
2013 · Political
Freedom: The Underground Railroad
Players cooperate as members of the abolitionist movement working to build support and assist enslaved people to freedom in Canada. The game is card-driven: players play historical figures and events, use action tokens and role abilities to raise funds, recruit supporters, and move escapees along routes while slave catchers patrol and react to those movements. Players must balance freeing people from the South with generating the resources needed to sustain their activities, and face setbacks from adverse events and opposing forces. Victory comes from achieving enough political and financial momentum to dismantle the institution of slavery.
- Players
- 1–4 best 3
- Playing time
- 60–120 min
- Age
- 13+
- Complexity
- 2.9 / 5
Where to buy it
Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.
On Ludoya's tables
Full stats in Ludoya- 51
- Plays logged
- 46
- Players
- 1h 31m
- Average play
- 20
- In collections
- 13
- On wishlists
6.3/10
from 12 Ludoya reviews
Awesome game with great theme, innovative mechanics that can remind to wargames, very tense and difficult. Love it, one of a kind
Evan4.6 A very enjoyable game where players as a team have to try to get enough cubes out of the lower half of the board, into the upper half while still gathering enough dollars to be able to buy the victory tokens. The theme here is heavy, but I enjoyed being able to purchase action cards that summoned the influence of great civil rights heroes to save the day in a pinch. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ☆ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★★☆☆☆ Raw enjoyment
Mitchell C5.9 Wow. This is without a doubt the BEST cooperative game I have played. I wouldn't be playing it every week because the theme is emotionally draining. But it's a very interesting and tense experience. If you get a chance you must check this one out.
Rules questions
Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.
When do slave catchers move, and do they capture slaves they pass over?
During the Slave Catcher Phase the lead player rolls the two dice to see which catcher (if any) moves and how far; if the walking-slave symbol is rolled, none move. A slave catcher only captures slaves on the final space it ends on—slaves on spaces it passed over are not captured (pages 5–6).
Can I move a slave into a space that already has a slave, and how many slaves can a city hold?
Most small cities and spaces can hold only a single slave and a slave cannot finish its movement on a space that already contains a slave, while the large square cities (Chicago, Boston, New York) can hold up to 4 slaves; Canada has numbered spaces for tracking freed slaves (page 7).
If I buy an Abolitionist Card that gives money, can I use that money to pay for the same card?
No — you must have enough money available before the purchase; money gained from resolving the card cannot be used to pay for that card, and players may not give or lend money to each other unless a card specifically allows it (page 8).
What happens in the Slave Market Phase and how do we lose from slaves being sold?
During the Slave Market Phase the slaves on the bottom Slave Market Card are placed into any open plantation spaces; if there are no open plantation spaces for incoming slaves they are placed on the Slaves Lost Track, and if you must add a slave after the last Slaves Lost space is filled the players immediately lose the game (page 10).
When does the next Period column become active and what changes when the last Support Token in a Period is taken?
When the last Support Token in the currently active Period Column is taken the game is paused and the current Period's Abolitionist Deck is removed from the game, then the next Period Column immediately activates and its tokens and cards become available to all players (page 6).
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Play Freedom: The Underground Railroad with Ludoya
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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.

