Rail Tycoon vs Red Fire
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rail Tycoon
Build and manage your own railroad empire by laying track, constructing stations, and scheduling trains. This simulation game offers a realistic railroad experience with strategic decision-making.
- Build rail lines and stations
- Buy and manage trains
- Schedule train operations
- Simulate railroad management
- Economic strategy gameplay
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Rail Tycoon lets you take control of your own rail network. You decide where to build stations and rail lines, to server the community best. Then buy stations, add cars, and and start making money. This is a simulation of a railroad, with all the fun and problems that entails. The objective of the game is to build and manage a railroad company by laying track, building stations, and buying and scheduling trains. Based on the PC game, this game is fully playable on your iPad or iPhone, and features no ads or in-app purchases.
Red Fire
Engage in turn-based strategic warfare across East Asia from 1950-1975. Command diverse land, air, and naval forces of numerous nations in historical and fictional conflicts. Experience realistic Cold War combat with intelligent AI and hotseat multiplayer.
- Turn-based strategy
- East Asian Cold War setting
- Land, air, and naval forces
- Dozens of nations
- Realistic combat simulation
- Intelligent adaptive AI
- Hotseat multiplayer
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Red Fire is a turn-based strategic wargame set in East Asia between the years 1950-1975. Take command of land, air, and naval forces of dozens of nations including the US, USSR, China, Taiwan, North and South Korea, North and South Vietnam, France, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Experience Korean War, Vietnam War, and many other conflicts - both historical and fictional. Command squadrons of more than 500 types of aircraft, from biplanes to multirole fighter jets. Control the seas with more than 500 types of warships including submarines, battleships and aircraft carriers. Leverage new tools like surface-air missiles, air-air refueling tankers, attack helicopters, and missile cruisers to dominate the battlefield. Red Fire is powered by a detailed and realistic simulation of Cold War-era air, naval, and ground combat. Fight against an intelligent AI which constantly adapts its strategy to ensure every game is challenging and unique. Challenge a friend in hotseat multiplayer (pass-and-play). Red Fire contains no in-app purchases or ads of any kind, and an internet connection is not required to play. Buy the game once and get access to all current and future content.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Red Fire at 92% against Rail Tycoon's 0%. Red Fire also leads on rating (4.8 vs 1.7) and ratings volume (93 vs 3). Rail Tycoon's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 6 weeks) and price ($1.99 vs $5.99). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Rail Tycoon costs $1.99 and Red Fire $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Red Fire holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 1.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Red Fire has 93 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Rail Tycoon's written reviews are positive against 92% of Red Fire's.
Rail Tycoon ships an update every 10 days, Red Fire every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Rail Tycoon | Red Fire |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $5.99 |
| Rating | 1.7 (3 ratings) | 4.8 (93 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 92.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 93 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 166 MB |
| Age rating | +4 | 12+ |
| Developer | JOhn Lyons | Geoffrey Ayre |
Customer experience
Rail Tycoon
Red Fire
Bugs and requests
Rail Tycoon
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Red Fire
Reported bugs
11 issues- Game crashes frequently
- Freezes on resolving conflicts preventing turn progression
- Aircraft auto-renew orders system malfunction
- Naval and land forces stuck on Guam island
- Ships unable to find routes from Guam
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- AI captures areas behind player lines unrealistically
- Carrier planes launch from destroyers instead of carriers
- Notch display compatibility issue
- Campaign Red Fire ends prematurely at March 26, 1969
- Nuclear war notifications trigger without player action
- Game lag with large unit concentrations (6.7M+ troops)
Requested features
20 requests- European theatre/Cold War Europe map
- Middle East and North Africa campaigns
- South America and Central America scenarios
- Modern era (1970s-2020s) game version
- Group land and air units like naval units
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- Artillery units with ranged mechanics
- Individual aircraft selection from squadrons
- WWI and Gulf War scenarios
- India and Pakistan as playable nations
- Mission editor for campaign customization
- Ability to disband units and ships
- Force allied AI to move troops
- More save slots
- PC/desktop port
- Star Wars version
- American Civil War scenario
- Cuban Missile Crisis campaign
- Diplomacy complexity improvements
- Vehicle variants expansion
- Reduced AA missile quantities
In-app purchases
Rail Tycoon
No in-app purchases
Red Fire
No in-app purchases
