Recently, there has been a lot of talk about a new project led by the team organizing the TraXX (the annual 18xx convention). It is a semi-annual magazine that will be dedicated to railway board games along with a description of the history of railway development. The topic interested me so much that I asked the authors for additional information, also to reveal some secrets about the plans of the boys from Denver, Colorado.
In August 3, the Kickstarter fundraiser for the release of the first issue will begin. If the collection is successful, the first issue of the paper and electronic version will be available this year. The Kickstarter preview page is live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/traxx-mainline/mainline-magazine-by-traxx
There will be four magazine games included in MAINLINE:
- 18 Hiawatha, which is a short variant of 1817, I hope it will surprise us in an interesting way! Designers: Michael Carter, Tony Fryer, Nick Neylon.
- The Hiawathas, an 1830 variant. Designers: Michael Carter, Tony Fryer, Nick Neylon.
- Hiawatha Gauge, an Irish Gauge variant creating the route of the famous Twin Cities Hiawatha. Designers: Michael Carter, Tony Fryer, Nick Neylon.
- 18 Milwaukee, an 1846 variant. Designers: Nick Neylon, Todd Vahlsing.
Each game requires its parent game to play. For example, you need a copy of 1846 to play 18 Milwaukee, etc. The rules will be inside the magazine, but the maps will be on separately printed 11×17 pages so you will not have to tear up your copy of the magazine 🙂
There will also be a special “collector’s edition” pledge level on Kickstarter. There will only be 30 of this level available and it will contain 4 more pages in the magazine and 2 more “magazine games”!
Last detail: shipping will be only to USA/CAN/EU/UK/AUS.
The theme of the first issue will be Milwaukee Road’s famous and historically significant Hiawatha trains. Highlights of this issue include: Articles on each Hiawatha route. This issue will be edited with The Milwaukee Road Historical Association to help bring interesting historical content to the readers.
