There was a time in the world when captains of industry tamed the frontier, carving prosperous towns out of unspoiled wilderness with the aid of the iron horse. Then, some time later, a bunch of guys started using die-cast metals and plastic trees to make tiny train sets that reproduced these noble scenes in miniature. As it turns out, these model trains are a really good subject for computer games, too--consider the original and well-loved 1990 MicroProse strategy game Railroad Tycoon, for instance. Much of the same talent behind that classic game is back at work on an all-new project, Sid Meier's Railroads!. This new game from developer Firaxis and publisher 2K Games promises even more in-depth economic strategy and an even more picturesque tableaux to use as a giant virtual model kit.

　　Sid Meier's Railroads! will let you build your very own railway empire.

　　Railroads! will offer multiple lengthy scenarios that will let you build up a railway empire by purchasing the fastest trains for the job of transporting mail, freight, and passengers; by being the first to lay out tracks into new territory; by controlling the flow of expensive goods throughout the land; and even by doing a little corporate raiding as you attempt to buy out your competitors in the stock market. The game's scenarios will take place in the four corners of the USA, as well as in Great Britain, France, and Germany. Each of them can be played during different time periods that can be adjusted easily at the start of each game with a slider. So, if you want to hunker down and carve a railway empire out of the American Northwest from 1831 all the way to 1970, you can, though you can just as easily play through only 30 years or so of a certain time period, which can take about 30 to 45 minutes of playing time.

　　Though all of the game's terrain has a colorful, pastoral look to it provided by completely separate rendering technology that the Firaxis team has developed for use with the GameBryo 3D engine (an engine that also powers Firaxis' outstanding 2005 strategy game, Civilization IV), each of the different territories has a different look and feel. The game's artists didn't attempt to painstakingly create exact replicas of real-world locations but instead created abstracted versions of each territory, taking the same approach as a hobbyist train modeler would to building out sandy deserts outside of Santa Fe or leagues of limpid ocean off the coast of Cornwall.

　　You'll need to build the best railways, corner the market, and eventually buy out your rivals.

　　Like most great strategy games, Railroads! will have different layers to it. You'll want to have the fastest trains in the land, but they'll also need to be the best suited to carrying their particular cargo, and you'll need to keep them well maintained. To get ahead, you'll need to be the first to chart out the best routes to out-of-the-way villages that will eventually advance through five stages of development to become booming cities. You'll also need to monopolize patents on better train-related technology. Different inventions will come into play through a series of random events that will pop up over time; once a more-powerful steam engine is discovered, you'll have the option to enter into a bidding war to patent it, and if you succeed, you'll hold the exclusive rights to it for 20 years of game time before it becomes public domain. In some cases, you may even end up bidding on technologies you yourself don't need, because you'll want to deny them to your financial rivals for the next two decades.

　　These random events will also affect the prices of goods; they'll be powerful forces that can either equalize or skew markets. For instance, if the price of beef is getting out of hand, a random event that includes a news report about scandalously unsanitary practices at slaughterhouses will drop those prices in a hurry. These events will mostly be generalized and kept focused on individual goods, rather than being tied to specific historic events. Producer Dan Magaha explains that since the game is intended to take the approach of modeling the kind of idealized version of history you'd see reflected in a model railroad kit, you won't have to worry about major real-world events like the American Great Depression or either of the two World Wars.

　　Since there will be more than 20 different types of goods (from minerals to foodstuffs) to service about 30 different industries, you'll want to try to seize the largest share of the market for yourself before your rivals take over. The strategy behind trading these goods goes beyond buying low and selling high, since being the first to build routes to precious resources can net you a powerful revenue stream. So can taking control of a specific industry in a certain town, which will net you cash even when your rivals' trains are the ones carrying away the products that you created.

　　Or, you can sit back and use the train table mode to use Railroads! as a virtual model kit.

　　According to Magaha, even though Railroads! isn't the kind of strategy game in which you and your enemies have armies of bloodthirsty soldiers or robot tanks--and you'll start out peacefully by developing your own company's railroad infrastructure--at a certain point, you'll start to butt heads with your rivals. Maybe that jackanapes J.P. Morgan will cut off the route to the golden city of Los Angeles that you were just about to build. Maybe the dastardly Cornelius Vanderbilt will monopolize the supply of coal around the biggest cities on the map, growing fat off your trade routes. At that point, you'll settle your differences the way fabulously wealthy gentlemen did back then--in the stock market. Specifically, you can put the other guys out of business by acquiring 100 percent of your rivals' stock.

　　Railroads! will offer some checks and balances to this system to make sure it isn't abusive; for instance, all players will begin the game with partial ownership of their own company's stock rather than 100 percent so that players can't immediately make themselves impervious to buyouts. After all, you might want to try speculating on the stock market using your own company's assets pitted against your rivals' assets if you see one of them on the cusp of a huge development; you may not be able to prevent your foes from taking control of a powerful asset, but you might compensate by selling off your stock at a high price and buying up your rivals' stock at a relatively lower price, then selling back the stock at a higher price once your rival succeeds, and buying back your stock at a lower price. In all cases, to completely buy out your rivals' last shares of stock, you'll need to pay double the final balance--a sum that will be distributed to all other shareholders you take the stock away from so that there won't be a huge shift in momentum. You may buy out one of your rivals and assume control of his or her assets, but your remaining competitors will at least walk away with a solid chunk of change for the sale of their stock.

　　Sid Meier's Railroads! seems like it should have plenty to offer strategy enthusiasts who wish to play at being legendary businessmen who helped industrialize the world. And the game's attractive 3D graphics and free-form "train table mode," which will act as an open-ended sandbox that lets you build anything, anywhere on the map, should appeal to model-train enthusiasts looking to spend a relaxing afternoon tinkering with their virtual train sets. Railroads! is scheduled for release later this year.