Age Of Steam: Stalinist Russia

Set in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s First Five-Year Plan, industrial expansion surges forward—at great cost. As a Party official tasked with managing the rail network, you must balance economic demands, limited resources, and the ever-watchful eye of the regime. Will you secure your place in the machinery of progress, or be left behind in Stalin’s disfavor?

Designed by: Michael Webb for 4-5 players

The year is 1931, and the Soviet Union is forging ahead with its grand experiment: Stalin’s Five-Year Plan. The Party has declared that industry must expand, infrastructure must modernize, and the nation must surge toward self-sufficiency—no matter the cost. Across the vast Soviet landscape, railway planners work tirelessly to construct a transport network capable of meeting the regime’s ambitious demands.

Yet, scarcity looms. The collectivization of farmland has uprooted rural life, and grain is diverted to fuel urban expansion, leaving resources ever more difficult to procure. Distribution is paramount, and only those who can efficiently manage the state’s railways will secure their place in the Soviet machine. Meanwhile, the gears of progress turn swiftly, bringing powerful new locomotives—but at an ever-increasing price. To hesitate is to fall behind, and in Stalin’s Soviet Union, those who fail to meet expectations do not go unnoticed.

Will you rise as a stalwart architect of the Five-Year Plan, ensuring the success of Soviet industry? Or will you find yourself outmaneuvered, outpaced, and cast aside as an enemy of progress? The choice is yours—though history has never been kind to those left behind.