I haven’t played very many roll-and-writes (or [ ]-and-writes). Not out of preference. They just haven’t happened to filter into my gaming experience just yet. In recent months, though, I’ve played Welcome To, Drawn to Adventure, and now the preview build of the upcoming Railroad Ink Challenge, which brings Horrible Guild’s popular roll-and-write to digital screens near you!

The digital adaptation of Railroad Ink Challenge transforms the critically-acclaimed and vibrantly-colored tabletop game to PC and mobile platforms on June 17th. So now you can build your railways and highways faster than ever while attempting challenges either solo or with other players.

Again, this is a preview, but I like what I’ve seen so far. I’ve played close to 10 games and while, yes, I haven’t beaten the score I got in the tutorial yet, I’ve improved somewhat and am really enjoying the digital interface. With the promise of the Lush Green and Shining Yellow content coming to the digital adaptation as well, I think this will certainly be a go-to app for many in the board game community.

The same development team behind the conversion of other Horrible Guild titles—Potion Explosion, Dragon Castle, and Similo— is working on this title.

Let’s see what we’ve got going on in the world of error-filled pages and haphazardly connected infrastructure.

What It Does

Railroad Ink Challenge operates on a 7x7 grid with 12 routes entering the space from the outer edges. Players must connect these various railways and highways with adjoining pieces pulled from a beginning-of-turn dice roll. There are also several special connectors that can be placed throughout the game in limited supply.

Over the course of 7 rounds, players will repeat this process of rolling and committing four different dice results until their map expands. However, with expansion comes mistakes and players will need to adapt to routes with dead ends. Minimizing those mistakes is key to securing a strong core in the game.

Also, three different in-game scoring bonuses are available for players to complete in the third, fourth, and fifth rounds. Of course, players can complete these earlier than designated, but it can be difficult to achieve that.

Along with other interconnected scoring features—Stations on Villages, routes through Universities, and routes through Factories—these comprise the main ways that players can create a layered network with higher potential.

In summation:

1. Seven rounds of four dice to roll and use (all must be used)

2. Three special connector pieces to be used throughout the game

3. Three distinct buildings that provide in-game bonuses

4. Three bonus scoring objectives to aim for

5. 12 routes to connect in as many ways as possible

6. Focus on mitigating dead-end routes

That’s it. Really simple. Very accessible. And replayable as the objectives change and future DLCs introduce new terrain and features.

As someone who had no familiarity with the title, I was through the tutorial and onto playing very quickly, albeit not very well, but that’s a problem for another day.

How It Does It

This is a dice rolling and allocation game. The four dice you roll each round will have a specific route type that they land on. Players will have to decide where they want each of those railways or highways to go. Some are straight lines. Others are 90-degree turns. Still, others are T-intersections, stations, conversion points from a railway to a highway. And then four-way intersections.

Figuring out where to place these can be difficult each round as you have to visually determine where you could connect all of the branching paths without creating too many dead-ends.

Dice-rolling and network-building. That’s the heart of the game.

There is some strategy layered on with all of the nuanced mechanisms at play beyond just rolling and writing, but it’s easy to pick up and the tutorial does a great job of deconstructing the game into manageable pieces.

I imagine future DLCs will introduce new elements, but players won’t be learning a game all over again. Just adding on to what they already know.

Why You Might Like It

Why You Might Not

Final Thoughts

As I mentioned before, roll-and-writes are relatively new for me, but I really enjoy both the simplicity and the challenge. You can definitely truck right through the seven turns and not worry with exacting detail where you place the railway and highway tracks, connections, and stations. You can blindly surge forward like Snowpiercer without a conductor at the head.

But it’s really quite nice when you start to see the potential of every move and surmise the best routes from the edges and into the middle of the board, connecting factories, villages, and universities in a sprawling web of rails and roads.

The app (even as a preview build) plays smoothly and has sharp graphic designs that make all decisions and in-game features easily discernible. The penciled artwork of the infrastructure and buildings has cool tones, and I can’t wait to see how the other editions complement what’s already there and increase the value of the game as a wholly representative experience of Railroad Ink.

Yes, I haven’t beaten the score that the tutorial gave me, but… I think one day I might!

For now, I’m excited about what’s here and think it could easily be a go-to board game app for those times when you are itching to play but don’t have something on the table in front of you. Horrible Guild continues to impress with its catalog of games and this digital implementation performs very well.

Planned DLCs in the months following release will bring Forest, Desert, and other Railroad Ink content, so I’m intrigued as to what the full package will look like.

If you want to check out Railroad Ink Challenge, you can visit Horrible Guild or read what the community thinks on BoardGameGeek. Keep in mind this digital edition will include multiple editions of the game in one, so consider looking at the series as a whole rather than one game!

And you can add the game to your Steam wishlist if you want to stay updated with the launch and progress of the game.

What’s your favorite roll-and-write?

Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.