Game Night North v2006.17
Dec 6th, 2006
Host: JeffL
Guests: DanS, TroyMP, BobN, JimG
Railroad Tycoon
Jeff (74), Dan (72), Troy (56), Bob (50), Jim (50)
Jim’s Perspective
Dan was in from San Diego this week so we moved game night up a week to include him. Jeff hosted and I brought my usual pile of games. Dan was interested and hadn’t played Railroad Tycoon. We seem to have settled into a fairly predictable pattern in a 5 player game. Two people tend to duke it out in the northeast and along the eastern seaboard. That would be me and Jeff in this game. Another plays a quiet game in the southeast, running goods between Charleston, Atlanta and New Orleans. That was Troy tonight. The other two build up in the midwest. One usually gravitates toward Cincy – Louisville – Nashville (Dan tonight) and the other in the Chicago region (Bob). The midwest players start interacting toward the middle and end game while the northeast players are going at it from the beginning.
I made a couple of poor choices early in the game and felt like I was playing a move or 2 behind Jeff the entire game. I recognized this early on and would have been better off if I’d changed tactics and done something different but if I hadn’t continued pestering Jeff, he would likely have run away with the game. Dan did a nice job of building a solid network in the Ohio Valley region and connected up with Chicago. His planning enabled him to make several 5 and 6 connection deliveries late in the game that made him the leader and looked like he would win the game.
Troy held one of the Tycoon cards that rewards you for holding the fewest shares at the end of the game. He limited himself financially from the beginning and was able to build a respectable network to finish the game in 3rd overall having issued only 1 share the entire game. Bob invested heavily in track building early in the game and took him a while before he was generating a profit at the end of the turn. He started to come on strong with decent length deliveries about two-thirds of the way through the game but was left with relatively short runs at the end.
The start player auction each turn went for relatively few dollars most of the game. The bidding did get exciting toward the end when the Railroad Executive card came up. This card allows a player to immediately take 2 actions, effectively allowing a player at the table to take 4 actions for one game turn while everyone else takes the normal 3. The start player auction was won that turn by Troy for $22K (most of the game the start player paid $3K to $5K). Another bidding war happened on the final turn between Jeff and Dan. I think this was just see who would back down first and let the other go first.
In the end, Jeff squeaked out a 2 point victory over Dan. The rest of us were playing for 3rd with Troy winning that spot and Bob and I tied for the last spot. We counted the railroad connections and Bob won that tie-breaker so I was the caboose tonight.
Some Stats
Tycoon Cards
Jeff — Most money — Accomplished
Dan — First to 6 Level train — Accomplished
Troy — Fewest shares — Accomplished
Bob — Connections out of Chicago — Accomplished (2 of the 4 possible)
Jim — Fewest shares — Failed
Other Events
First Delivery — Jeff
Speed Record (First 3 Link Delivery) — Jeff
New Train (First 4 Level) — Dan
Raleigh Service Bounty — Jim
Jacksonville Service Bounty — Troy
Duluth Service Bounty — Bob
Louisville Service Bounty — Dan
Toronto Service Bounty — Bob