I finally got to play my $10 copy over the weekend. We only had time for one game. There were three of us, and we weren't conflicting with each other, though I was starting to try to encroach on my neighbor's territory to make use of her stations.
Man, that takes me back to classic Dominion. And that's really what Trains is. We had a new player, and I really wanted to try out Trains, so I opted for that rather than play Dominion with the base set. For a person new to deckbuildling, that's a mistake. Dominion might have an unnecessary theme, but it's easy to follow: You buy Silver and Gold to build up your buying power. The theme is crap in Trains: You buy an Express Train so that you can buy a Viaduct. She was confused about how buying trains didn't really take you anywhere. I can't say I blame her. Those of us with Dominion experience caught onto Trains right away.
The map portion was interesting. I may try to play it again tonight with a different group (all Dominion veterans). I want to figure out the board a little better. When I played over the weekend, the three of us claimed our corners of the map. I got caught up in the fallacy that whenever you can afford to build a rail or station, you should do it. No, I shouldn't have. Building a rail on the board gives you no advantage during the game, and it adds waste (a Curse card of 0 VP) to your deck. Well, maybe one advantage. When someone builds onto a hex that has your token, it costs more for them and adds additional waste. Still not worth it to build very early. So basically, you have to determine when it's safe to go green. Then you start pushing for rail and station cards.
At first your starting hand looks 100% useful. All the cards do stuff. You have seven coppers. You also have two cards that build a rail (and generate waste). Finally, you have one card that builds a station (+ waste). But as I said, you could probably ignore those early on. If you think of them as Estates just clogging your deck, you will know how to play. It's just that these "Estates" help you gain VPs later.
It's a neat game. I mean, it's Dominion. It's fun like Dominion. It just has an additional component. You could ignore the board altogether and buy up the VPs. There are a few downsides to this: The "Province" is only 4 VP for 8 cost (I think the "Duchy" is only 2 VP), you gain Waste as well (giving you two dead cards), and the game doesn't end just because you empty the "Province" pile. So when people say that it's hard to win by ignoring the board, I believe it.
I would still choose Dominion over Trains, especially with all the new cards shaking things up, but I would choose Trains over Ascension.
And I kind of parroted a lot of what was said in here already, but it's been a while since I read this thread. Sorry for repeats.