Hellrail 3rd Perdition

Distributor:	Mayfair Games
Category:	Card game
Players:	3-4
Play time:	0:45-1:00
Ages:	10+
Content:	45 Rail Cards 10 Circle Cards 4 Engine Cards 4 Engine Playing Pieces 15 Circle Effect Tokens 2 Heresy Tokens 2 Boatman Tokens 2 Tender Tokens 2 Soul Catcher Tokens 1 Cerberus Token 8 "Check" Tokens 1 Rules Book
Game target:	The player who delivers the most souls of the damned to their proper Circle of Hell wins, and is spared bathing in lakes of fire for one more day.
Rules:	Rules in English
Strategy:	-
Comments:	My edition is from 2000. Earlier editions were published by Galloglass. The designers are James Kyle, Sandie Richardson and Chris Young. The turn sequence is as follows: 1. Draw one card from the top of the draw pile and add it to your hand. 2. Perform as many Card Actions as you wish, in any order you choose • Pick-up a Car • Set-out a Car • Move Your Engine • Lay New Rail • Upgrade Rail 3. Fan the Flames, if desired (sacrifice one card to draw new card(s).) Although the game is a bit too much luck-driven, I really enjoy this game. The multi-purpoose of the cards, which may be used for many different kind of actions, gives the game a high turn angst. Also the theme is unusual, which gives a special atmosphere.
Extract from Essen game report 2001.	Sus decided that she had got enough of gaming for the day and Fredrik had to go back to his hotel, so we found an Englishman, John, with whom we played "Hellrail 3^rd perdition". He had already played it once, so he was in charge to explain the game for us. It’s a nice little game with several options to use the cards as laying rails or upgrading them, moving your train and loading your train. Each station has also its particular function, like moving a guard to a station or discarding or rotating the rail. Although it’s very luck-driven through the draw of the cards I found it really interesting. Later on I’ve found out that we’ve played with a wrong rule, as the number of souls decides the movement and not the brimstone value. We also later in the game understood that you might do as many actions you wanted, as long you have cards. (Ratings CGS=8, ML=5, TB=6). Later play sank my rating to 6, as it can be very chaotic. Still worth to play now and then.
Extract from Essen report 2002-10-15	“Hellrail” was our next game. I choose to avoid the circle effect tokens, as they make the game even more random. Anyway the most important was to “fan the flames” with a card of a high brimstone value, so you got many cards for the next turn. After ¾ hour Sanny won it with 28 delivered souls and me with 17 and Tobias with 16. Peter was very disappointed that he only had the chance to make 3 turns. Probably the game is better with 3 players. But everyone thought the theme made it a better game than the game play. Rating: Carl=6, Sanny=6, Tobias=6, Peter=4

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