Players in priority order:
(1) Tor. He owns the games and do the organization. He tend to be at the spearhead of the train development, owning several companies.
(2) Jannicke. She usually plays conservatively, starting one company early, sticking to it and otherwise hoard stocks.
(3) Tor Ivar. In my eyes he is very strong strategically, and weaker tactically cost-benefit-wise. He is the player in the group that most easily plays destructively.
(4) Are-Harald (me). Very strong on making plans ex ante (that usually don't work :-P), and analyzing what went wrong ex post. Very weak, have I recently realized, on making wise strategic assessments and being adaptive at the table.
1832 takes place in the south eastern corner of USA. Rules are similar to 1870 except: There are no destinations.
New for us with 1832: Companies may merge, from after the first four train is sold to just after the first six train is sold.
There are two types of mergers: Creating system companies and takeovers. Presidents need to agree to merge. All assets of the merging companies are kept, and the merged company can access both merging companies' tokens and tracks. The standard certificates in system companies give 5% ownership. System companies have 2x the normal train limit. The stock vaue of a system company is the average of the stock value of the merging companies.
A takeover works different: The overtaking company (with contribution from its president if necessary) buys all stocks of the company being overtaken, which is effectively closed down (its certificates are removed from the game), but its on-map tokens remain and are usable by the merged company. Minority shareholders cannot block a takeover, if the president agrees, the takeover is carried through.
The privates in 1832 are: (Value - benefit):
20 - nothing particular.
40 - cottonfield marker with +10 revenue.
50 - port marker with +20/+10 revenue.
70 - can be traded for 10% in any company.
80 - West Virginia Coalfield. As in 1850/1856.
200 - You get the president in CG. (Similar to B&O in 1830).
Privates were auctioned and bought as follows:
(1) bids 75 for London private.
(2) bids 45 for the cotton private.
(3) bids 205 for the CG private.
(4) bids 85 for the coalfield private.
(1) bids 55 for the port private.
(2) bids 60 for the port private
(3) buys the $20 private.
(1) gets the port private for 65.
Which gives (4), me, the first opportunity to buy company shares. I was under the illusion that the coalfield station was worth $80 (its $40, iirc), and start SR@68. I was planning to earn 200 on two 2-trains. Instead I ended up with the lowest earning company in the first few ORs. Bleh!
(3), Tor Ivar, misunderstood how the $200 private work. He didn't realise it closed down early. Thus he regretted bidding for it.
SR 1: (4) starts SR@68. (3) starts CG@72. (1) starts Atlantic@76. (2) starts Seaboard@76. (3) ends up with PD.
The startups are clustered on the mid-eastern coast. If I hadn't misundestood the value of the coalfield, Florida would probably have been started instead of SR.
OR 1: Atlantic, Seaboard and CG buys 2 two-trains each. My company is last @68. I buy 1 two-train, 1 three-train and cash out the coal private for $160.
SR 2: No startups. I get to buy stocks for the money I got from selling the coal private, and feel good :-)
OR 2.1: Atlantic, Seaboard and CG buys 1 three-train each. They all have 2xtwo-train, and 1xthree-train now.
OR 2.2: SR buys a 2nd three-train.
SR 3: No startups. All stocks are sold out, except SR. which is the low-earner. People have excess cash. At this time I could have started a new company @90, and blown away the two-trains before any of the others could have run. Major, major mistake. Now people et to run their two-trains for two more ORs - all the time, I'm the low-earner.
OR 3.1: Atlantic 27, Seaboard 22, CG 24. SR: Lowest.
OR 3.2: Atlantic 27, seaboard 22, CG 25. Two-trains ftw. I cry because I didn't do a startup and obsoleted them.
SR 4: People are made of cash. Startups: (4) starts LN@90 (me, holding PD). Tracks are ready for LN, but long-term strategically perhaps another company would have been better, for example GR or Westpoint. LN would have been a good startup last SR, it's routes are better suited for two low trains. (1) starts GR@100, (3) starts Westpoint@100.
OR 4.1: There's one three-train on the table. GR(1) buys it, and a four-train. Westpoint(3) buys 2 four-trains. SR(4) buys a five-train.
OR 4.2: Seaboard(2) buys a five-train, GR(1) buys the last five-train, and Westpoint(3) buys the first 6-train.
Woha, this was fast! Two ORs ago people had two-trains, and now asix-train has made three-trains obsolete. I'm guessing that two-trains being alive for 5 ORs explains this leap in the train development.
Anyway: We enter the merge phase. Two system companies are created: (1) merges the newly started GR with his old Atlantic company. (3) merges the newly started Westpoint with his old CG. (2) only has one company, Seaboard. I, (4), hold LN and SG, but keep them separate. Their routes overlap and I guess I can earn more money running the routes two times in two distinct companies, than I can with one company. If I had started a different company, the conclusion might have been different.
(1) and (3) have both good routes in their startup companies on the east coast. Through the merging and creation of the system companies, they get fresh capital and extend their network towards the midmap cities.
SR 5: I have a feeling I need to do something and start Florida@100.
About the stockprices: The two system companies are both at 120. Seaboard has been dumped to the floor and sit around 100. SR is heading for yellow. Being the only one with a yellow company keeps my spirit up :-)
OR 5.1: CG&Westpoint 55 on 2 four-trains and 1 six-train, Atlantic&GC 34 with 1 four-train and 1 five-train. Not exactly mind-boggingly high earning per train, which makes me think the main benefit of creating a system company is to get one more share under the certificate limit, and get one less company you need to supply with a train later on. I control SR, LN and Florida and buy the remaining 2 six-trains.
OR 5.2: CG&Westpoint 55, Atlantic&GC 34. Seaboard 22, LN 21, Florida 16, SR 42. SR has two trains, withholds to get to yellow and has enough cash to buy a 8-train.
At this stage I considered emptying SR to get an eight-train, in order to obsolete the four trains. (3) had two four trains in CG&Westpoint and earned alot of money. But I estimated I would have made me enter the stock round with so little cash it would not have been worthwile.
SR 6: (2) has PD, but doesn't start. (3) starts GMO@100. The only company left to start now is Nordfolk, whose routes are bound to be utterly crap since the cities in north east are heavily tokenized. (1) buys 40% in GMO, which makes (3) dump it on him and start Nordfolk.
Everyone had one five-train, except (3), which gave him incentive to hunt for 12-trains. Though I believe giving (1) GMO and getting Nordfolk instead was a mistake - the fresh money helped (1), and GMO could get decent routes whereas Nordfolk couldn't.
After the sixth stock round, the stock prices are now: Both system companies, CG&Westpoint and Atlantic&GC, are at 225. Seaboard, LN and Florida are at 110, Nordfolk at 100, GMO at 68 and SR at 64.
OR 6.1: Nordfolk, GMO and SR buys the eight-trains.
At this time, we realize that we have to finish the game after this set of operation rounds, in order to have time to wrap things up in time for when the cafè we play at closes.
The ten-trains are sold. If we had had time to finish, (3) would have pushed through for a 12-train.
When we had to stop, after OR 6.3:
(1): Stocks 5064, cash 1328, total 6392.
(3): Stocks 4320, cash 1814, total 6134.
(4): Stocks 3272, cash 1770, total 5042.
(2): Stocks 2520, cash 2239, total 4759.
(1) controlled Atlantic&GC and GMO. He owned 30% of (formerly yellow) SR, and quite abit of CG&Westpoint. He felt he would have been strengthened further if we had played the game to the end.
(3) controlled CG&Westpoint and Nordfolk, and didn't own much besides that. Nordfolk was teh sux. I believe he made a mistake (one of very few) when he dumped GMO on (1) in SR 6. In my opinion, this type of mistake is typical Tor-Ivar, he fails to assess the cost-benefit picture correctly.
(4) (this is me) controlled SR, LN and Florida. I was set trainwise with 2 six-trains and 1 eight-train, as well as 1 five-train which would have obsoleted if we had finished. I had 40% of Seaboard which only had 1 five-train - that could have been dangerous towards the end, but only if (2) had been an aggressive player, which she is not. My big mistakes: 1. The coalfield is *not* worth 80, that's the price you pay to access it :-P 2. When I had 1 two-train, all the others had two, and I was the only one with capital to do a startup and provoke 4-trains - obviously I should have done it!
(2) controlled Seaboard, and had stocks in the high-value system companies as well as some in LN. Seaboard didn't get a very high stock value, partly because it got dumped on several occations, and partly because she chose to withhold earnings several times through the game, to finance new trains. I strongly believe the increased stock value you get from paying dividends is so critical to endgame value, that withholding to finance trains is only rarely worth it.
On merging companies: As far as I see this have limited usefulness. Takeovers are only feasible to do with a low-value company, but I believe having a yellow company in many or most cases will be preferrable. With system companies you get one more share inside your certificate limit and one less company you need to buy a train to later on - but earningwise I believe having two separate companies often will be best. By merging, each share pays only 5% of the earnings compared to 10% normally, and the good routes can be run twice if you keep the companies separate. The two system companies in this game got around 350 with one four-train and one five-train, and around 570 with two four-trains and a six train. I believe the total earning would have been atleast that high with separate companies, probably higher.
A system company president certificate equals four shares. My guess is that usually only companies controlled by the same player will be merged.
Next time I'll bring my digital camera :-P
