat, tutorial-friendly expanses of the Great Plains in the 1860s. The map itself is geographically accurate, with the gentle ripples of the plains erupting into the crests of the Rocky Mountains, but much like this history, it’s only the broad strokes of the real thing. This gives direction in both the campaign and the scenario mode – which tasks you with projects like rebuilding the South’s railroad network after the Civil War – but don’t go into Railway Empire expecting to learn much.