Tips railroadink

General Strategy / Base Game

• Try and pick a starting point, then head in one direction with roads, and in the other direction with railroads, to maximize points for longest highway/railroad. While most of your points will come from connecting exits, having a route or even a bridge/special route run through the center is a good idea for additional points.

• Remember you can let roads and railroads end on the side of the board, even when there is no exit. These do not count as a penalty.

• Be smart about bridge use - this does not count as a connection between your road and railroad, but it does double dip in terms of points for longest road and railroad if placed well. When you do not have a good place, try to use it as a straight road/railroad along the edge as this mitigates the point loss to -1 instead of -2.

• Don't forget to use your first special route by the end of the 5th round, as you only get 3 and can only use one per round. Ideally it should be one of the two railroad, two road junctions and be played early in the game to ensure your longest road and railroad are part of a single network. The best places for it are one of the center exits, one up from each exit in a corner, or in the actual center. Special routes should either be planned around explicitly or used in place of 3-way connectors that never come. Unless desperate in the last couple rounds, you should never throw a station in the middle of your road/railroad. Stations should be placed at "in-betweener" exits to ensure your longest road/railroad can continue connecting exits uninterrupted. Use 3-way pieces in tandem with stations to maintain one network.

• On the last turn, prioritize using extra rolls to close off penalties rather than lengthen rail/roads or fill center tiles because number of penalties is the first tiebreaker after score

• A well-played game generally scores in the 60s: 36-45 from exits, 20-30 total between longest road and railroad, 3-9 for center, and negative 0-10 for broken ends. There is a lot of variation based on routes offered. High scoring rolls can get into the 70s or even low 80s.

Expansions

River

• Careful use of the river bridges is crucial

• There's a constant struggle to determine whether it's worth the risk of hoping to hit the right river pieces to extend or if you should connect the edge now and not take the risk. Take calculated risks based on what your opponents have done.

Lakes

• Lakes make it much easier to connect all exits due to piers. Keep in mind for every route you build that you will need to find a way to connect it to your lake via a pier, but in ~90% of games you should score all 45 points for exits if you played well

• It is crucial that you have a single lake at the end of the game as this should amount to 15-20 points. If there are a lot of early pier rolls, focus on building your lake on a corner/half of the board and your longest road/railroad networks on the other side. But make sure you don't neglect going for a long road/railroad as these should also amount to 15-25 points collectively

• In a game with less piers, focusing your lake in mostly the center of the board is safer

• Unlike in the base game, building your longest road and railroad as separate networks is okay because they can be connected via piers on your lake.

• Auto-filling tiles with water is crucial because (a) it lets you sprawl your lake wider for more connectivity and (b) it's free points toward lake size. Aim to fill 5+ tiles with water. Plan your lake with early positioning of 2 and 3-sided water tiles with other 1-sided waters to "cascade" water-fill in the last few rounds.

• If well-planned, you should not rely on rolling 2/3 sided tiles to connect your lake. It's okay to have some penalties placing late piers that can't connect - this will simply offset one of your auto-filled tiles. Don't forget that open water sides do not count as a penalty.

• Keep in mind that your lake does not have to be one solid mass of water - it can have islands. Placing two 3-side water tiles with their land-side touching surrounded by other water to later cascade auto-fill is a great strategy

Meteor

• Meteor is the least impactful expansion. There are a few key differences to keep in mind, but the overall game plan largely matches the base game

• Key point #1: base your route connection (where road meets railroad) as far as possible from the meteor to minimize the possibility of interruption

• Key point #2: later in the game build toward the early meteor hits - especially ones in the center. If two meteor strikes line up diagonally, then putting a 3-sided road/rail, bridge, or even special route adjacent to both of them is worth 4 points

• Key point #3: you should almost never use a special route to prevent a meteor landing. Keep in mind that you can always place on top of meteor strikes. I.e. if a meteor lands on your road/railroad and it's not a special route, then you can just cover it up with that same piece once it rolls again or worst case use the special route you would have covered up preventing it.

• Other than that focus on the usual things. Maintain continuous road and railroad segments as long as possible. There are 6 instead of 7 rounds so building through the center is likely a tad worse than in the base game.

Lava

• Building a volcano in the corner with a road/rail volcano piece on each side is a fantastic option: +5 points for a closed volcano using only 3 pieces while also contributing toward connected routes. However you should almost always join them with a special route rather than a bridge because hoping to join up your road/railroads later is very risky.