Railroad Ink is the little box I keep in my bag for the in between moments, the cafe table, the wait for friends to arrive, the evening that needs a game but not a whole evening of one. There is a particular late game panic I have come to love, when my board is nearly full and I am staring at one perfect piece that absolutely must link my two sprawling networks or I lose the points, and there is nowhere graceful left to put it. It proves how much game you can pack into a few dice and a dry erase board, and the whole table plays at once, so there is never a dull moment waiting your turn.

Each round someone rolls a set of dice showing route pieces, bits of road and bits of railway. Everyone then draws those exact same pieces onto their own little grid, deciding where to place them to build the most useful network. The goal is to connect the exits along the edges of your board with long, unbroken roads and rails, while not leaving too many loose, dangling ends, which cost you points. Because everyone draws the same dice, it becomes a pure contest of who makes the smarter choices with identical raw materials.

The fun is the satisfying spatial puzzle and the rising tension as your board fills up and your options shrink. Early on you have all the room in the world, and by the end you are desperately trying to link two networks with one piece. The different editions add special powers, like rivers or lakes, to mix things up.

It teaches in a minute, plays solo or with a crowd, and a full game is over in around twenty minutes. For a portable, brain pleasing roll and write, Railroad Ink is hard to beat.

Are you a build one giant network player or a connect every exit player? Tell me below, and tell me your highest scoring map.