Description
On 11 July 1899, the Union Pacific Express leaves the small town of Folsom, New Mexico, with 47 passengers on board – and bandits on the roofs. In Colt Express you are those bandits: you steal purses, jewels and strongboxes, punch and shoot each other, while Marshal Samuel Ford keeps a watchful eye on the payroll money. You assemble the train and set it up in the middle of the table, and the bandits run through its cars and across its roofs. Only the richest bandit in the gang wins.
How to play Colt Express
The game lasts five rounds. At the start of each one, the first player reveals a round card that tells you how many turns you will play and how – in a tunnel you play your cards face down, and when the train speeds up you take two turns in a row. Each round has two parts. First, you take turns placing action cards on a shared pile, announcing in advance what your bandit will do: move, change floor, fire, punch, rob or move the Marshal. Instead of playing a card, you can draw three new ones.
Then you flip the pile over and carry out the actions in exactly the order they were played. Every action must be carried out if at all possible. After the fifth round you add up your loot. Whoever has the fewest bullets left in their gun also gets $1,000 as the best gunslinger, and the richest player wins.
Why you will love it
- You plan ahead, but you don't know everything: by the time your robbery comes up, an opponent's punch may already have knocked you into the next car.
- Every shot slips a bullet card into your opponent's deck, so next time they have fewer useful cards in hand.
- The Marshal guards a $1,000 strongbox. Lure him away at just the right moment – and maybe send him straight to a rival while you're at it.
- Once you know the basics, you add the bandits' special abilities: Doc draws seven cards, Ghost plays his first card face down, and Django's shots push an opponent into the next car.
Who is Colt Express for
Colt Express is a family game for 2 to 6 players aged 10 and up, and a game takes about 40 minutes. The rules are fairly easy: four pages of basic rules are enough for your first game, and you add the bandits' abilities and the train stations later. Players like it best with five or six. If there are only two or three of you, each player controls two bandits. In 2015 the game won the Spiel des Jahres award. This is the Slovenian edition with Slovenian rules.
What you might not like
Plans often fall apart once the cards are revealed, and there is a lot of shooting and punching, so the game may not suit those who prefer calmer games where every move can be carefully calculated.
What's in the box
- locomotive and 6 cars (to assemble)
- 10 scenery elements
- 18 purses ($250–500), 6 jewels ($500) and 2 strongboxes ($1,000)
- 17 round cards, including 3 train stations
- Marshal figure and 13 Marshal bullet cards
- for each of the 6 players: a bandit figure, a character board, a character card, 10 action cards and 6 bullet cards
- rules in Slovenian
