Railroad Ink is a series of roll-and-write games about creating networks of railways and highways. The game comes in four different base variants and numerous expansion dice that alter the experience in various ways. In this overview, we’ll take a look at two of the base games, six expansion packs, and a board variant.

Base Boxes

Railroad Ink: Blazing Red Edition

This edition of Railroad Ink comes with 6 player boards, 4 base route dice, dry-erase markers, and two expansions (lava and Meteor) in the form of four extra dice.

Blazing Red and its sibling, Deep Blue, are the simplest versions of Railroad Ink. The game lasts for 7 rounds, and in each round, you draw the results of the four route dice on your player board. Scoring is based on the number of exits (out of 12) you connect, your longest highway, your longest railway, and the number of central spaces you fill. Each route that doesn’t lead anywhere is considered an error and costs you 1 point.

The game can be explained in minutes, and you can start playing right away. It might take a couple of games for the rules, especially around exits, to click and for players to find the best strategies. After that, it’s smooth sailing with quick and fun gaming sessions.

Lava

The lava expansion is fairly simple: every player starts the game with a volcano and a lava lake in the center of their board. The game lasts for 6 rounds instead of 7, and in addition to the four route dice, you roll two lava dice each round. These dice represent different shapes that connect to your existing lava lakes. This expansion feels similar to how cities work in Carcassonne. It adds a fun element to the game and provides more ways to fill up the board.

Meteor

One die in this expansion shows a value, and the other shows a direction. The combination determines which space is hit by a meteor. Meteors destroy routes but routes that reach a crater score points instead of counting as errors. This expansion is quite swingy—depending on the dice rolls, meteors can be catastrophic or rewarding. While thematic, the luck element isn’t for us. The expansion does offer ways to mitigate bad luck, such as using special routes to ignore the lava die or erasing craters to redraw routes, but these options cost you moves that could be useful elsewhere.

Railroad Ink Challenge: Shining Yellow Edition

The Challenge editions of Railroad Ink (Yellow and Green) add more depth and a bit of complexity. They introduce optional goal cards that award points for achieving specific objectives and three types of buildings that provide benefits when a route is drawn on them:

• Universities grant an extra special route.
• Stations in villages score points.
• Factories let you copy one route die rolled in the round and draw it again.

Using these buildings at the right time can be crucial for scoring more points.

The Challenge editions are simply better! With added player interaction through goal cards and more depth through special buildings, this edition provides a richer player experience.

Shining Yellow comes with two expansions:

Desert

Desert dice show cacti, oases, and arid faces. Cacti must be next to an oasis; otherwise, they are erased when an arid face is rolled. You can use special routes to ignore arid faces. At the end of the game, each surviving cactus scores a point. This expansion can be punishing or rewarding, depending on the dice rolls.

Canyon

Canyon dice let you draw canyons at the edges of spaces on your player board. At the end of the game, each individual canyon and each segment of the largest canyon score points. However, you can only cross routes and canyons a limited number of times.

The rules for this expansion are a bit unclear. We had to look things up on BGG and realized we were not the only ones. If you find the segments confusing, check out this thread: How Do Canyons Work?

Expansion Packs

Now, let’s move on to the expansion packs. Each pack comes with four dice. In some, every die is a separate expansion; in others, all four dice form a single expansion. Most packs include two expansions, with two dice each.

Electricity Expansion Pack

Street Lamp

This expansion is straightforward and fun. Both dice show highways and street lamps. You can draw these on your board, but the street lamps don’t do anything until powered up. Every time you draw a special route, you choose a row or column to power up, and each lamp in that row or column scores 1 point.

Power Grid

This expansion is more complex. Each die lets you electrify a straight line from an exit or an already electrified space, provided there’s a route drawn in those spaces. An accumulator in the center of the board is charged every time you electrify that space, up to a maximum of 3 charges. The accumulator’s charge level multiplied by the number of exits connected to its space determines your score. Power Grid is incredible and adds depth to the game, which we always appreciate.

Underground Expansion Pack

This pack includes one expansion: Underground. The main way to play this expansion is over 14 rounds, using two boards that represent the surface and underground. Play alternates between the two boards, and they can interact depending on how you draw your routes. We are not a fan of this mode, as it doubles the game’s length and adds unnecessary complexity. There’s also a standalone variant where the underground dice replace the white dice in the base game with minimal rule changes. However, the differences aren’t significant enough to justify purchasing this expansion solely for this mode.

Sky Expansion Pack

This pack includes two modules:

Weather Dice

When using the weather expansion, you roll two extra dice every round and must draw the results in two route spaces you draw that round. The largest areas of connected spaces with the same weather condition score points, but areas with different weather types cannot be adjacent (even diagonally) or won’t score. This expansion often forces decisions you wouldn’t make in a normal game, making it fun or brutal depending on the dice rolls.

Airline Dice

This expansion adds a new route type, Airways, and airports that connect your Airway Network to your regular networks. At the end of the game, your longest airway scores points but you lose points for isolated airports and open-ended airways. The airline dice are optional, so you can choose whether to use them every round.

Futuristic Expansion Pack

This pack includes three expansions:

Superconnection

A single die featuring a new special route: Superconnection. This route can link to both railroads and highways on either end and counts toward both the longest highway and railway. While simple, this expansion allows for clever strategies to maximize your longest routes and makes connecting networks easier.

City Builder Dice

Two dice are rolled each round. One provides income, and the other lets you draw buildings on the board. With good planning, the income increases as the game progresses. Buildings remove errors from your board and score points at the end of the game. This is another excellent expansion.

Alien Farmer Die

A single die that lets you draw sheep and UFOs on your board. Each sheep scores two points for every UFO in its row or column. It’s an okay expansion that doesn’t change the game significantly.

Arcade Expansion Pack

This pack includes four modules:

Pluck-Man

One die is rolled each round, showing either Pluck-Man, Ghost, or Fruit. The result must be drawn next to an unused exit. At the end of the game, each network scores positive or negative points based on what’s drawn at the connected exits. This expansion encourages building separate networks, which can backfire in terms of final scoring but is fun nonetheless.

Tetromino

One die is added to the roll each round, and drawing the result is optional. If you choose to draw it, you mark empty spaces on your board in a Tetris-like pattern. At the end of the game, marked spaces with something in them score points, while empty marked spaces lose points. This is a simple addition that doesn’t significantly affect gameplay.

Galactic Invader

This die adds a bit of player interaction. Players draw aliens on each other’s boards, which can attack and destroy everything in their space. The only way to remove them is by drawing something in their space before they activate their shield or waiting for the nuclear face on the special die.

Rainbow

This die adds a storage module. One face introduces negative player interaction by letting players draw a cloud on the board of the player to their left, blocking that space. The other faces show rainbows and clovers, which affect network connectivity and score points at the end of the game.

If we were to rank all the expansions, the Arcade pack would be at the bottom of our list.

Eldritch Expansion Pack

This pack adds four Lovecraftian-themed modules. While the theme feels out of place in Railroad Ink, some modules make this pack worth having.

Ritual

The ritual die adds rituals to your network. At the end of each round, you may add a portal to one of the edges of your board. At the end of the game, connected rituals and portals score similarly to exits, the more you have in a network the more you score.

Portal

This die is a simple and fun addition. It has three faces (A, B, and C portals), and you can have two of each on your board. Networks including these portals are connected and don’t interrupt the longest highway or railway even if they are on opposite sides of the board. This module is a perfect addition for beginners.

Tentacle

This die lets you draw tentacles starting from the edge of the board, spanning 3, 4, or 5 spaces. As you draw the tentacle, you can make it straight or curved in each space, and it can cross under other tentacle spaces or routes. At the end of the game, each tentacle space scores 2 points, and spaces with both a tentacle and a route score an additional point.

Archipelago Boards

Archipelago boards mix things up. They are larger than standard Railroad Ink boards and feature four separate islands connected by bridge spaces. The game is played over 10 rounds instead of 7. This expansion also introduces Warehouses, which let you store dice for later turns—an excellent addition. You start with two warehouse spaces and can unlock more during the game.

Final Thoughts

Railroad Ink is a fantastic roll-and-write game with endless replayability thanks to its numerous expansions. Whether you prefer the simplicity of the base game, the added depth of the Challenge editions, or the chance to shake things up in many ways with expansions, there’s something for everyone. While some expansions are hit-or-miss, the best ones add meaningful depth and variety to the game.

As a final note, if you’re looking to purchase expansions, Horrible Guild offers an excellent tool to check their compatibility with each other here.

Disclosure: We received a review copy of this game. Also, there may be an affiliate link in the links included at the end of this article.