Rail Baron oopses

[dagibbs]

We made a few little mistakes in our Rail Baron game.

1) box cars (double sixes) gives a bonus die, even without an express. (Not, I think, that it ever mattered.)
2) User fees are paid at the end of your turn. Delivery payoffs are immediate. i.e. you can arrive, collect your income, then pay to use the rail. This could have made a difference for a close/not-close purchase decision. (We're too used to the Crayon Rails way of doing it.)
3) You're not allowed to count pips after rolling the dice -- though you may do so before hand. This is in the rules twice, and heavily emphasized. I think it is a bad rule. (I understand what this rule is trying to do, but in fact I think it would make things even longer. With this rule, if it mattered, I'd have to precount and prefigure every possible dice roll before actually rolling the dice. By rolling, then counting, I only need to count the possible choices for that particular roll.)
4) You still pay the bank $1000/turn when moving on your own rail. I remember this being mentioned, but we didn't implement it. (You don't pay $2000 if using both your and bank's rail.)

Not that most of this matters -- they don't really change the game enough to be interesting.

But, I saw an auction variant on BGG that might make it more interesting (though require more paperwork) as well as some alternate endings that might also reduce the mid-game roll&move&collect money towards the $200,000 after all buying is done boredom.

(Errors 3 and 4 are common variants that serve to shorten the game without distorting things too much.)

Comments

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Imnsho, the duration of the midgame is critical: the longer the midgame, the more the players who've bought good track networks will shine, and the less likely it is that someone will win by a few lucky dice rolls.

The "no counting after the roll" rule is often bent in the groups I've played with, but if someone overdoes it, they will be called on it. I find the rule makes things rather inconvenient for the banker, since that player has much less time to count during other players' turns.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see the length of the mid-game affecting the bias from better rail.

If I'm playing with a "no counting" rule, then before I roll my dice, I'll count out (and possibly write down) the best choice for every possible roll. You don't want someone doing that.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

You really like playing the very best game you can, don't you? Not, you understand, that I take this to be a bad thing: I certainly like opponents who'll push me to play better myself!

I generally count and set up "brackets" for possible paths. E.g., on 2-6, go this way, on 7 or 8, go that way, and on 9 or more, go this other way. It's a heck of a lot easier to remember, and 3 such brackets covers 99.something% of the situations that arise. Well over 50% of the time, the autopilot will cover things: the route can be planned from the very start when one's track is decent. The exceptions seem to arise in the Southeast, where the track was designed by moonshine-fuelled hillbillies as a joke on Yankee railroad tycoons.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

You really like playing the very best game you can, don't you?

Yes, yes I do. I'm usually willing to help my competition play a better game, too, though.

And, you're right, generally I won't need a different route for every roll -- though when you're in a messy area, and you have to leave your own rail, optimizing the point that you move from $1 rail to $10 rail can take careful counting.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Indeed. The best game is a close game.

Yes, leaving your own rail is the hard bit, and can turn into a real counting nightmare if many different people own track in the vicinity; fortunately, this doesn't happen too often!