Steam over Holland

Steam over Holland arrived today. Actually, yesterday I went to the Netherland's post web site to check when the package should actually arrive, and it turned out it was supposed to arrive yesterday or today. Well, here it is now, right on time.

I'm kind of used to 18xx games being drab and kind of minimalistic in their look, but this one's different. Right from the box, the game has a slipcase and a box, both very thick and sturdy. The contents are top notch: mounted board, nice tiles, wooden houses for stations, proper cards for trains and shares... The box has a nice insert, which keeps the board in place over the other contents. Best of all, there's a certificate of authenticity - like Mike Doyle suggested some time ago. Very nice touch!

What about the game? I don't know, seems interesting, I think I like the concept of game limited to 15 rounds (that is just five stock rounds and two operating rounds for each stock round). Other than that it's hard to say, hopefully I get to play this soon. The length is just long enough to make playing this on Thursday evenings tricky business, if we start by 16.30 (feasible) we can finish something that takes three hours, but that leaves very little room for explaining the rules.