Mayfair Games is preparing to launch another in its award-winning series of Empire Builder board games -- Australian Rails (MSRP $38) is part of the Empire Builder series, but it is also a stand-alone game that allows players to explore the outback and build rail empires across vast mountain ranges and brutally hot deserts.  Australian Rails uses a specially designed board on which players can use crayons to lay out their railroad empires.

Designed for 2-6 players ages 10 and up, Australian Rails includes more than 100 Demand and Resource cards and 45 different antipodean cities players can link together with bands of steel.