Attendance for Russian Railroads increased over 50% compared to 2023. There were fifteen unique winners this year, and three of them won more than one heat. With the increase in attendance, there were four Semifinal games this year rather than three in 2023.
Final scores can vary in this game depending on which strategy you pursue, and how much competition you have in your chosen route to victory. This year, winning scores ranged from as high as 521 (defending champion Patrick Maguire) to as low as 340. The lowest scoring game was also the closest, with an astonishing six point spread from first to fourth. That game was won by Jonathan Mattanah on the strength of getting the most engineers. Margin of victory can vary wildly as well. This year one game came down to a tie breaker between Matt Lahut and Tricia Wolff. The largest margin of victory also occurred in the game with the highest score where Patrick Maguire won by a margin of 156 over second place.
Two qualified players didn’t show up to the Semifinal, leaving room for two alternates. First alternate Roger Jarrett advanced, along with sixth alternate Allan Jiang.
In Semifinal #1, Dominic Blais beat David Platnick by a mere 11 points. Last year’s champion, and this year's highest scoring player ended up fourth just 47 points out. It was a close game, and Dominic would return to the Final. David Platnick earned fifth place laurels.
- Dominic Blais: 437
- David Platnick: 426
- Sam Wolff: 414
- Patrick Maguire: 390
In Semifinal #2, Matt Lahut broke Patrick's high score using the extra black worker bonus to secure his spot in the Final. The popular nine train bonus was taken by Thomas Lind, who finished third.
- Matt Lahut: 533
- Dan Elkins: 444
- Thomas Lind: 422
- Bronwyn Woods: 365
In Semifinal #3, Curt Collins II secured the most engineers to win a close game. Woolly Farrow V was close enough to secure sixth place laurels, only 19 points behind.
- Curt Collins II: 447
- Woolly Farrow V: 428
- Ray Wolff: 402
- Diane Fellin: 389
In Semifinal #4, the sixth alternate Allan Jiang won comfortably with the biggest margin of victory in the semis. He took the engineer bonus, and after grabbing the lead in round 6, never looked back.
- Allan Jiang: 471
- Roger Jarrett: 357
- Tom DeMarco: 335
- Tricia Wolff: 328
The final table consisted of two double winners from the heats, a seven-time laurelist, and a two-time champion (not to mention multiple Caesar and Consul awards).
In Russian Railroads, there are two main paths that players usually take. The first is referred to as ‘top track’. Players pursuing this will typically score fewer points early in the game while building up an infrastructure to score huge points in the later part of the game. The other dominant path is the ‘bottom track.’ These players invest in the industry track that runs the bottom of the player board. Players choosing this option tend to jump out to an early lead and aim to get far enough ahead to beat the top track players at the end of the game. This is the cliff notes version of the strategy, and there are many variations, but in general that’s what you will see reflected in the scores during this write up.
Round 1:
Dominic and Allan both committed to the top track strategy, though Dominic scored a few points early by taking engineer actions on the board that would later prove to be very important. Curt committed to the bottom track, while Matt made progress on both the bottom and the top, but did not commit to either. One noteworthy choice: all players skipped the beginning engineer with their first action. By the end of round one the scores were:
- Dominic: 14
- Curt: 10
- Matt: 4
- Allan: 2
Round 2:
Curt took all of the industry spaces this round, as well as an engineer that allowed industry movement. Nobody was taking trains aside from Curt with the industry track bonuses. No player had moved the middle track up to prepare to get the choice of bonuses once the size four trains became available. Matt began focusing more on the top track, leaving Curt nearly unopposed on the bottom. Scores after round two:
- Dominic: 25
- Curt: 24
- Matt: 13
- Allan: 10
Round 3:
Curt was the first to take a bonus card, and it was with the industry track bonus space rather than the middle track. He selected the size nine train. This would allow Curt to take the lead for the first time in the game. Matt also got a bonus in round three. He elected to take the extra black worker. Scores after round three:
- Curt: 65
- Dominic: 43
- Allan: 25
- Matt: 20
Round 4:
Dominic got his bonus in round four. He took the engineer bonus, allowing him to move any two track once each turn. Allan also got his bonus in this round and remarkably unlocked his white track. Matt was collecting doubler tokens. These tokens are limited and can run out. Three players were trying to collect them for their top track strategy, but Curt had also used an industry bonus to snag a couple himself. Passing the midpoint in the game, the scores were:
- Curt: 112
- Allan: 79
- Dominic: 75
- Matt: 33
Round 5:
Matt made his push in round five. He pulled off a ridiculous chain reaction move where he used a bonus to move his industry track five spaces, and then along with a couple of industry bonuses, also unlocked the big industry bonus and move track, unlocking his white track. Curt unlocked his 20 point medal on the bottom track, allowing him to slightly extend his points lead. Dominic made a play for most engineers, set up to secure his third in the penultimate round. Scores after the round were:
- Curt: 186
- Allan: 140
- Dominic: 130
- Matt: 95
Round 6:
Nearing the end of the game, Dominic and Allan both worked to get the top track scoring as many points as possible. Curt was focused on the engineer bonus and set himself up to go first in the last round. He also took an industry bonus that would allow him to score the value of his engineers. Currently at 14 total points, by taking the final engineer, he would be set up to score 29 points during the next round with an industry move. Matt was now moving his industry along as well as the top track. This isn’t a common strategy, but it had been working for him so far in the tournament, and he wasn’t out of it by any means in the Final. Going into the last round the scores were:
- Curt: 272
- Allan: 244
- Matt: 223
- Dominic: 214
Round 7:
In the final round, Curt started by securing most engineers, then triggering his 29 point industry play. He was scoring fewer end of round points than the other players at this point and was looking for any source of points he could find. The game ran out of doubler tokens in the final round, denying points to the three players utilizing the top track. As the round came to a close, each player tried to get every last point they could. Going into final scoring, the points had tightened up:
- .Curt: 398
- Allan: 386
- Matt: 367
- Dominic: 345
Curt scored 40 points for having the most engineers, but final scoring revealed an admitted mistake by Allan. He had taken the secret engineer as his bonus scoring card, attempting to take the 40 point bonus for himself. Instead, though he had three engineers, so did Curt and Dominic. Curt had the highest value engineer, and Dominic had the second highest, thus scoring 20 points for him. Allan would end up not scoring any points at all in final scoring. Both Matt and Dominic scored 30 points with the end game bonus cards while Curt scored 25. Once the final points were tallied, the scores were:
- Curt: 463
- Matt: 397
- Dominic: 395
- Allan: 386
Curt had benefited from being the only player fully committed to the bottom track, and while the margin wasn’t super close, one or two plays or an engineer going somewhere else could have drastically changed the results.
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