Colt Express: Big Box version is chugging onto shelves later this year
A stonkingly big steam-engine game.
Jump aboard a newer and much larger Colt Express with the upcoming Big Box edition that’s set to be released later this year.
Spotted by Reddit user chunkyfatmonkey, Colt Express: Big Box edition will provide players with a complete package of the beginner board game.(Thanks BoardGameGeek.) The Big Box edition contains the base game alongside both of its expansions - Horses and Stagecoach, which adds a 3D stagecoach that moves alongside the train and horses for the player characters to ride, and Marshal & Prisoners, the expansion that includes a new character and a prison wagon added to the end of the train - and another bandit character for players to choose from called Silk.
Winner of the 2015 Spiel des Jahres award, the greatest prestige a board game can receive, Colt Express is a board game for two to five players that centres around the titular steam train. Set in 1899 on the Western Frontier, players take the role of robbers who must attempt to steal as much loot as possible from the train’s occupants before it reaches its destination. Taking place on a 3D cardboard train model, Colt Express sees the player characters moving from carriage to carriage in order to pick up on the treasures found therein, whilst avoiding the bullets of their rivals.
Each round has players laying down action cards that enable their character to do things such as move across or up and down, as well as pick up loot or shoot their gun. Depending on the layout of the current round card, players will lay down their chosen card in a particular order and either face up or face down. Once all players have played their chosen cards, each card is then flipped up and the action shown is performed by the designated character. As cards are shown, player characters can be punched, shot or even caught by the marshal patrolling the carriages. Being shot means gaining a useless bullet card, whilst being punched results in the victim dropping a piece of loot.
Whichever player manages to gather the most loot by the end of the game - which also includes a bonus for shooting the most bullets - becomes the winner of Colt Express.
Christophe Raimbault is the creator behind both the original Colt Express and the Big Box edition, alongside the quick card game Sandwich - which sees players attempting to make the least disgusting sandwich possible from their ingredient cards - and another food themed game called Chef Cuckoo!
Colt Express: Big Box edition is being published by Ludonaute, the studio responsible for the original version as well as a board game about exploring Louisiana in the 1800s called Lewis & Clark, and a similar title called Discoveries: The Journals of Lewis & Clark.
There is yet to be a more specific release date for Colt Express: Big Box beyond 2021, with a retail price also yet to be confirmed.