Capstone Games Pipeline Board Game

Product Information

Pipeline is an amazing experience, especially considering this was designer Ryan Courtney’s first game. Though it might seem dry and complicated at first glance, after a few turns even new players will understand what they should be doing and be grumbling about the fact that they don’t have enough time to do it all. The valuation cards in Pipeline give every game its own flavor and the combinations are close enough to endless that I think it will be difficult, if not impossible, to ever come to a point where you can define “the best” strategy.

As the Klondike and subsequent gold rushes faded, so did the production of board games attempting to tap into the mystique of Alaska. The decades-long lull in Alaska-themed gaming mirrored the economic doldrums and stagnant development of Alaska, especially between World War I and II. Pipeline is an economic euro for 2-4 players and plays in about 30 minutes per player. It plays well at all counts. Gameplay Overview: The most unavoidable Alaska board games are the many official Alaska Monopoly variants, including Monopoly: Alaska Edition, Monopoly: Alaska’s Iditarod, and Monopoly Junior: Trek Alaska. Other Alaska-themed board games have built upon the Monopoly design, including Alaska-Opoly, Fairbanks-Opoly, and the Game of Palmer Alaska. Several of the Monopoly-style Alaska games have been updated or reprinted. Unable to keep up with demand, the government has only one option: privatizing the oil industry. This is where you come in.The pipeline building is its own kind of spatial puzzle, as you’ll likely start by focusing on a certain color of pipe but need to have options if the market for that type of oil becomes flooded. Not to mention, having the ability to upgrade different types of oil gives you a lot of flexibility in actions as you can buy and sell different types of oil at different markets. We are only halfway through, but 2019 is shaping up to be one of the better years for new board game releases in recent memory. Today we are looking at one of the games that is leading that charge, Pipeline, which sold out at Origins 2019 and finished atop the BGG hotness at the convention.

Seeking to capitalize on this new opportunity, in Pipeline you start a company in the oil business.To win the Game of Klondike, players begin at St. Michael and navigate the Yukon River to Dawson, surviving a series of potentially deadly catastrophes along the way. While some prospectors did take this path to the Klondike, most chose the land routes via Skagway and Dyea, entry points for the White Pass and Chilkoot Trails, respectively. The Solo Automa, named Ludvig, will act as a 2nd player over the course of a game. Your goal is to beat Ludvig’s score at the end of the game. It’s wonderfully tactile and interactive throughout, with players constantly competing to sell and buy everything first. It’s also brilliant at all player counts (thanks to some simple tweaks to the markets) and doesn’t take too long to play once everyone is familiar with the mechanics. In 1973, Armond Kirschbaum released Alaska Pipeline: The Energy Crisis game amid that year’s oil crisis. An oil embargo enacted by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sparked severe gas shortages and price spikes across America. The game’s objective is to refute pipeline criticisms and circle a map of Alaska while using the least amount of gas ration coupons. The game was re-released in 1993 in the wake of the First Gulf War.