While the table of four was playing Dominion, the other three opted for this excellent train and stock market game, designed by Harry Wu and beautifully published by Queen Games.

Players invest in railroad companies and aim to expand their rail network to increase the companies' income, which is periodically distributed to shareholders through dividends. As each company has a different number of shares available, we weren't sure initially how important the availability of shares would be. In hindsight, PRR shares were by far the most valuable as the dividend was divided between fewer shareholders. I managed to snap up two of the three shares for too little cash and just made sure I didn't get blocked in so I could continue to expand. Next game, I'm sure either the shares will not go as cheaply or the expansion capability of PRR will be hampered by the other players to limit its income. Richard, who joined us for the first time tonight, played a very good game and was able to develop the C&O across the South of the board before turning it northward. Guy's major investment in NYC got stuffed when I blocked his expansion path with the PRR. Nobody reached Chicago so the Wabash line never got started and when the dust settled, I managed to emerge with the victory. Not so sure it will be quite that easy next time when we all know what we're doing.

Chicago Express is a great game that I'm sure will see quite a bit of play as it's quick, there are lots of decisions required of the players and it plays with up to six players.