Although I planned to do three Treefrog Line games a year I decided to slip in an extra one, just in time for Essen. Peter Dennis is working on the artwork as we speak.

This is a relatively simple train game for three to six players. It's set in North America and involves shares and building railway lines but has a few twists thrown in. Each player receives a number of investment cubes each turn. These are used to bid for control of companies, (six in all). When you take control of a company you receive one share, which means that only one share per turn can purchased. The cubes you bid with go into the company and allow it to build track, (costs are marked on the map). Each location has a value which determines how much profit you receive for connecting it. After companies have built as much track as they can players are paid the profit that each company they control has made this turn.

Profit levels are then zeroed for the following turn. Players get more cubes and then bid again for control of companies. This is the twist, the player with the most shares in a company is not the player who controls it, control goes to the player who purchased the last share.

Cash earned from shares is really victory points, it cannot be used to bid on future shares. As each player receives the same number of investment cubes each turn there is no positive feedback for owning the best shares.

The game lasts five turns. At the end of the game each company will pay out an additional amount of profit to each share held. This level is determined by how many different regions a company is connected to, (it's a little more involved than that, and coloured cubes are moved around!).

The whole thing takes between sixty and ninety minutes to play.

I will be taking pre orders in September, but only for mail order. I will not be taking pre orders for collection at Essen because it's too difficult to organise.