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Quick Look: En Route
Designer:Philipp Ivanov
Artist: Ekaterina Mamontova
Publisher: CrowD Games
Year Published:2025
No. of Players: 1-4
Ages: 14+
Playing Time: 20-40 minutes.
Find more info HERE.
From the Publisher:
People love traveling. We want to meet new cultures, see famed landmarks with our own eyes and taste the world cuisine. One of the most pleasant ways to explore a new city is… just going for a walk. But how to chart a tour route that satisfies everyone? There’s an answer!
En Route is a flip-and-write game in which you create tour routes to the most interesting landmarks of the real-world cities (London, New York City, Hong Kong, Paris, Cairo, and Rio de Janeiro) and the made-up First City packed full of geek references. Every city features basic and specific mechanisms, so all of them play and feel differently.
Cards are not flipped randomly — instead, an active player plays one card face up, and two players next to them secretly choose one card each. Then, an active player selects one of the two and discards the other. After that, all players use coordinates and other information from the two cards left on the table to draw their tourists and routes.
During the game, route segments are drawn, connecting different types of tourists to various landmarks and attractions. A game of En Route lasts exactly 10 rounds. At the end of the game, each place of interest on the final route will earn players Prestige Points according to its rules. Whoever creates the most satisfying tour route, wins!
The game features constant and quite intense player interaction, and players have a fair degree of control and can strategize. It plays fast, dynamic, and makes you constantly think about what your opponents want to do (and sometimes even negotiate so that they play cards that are beneficial to you!).
Disclaimer: The publisher provided the copy of En Route. The opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.
Review:
Overview:
I like travel and games, so when I saw En Route, I thought I’d give it a try. The game seems like a switch to the standard Roll-n-Write. There are the same standard things a Roll-n-Write has, where there is some mechanism that informs what you can do for the round (in this case it’s cards), something you have to write down and make decisions on where to write it, and optimizing your moves. En Route adds a couple more elements in that you have to pay attention to additional game goals that can affect your final score. It is also a bit of programming in that you will only get 1 path at the end of the game, so marking multiple paths is actually not a good thing. Should be fun to play with family and friends.
Rules & Setup:
The publisher has provided a very nice rule book that includes examples and graphic representations where necessary. The rule book is easy to follow and understand, which makes it easy to teach others to play the game. Rules are also provided for Solo Play as well as other possible play modes.
The setup of the game is not time consuming. Players determine the City for which they want to make plans (all players play the same city). Each player takes a city map and 4 dry erase markers. The Round Board and the Card Holder are placed in the center of the table. The City Deck is created by combining the Standard and City Tourists into a single deck. Each player is then dealt 3 cards from the deck.
Note: There may be some additional steps to the setup process based on the city that is chosen.
In En Route you are trying to organize a fun filled tour of the city for the tourists that arrive. If you can plan a good route that lets tourists visit the attractions they like, you are sure to get a good score. Loops and side quests (routes) are not allowed, tourists will only take one route through the city. If they have a good time, you will have a good time.
The mechanic of the game is simply card based Roll-n-Write actions. Each turn a set of cards is presented and you perform actions (draw on your city board) based on those cards. Each round a new player will pick the cards that are used, thus reducing the amount of randomness in the game.
En Route is played over 10 rounds. During each round the active player chooses one of the cards from their hand and receives a card from the player to the right and the player to the left. The active player then picks 2 of the cards and discards the 3rd. The chosen 2 cards inform the play for the round. Cards have a number on them and the 2 numbers become coordinates on the board where each player draws the depicted tourists and 2 route segments, one of which must run along the identified coordinates. Once all players have finished, the active cards are discarded, players draw back to 3 cards in their hand, active player passes to the left, and a new round begins.
At the end of the 10 rounds, players score their city board to determine how well they did and what their score will be. There are a number of ways to score points, but the primary way is to determine the final route the tourists will take (must not loop, cannot go over a path twice), players then multiply the types of tourists that follow the route with the types of locations they like that are on the route to earn points. The player who has earned the most points wins the game.
Letting the active player choose the cards to be used. Most Roll-n-Writes include a great deal of randomness, which can cause excessive chaos. By letting the active player make a decision on the game play the game becomes more strategic. Players feel like they are playing the game rather than just reacting to an external influence.
What some may find issue with:
Some may find it difficult to understand how the various tourists are used. Game players tend to group like things, but in this game the different tourists can be together, it just matters the path you plan through the city. Without an idea of how this “route programming” affects play and scoring, a player will not connect paths and locations, causing a low score. Recommend thinking of tourists and locations separately but equally in how they relate to the path.
I try to pick up lighter games as a good way to get people into gaming or as a start to a game night. En Route fulfills this perfectly. It is a light game that has enough strategy to get the brain juices flowing. I’m a real puzzle person, so trying to figure out how to plan a route that will score well based on gameplay using coordinates is a challenge. At times I was able to plan well, but at other times I made bad choices that caused future choices to fail as well. I’ll keep this game in my collection for those times when I want to play a light game, and I recommend you do the same.
Players Who Like: Roll-n-Writes, path programming, and Tetris types of games
After reading Thomas Shepherd’s review, if this sounds like a game for you at the time of this posting En Route recently finished it’s late-pledge. Check it out and look for updated news on when you can get yours HERE.
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Thomas Shepherd – Reviewer
Grew up loving to solve puzzles, play games. In younger years he had fun playing pencil games, playing D&D with friends, and hanging out with others. His favorite thing to do was to make puzzles, mazes, word games, picture games, etc. Sadly his career took him in a different direction. Gaming came back into his life, though, about 15 years ago & held onto it since. He enjoys designing games and has 9 published titles, through, Toresh Games. Sadly he wasn’t able to sustain the company. He would love to see a return to games as the best social media platform for the masses.
See Thomas Shepard’s Reviews HERE.
English (US) ·