Rio Grande Games is offering a pair of titles from veteran designer Friedemann Friese that will release in December: Free Ride USA and the Power Grid Bremen/Manhattan Expansion.
Set in 1950s America, Free Ride USA challenges players to oversee the modernization of the railway network into the diesel locomotive age. They will rebuild rail lines and deliver passengers from city to city using a combination of their own lines and state-owned routes for free, or by paying other players to convert their private lines to state-owned ones. Bonuses are paid for completing long east-west routes, and points are awarded for “visiting” as many cities as possible.
Free Ride USA is intended for 1 to 5 players, with solitaire rules included, and takes a little under an hour to play. MSRP is $59.95. The game is a stand-alone follow-up to 2021’s Free Ride, set in Europe during the 19th Century (see “Trio of Titles Announced by Rio Grande”).
Friese’s long-running series, Power Grid explores a pair of new regions with the Power Grid Bremen/Manhattan Expansion, with two new maps for players to construct electrical empires over. The Bremen map offers fast competition in a region where nuclear power is not used and resources are scarce. In addition, rather than typical connection costs between cities, Bremen features flat district costs and small districts. Manhattan, meanwhile, suffers from limited space for networks coupled with very high demand. Games on the Manhattan map run entirely in Step 1 over a single huge area.
As an expansion, a copy of the base game is needed to play. Bremen/Manhattan supports games with 2 to 6 players, with games lasting 90 to 120 minutes. MSRP is $14.95.
December will also see Power Grid launch into outer space with Power Grid Outpost, announced earlier this year (see “Colonize a New Planet in Next ‘Power Grid’ Game”).
Source: ICV2
