Prairie Railroads

Overview

from session report: Action chits drive the game - on your turn you can play an action chit from your pool, or draw one from the cup and playing the drawn action. Actions come in three flavours: Offer Stock: a share stock is auctioned off. There are six companies, five shares per company. In order to make money you need shares in companies, then get those companies building crayon track across the laminated board. A very nice mechanic makes the money paid for the stock go into that company's coffers. It is these funds that the company must use to build track, so while you may get a bargin share for $1, that's not much use as it costs $5 to build a track segment. Very clever, and it certainly adds a twist to the old bidding mechanic. Construct Track: a company's coffers are plundered for funds to build track. More track segments built, the more the payout per share when the next action is played. Pay Dividend: each company pays the dividend bonuses to all shareholders. The total dividend is based on the value of towns connected by track, with bonus $1 for towns that experience "growth". This total is divided by 5 (shares per company) then each shareholder receives this amount per share. A bit mathematical, but by keeping records as you go, it is pretty painless. As there are only 8 Pay Dividend chits in the game (well, 3 player game), it is a reasonably rare occurrence compared to the other two actions. The game ends when the 8th Pay Dividend is played, with a slightly different tweak on the final payouts.