I purchased Station Master about a month ago and it's gotten quite a bit of use. The first thing about this game is just how simple it is to learn. I initially played the game with my non-gamer wife and she actually enjoyed the game. It took about 5-10 minutes to read and comprehend the rules and the first game went pretty smoothly.

Next, on to the Game Night test with the hard core gamers and the game was a success. We did note a rule that I had missed in the rulebook and that's how one of the special engines reverses point scores. Bottom line: this is a FUN game and it's simple enough to entice non-gamers into the fold.

The gist of the game is that there are trains waiting to leave the station and every turn you can do one of two things... add a passenger token to a train if space is available and you have a token left OR play a card. Cards are mostly point values both positive and negative. When enough cars have been added to an engine the train leave and points are talleyed by adding up all of the card and multiplying them by the passengers you loaded so it is possible to lose points when a train leaves the station too. Then there are special cards that manipule the game by allowing you do do things like cause a train to leave early, move train cars, and move passengers around. Once all the engine cars are gone the game is over and the played with the most points wins. A game takes about 30-45 mins with experienced players.

Why only 4 of 5 if we liked it so much? Well, the game has plenty of chance in it coupled with the stategy. The chance come from drawing random cards from the deck... and some of the special cards can be quite effective if played strategically. I do fear that some might dismiss this game as all luck without looking deeper though as there's more strategy here than might meet the eye.

Summary: Easy to learn. Excellent value. Lots of fun!