Designed by: Martin Wallace
In Tinners’ Trail each player is a industrial baron, mining copper and tin from Cornwall in the industrial revolution. The game takes place over four rounds, during which players build their mines and try and remove as much resources as they can – whilst trying to keep the water in their mines down to a minimum and hoping for decent prices on the market.
Helping them achieve this are steam pumps to remove water, and ports and train stations to help get the resources moving.
What makes the game interesting is players aren’t just managing their finances – they’re also trying to make the best use of time, as each action in the game takes a certain amount of time on the time track: building a steam pump, for instance, only costs you one unit of time, whereas the sought-after adits (which remove water and uncover more metal) cost three. When you’re out of time, your actions for the round are over!
There’s other things to consider too – you can’t build a mine wherever you like, because every available spot must be auctioned. The prices for tin and copper fluctuate wildly. The cost for extracting metal from a mine depends on how much water is present. And your position on the time-track is also key: whoever has used the least time will be the active player – and this can inform tactics and strategy hugely.
At the end of each round, players sell their mined tin and copper and have to balance making investments (which will decide the eventual winner) with keeping money back to use in the next round. After the final round, the player who has the best return on their investments is the winner!
There can sometimes be a race to get a particular piece in one's own mine, or to get hold of a particular area, but usually there is a Plan B available. Players can also try and force the bidding up for something they secretly don't want...
Even with older players Tinners' Trail can occasionally pause whilst somebody works out their best move. Not really one for younger children
There is some maths involved as players calculate how much it'll cost them to get their tin and copper moving. But nothing too advanced: basically how much water in an individual mine will dictate the cost of removing the tin and copper from it.
The game is always Cornwall and there aren't a multitude of options. But there are a deceptively large amounts of variation in strategies – for instance turn order in Tinners' Trail is important and going first can be very rewarding; but it is possible to not worry about turn order at all and still win. Mine contents and tin/copper prices are also decided randomly, and bidding for mines can be very competitive.
3-4
Players
10+
Years
90-120
Mins
Sam says
I love Tinners' Trail. And I have been serially mocked for loving a banal-sounding game about mining in Cornwall, but I don't care! There's something about the mechanics of the game I just think works very well - the fact you're not only managing money but time, the fact going first can be crucial but equally finishing a round last means you can pick up a mine cheaply. The random factors of water and prices fluctuating. The gambling option on un-surveyed territory. And the fact you can sell pasties.