The Great Train Robbery (board game)
Designers Bruce Barrymore Halpenny | | |
| Illustrators | Bruce Barrymore Halpenny | |
|---|---|---|
| Publishers | ANZIO Publishing[1] | |
| Publication | Early 1970s | |
| Genres | Board game, race game | |
| Players | 2 to 6 | |
| Chance | Mid (dice, card-drawing, luck) | |
| Age range | 9 to adult | |
| Skills | Counting, reading, decisions, judgement | |
The Great Train Robbery is a
, with the robber player trying to avoid the police players.The game itself took three days and three nights for Bruce Halpenny to design, and then three years to bring onto the market.[2] The famous train artist David Weston was commissioned by Bruce Halpenny to paint the box.[1]
The board of the game was original,[2] which made a change from most board games that tend to be adaptations of other games.[2] The board is made up of a quite complex and extensive road network, down which the robbers escape from the train, and through which the police chase the robbers or set road block traps.[2] Its rules are easy to interpret, but the players have to use a fair amount of judgement and skill in order to trap or avoid trapping each other.[2]
The game, as well as having a good response in Britain in a year when the indoor games market had taken a knock,
In an interview, Bruce Halpenny said, “With crime you deal with every basic human emotion and also have enough elements to combine action with melodrama. The player’s imagination is fired as they plan to rob the train. Because of the gamble they take in the early stage of the game there is a build up of tension, which is immediately released once the train is robbed. Release of tension is therapeutic and useful in our society, because most jobs are boring and repetitive.”[2]
Reviews
- Games and Puzzles[3]