Thurn and Taxis

This is a placement game where players earn points by building the most efficient Postal System in Old World Germany. Why a Postal System? Well it's in the name of the game, duh.

A quick history of where the game gets it's name (cause if your like me you're thinking: "not a great name for a game.") If you don't care, just skip down to "Description".

History of the Name
In the 12th century, the Lombardic family Tasso (meaning Badger) was resident near Bergamo. The badger (German: Dachs) became Taxis in the family coat of arms. In 1624 the family became counts (Grafen). In 1650 they changed their name to Thurn (Tower) und Taxis. In 1695 they received their princely title from Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
Ruggiano de Tassis founded a postal service in Italy. And later in Innsbruck, on 11 December 1489, Jeannetto de Tassis was appointed Chief Master of Postal Services. The family held its exclusive position for centuries. On 12 November 1516 the Taxis family had a postal service based in Brussels reaching to Rome, Naples, Spain, Germany and France by courier.
The Thurn und Taxis company would last until the 18th century, when the postal service was finally bought by the heir to the Spanish throne.

Description
The board is a map of Old World Germany and some surrounding cities with roads connecting the cities. The cities are grouped into six regions (designated by color). There are coinciding "city cards" (multiple of each city) that players collect to build their postal routes. Points are given for building the most efficient postal systems. The Player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Points can be earned in various ways depending on where you build, when you build, and how many post offices you build on one turn.

The basic turn consists of a player drawing a city card(s), playing his card(s) in front of him or her (building a postal route), and then "caching in" (when appropriate) the played cards and placing his post offices on the board and scoring his or her points.

I won't bother with a complete breakdown of all the rules. This game seems fairly complex and hard to understand at first, but is really quite simple and very enjoyable. There a some fun different strategical approaches to it. One downfall is that it is only a four player game without any expansion options. Game play takes 40-60 minutes, depending on how well versed with the game the players are. It has similar aspects to the games "Ticket to Ride" or "The Settlers of Catan" but without some of the frustration, so if you like this type of game, you'll like Thurn and Taxis.