Steel Driver

About this board game

Steel Driver is a train game for 3–6 players that takes about 90 minutes, set in North America and played over five turns. Players bid for control of six railway companies, use those companies to build lines, and earn victory points from their shares.

Each player receives investment cubes and secretly or openly uses them to bid for companies. When a player takes control of a company, they receive one share; only one share per turn can be purchased. The cubes bid for control are placed into the company, giving it the resources needed to build track.

As companies extend their railway lines, they connect locations with different values. These values determine the profit generated by each connection, and after all companies have built as much track as they can, players receive the profit from every company they control.

• Company control: Bid for control of six companies with investment cubes.
• Railway building: Use the cubes invested in a company to build track across North America.
• Victory points: Company profits are paid through shares and cannot be spent on future bids.
• Five-turn structure: Profit levels reset each turn, while players receive a new set of cubes for the next bidding round.

Because every player receives the same number of investment cubes each turn, owning the strongest shares does not create positive feedback for future bidding. At the end of the fifth turn, each company makes an additional payment for every share held, based on how many different regions it has connected, with coloured cubes helping determine the final level.

Steel Driver was designed as an updated development of the system used in Prairie Railroads, addressing some of that earlier system’s rougher elements while adding its own twists.