Rocca Rails

Game 25 of the “Bailey Family Summer 2023 Board Game Bonanza” is “Rocca Rails” played by Jack (8.) and myself.

“Rocca Rails” is a game from the Japanese games publisher Rocker Spieler where all of the games come on tiny hexagon cards, most of which work using isometric as a means to play and overlap.

The concept of “Rocca Rails” is essentially playing a game of Uno (which seems to be fairly common at the moment) where you can only lay pieces if the colour of the track is the right colour for you to be able to lay something in your hand.

You start with four cards (which was so quick on later games we started with more) and then have to pick up one if you can’t play. There are other cards such as the train cards which allow you to play an extra card if possible, and there are also tunnel cards you lay over another card to branch the track out.

It’s a simple concept but is it fun to play?

As I’ve already said, it is very similar to Uno, so if you like Uno gameplay, you pretty much know what to expect. The main issue here was that in the three games we played, it seemed very easy to get rid of all of our cards, and as you can see by the tracks that we made, at no point did it feel like we were picking up larger amounts of cards. In fact, in one of our games, we barely picked up any cards at all and in most cases, we were able to lay, especially once a tunnel or two spreads out what you’ve got.

Visually, the game is very striking. Its hand-drawn artwork is very quaint, and the visual outcome of a completed game is very attractive to look at. Unfortunately, from a gameplay point of view, it’s a little bit lacking, mainly due to the fact that because of the way it works, it’s actually quite easy to get rid of your cards, and then it simply becomes a race. Unlike a game such as Uno, where you are realistically going to have to pick up quite a few cards before you get down to your last one.

One thing I do quite like is the equivalent of the modifier cards, which means that when you lay one of these, you then roll a dice to give six possible outcomes, some of which are negative to one player, and some of which are positive to both players. I actually like this, and it added an element of randomness to the game.

One thing that I wasn’t prepared for is how much Jack struggled with getting his brain around the cards and everything being isometric. He kept trying to rotate the cards to line them up, and I had to keep explaining that they can only be laid in one way.

What is very pretty, I don’t think I can realistically recommend it. If you happen to be in Japan and see it on sale, there are a lot worse things you could spend your money on as it is all very pretty. But from a gameplay point of view, even as what is essentially an attractive Uno game, it’s just a bit too easy to get rid of all your cards, and I wasn’t compelled to play again in the way I had hoped.

Not a recommendation from me today.