I anticipate using this space to record the general strategies from my weekly board game session. If there's interest, I'll include photographs of game progression in the future.
I've been playing board games nearly every Sunday evening since 2001. The group is usually five or six guys and the composition has changed very little in the time I've been playing. Games are normally hosted at the house of a Missouri State history professor.
Our games are a friendly affair, so we don't like to see someone eliminated early. If someone is eliminated early, the offending player is usually faced with a war on multiple fronts fairly quickly. On occasion early aggression succeeds in forcing a concession out of the other players and we just play another game.
We play all manner of war games, economic games and the odd role playing game. They range from Axis and Allies to Settlers of Catan to House on Haunted Hill.
My general strategy for any game is to give myself options. This may mean getting a diverse collection of resources, or it may mean building units that sacrifice firepower for movement. As I describe individual games, this will be the theme time and again.
I've been playing board games nearly every Sunday evening since 2001. The group is usually five or six guys and the composition has changed very little in the time I've been playing. Games are normally hosted at the house of a Missouri State history professor.
Our games are a friendly affair, so we don't like to see someone eliminated early. If someone is eliminated early, the offending player is usually faced with a war on multiple fronts fairly quickly. On occasion early aggression succeeds in forcing a concession out of the other players and we just play another game.
We play all manner of war games, economic games and the odd role playing game. They range from Axis and Allies to Settlers of Catan to House on Haunted Hill.
My general strategy for any game is to give myself options. This may mean getting a diverse collection of resources, or it may mean building units that sacrifice firepower for movement. As I describe individual games, this will be the theme time and again.
Railroad Tycoon, The Board Game
I assume that readers are familiar with the rules of the game. We've played this game a few times, so I think we have the rules debugged and aren't doing anything stupid out of ignorance. BoardGameGeek has more information about the game here.
I hate debt. I don't mind using a little to get started, but unless I'm aiming for a knockout blow I usually won't take out many shares to finance anything. Building early debt hurts you throughout the game since you're losing income on every single turn. (If it's possible to buy back your stock and not pay for it every turn, I'm going to be annoyed with someone.)
I have two general strategies for Railroad Tycoon. My preferred strategy is to build in the Northeast and start making short deliveries to make money. This usually involves getting track down out of New York and into Washington as soon as possible. Washington is particular is good because it gives the option to cross the mountains into Pittsburgh and start expanding across toward Chicago. My secondary strategy is to get into Chicago early and look to establish the Western Link. If both of those are being pursued before my turn, I'll just work over the South and try to deliver wherever I can while disrupting anyone else pursuing my preferred strategies.
Event cards are clearly useful, but I usually won't go out of my way to pick up any of them unless I can do it without disrupting my general strategy. The most important event cards are generally the hotels. The Chicago hotel is probably the best card in the game if there's more than one person in the Chicago area.
Tonight's game featured five players. I was playing as black and started the game with a hidden bonus of 6 points for being the first person to have a size 6 train. We started with 3 hotels on the board, but they were Boston, Charleston and Atlanta. I'm not a huge fan of those destinations and there didn't appear to be any resource advantage for any of them. There was also a "Gain two free actions" card available which I chose and used to build a one link connection into New York and then delivered the first good of game for a 1 route delivery and a +1 bonus for the first delivery. The following players picked up the hotel cards and a card that allowed all track on flat terrain to built for free for one turn. Blue starting in the Southeast working mostly out of Atlanta; Purple was in the Southeast mostly out of Charleston; Red was in the Midwest mostly around Chicago; Green was in the Northeast around Boston.
My general strategy was to build up routes in the Northeast, cutting out the Green player as much as possible. I also wanted to build up my train to a size 3 for a bonus for a 3 link delivery and then to a size 4 for a bonus for being the first to size 4. This would also further my hidden card that needed me to reach size 6 first. I quickly cut off the easy lanes south of New York while the Green player tried to take advantage of his hotel in Boston. There were few goods available for him since I intentionally delivered the ones useful to him early. While I was building one and two link tracks and consistently delivering one and two link goods the other players were mostly building track. Green was very quickly pushed out of the Northeast and moved into the South to Atlanta and its western environs. Blue and Purple built up their links in the Southeast and started creeping up towards Washington from the south. Red did very little besides rack up huge debt with a train too small to deliver goods from his widely spread rail system.
The other players failed to recognize the strength of the Northeast. We've played this game enough that they should have known better, but they left me alone long enough to build up to a size four train and consistently make 3 and 4 link deliveries. Green made a mistake in buying an early town expansion in the Northeast hoping to get more goods for his hotel in Boston, but quickly realized that there was no good way to get farther south without paying to build track in the mountains. When he moved his operations to Atlanta, it left me completely free with no threat larger than a single track into Baltimore from the south.
The game was conceded when I built across the mountains from Washington and the other players realized that my existing lead was soon going to expand greatly when I connected Baltimore and Toledo for another bonus. This worked well for me because I could move a fair number of goods in both directions between the Northeast and the Ohio River Valley. Had Red effectively cleaned out that area, I would likely have still tried to cross the mountains and then angled to the southwest rather than towards Toledo and Chicago.
The bottom line: Don't allow anyone to stay in the Northeast without competition.
Also, the post next week will include pictures to illustrate. I didn't plan this very well.
I hate debt. I don't mind using a little to get started, but unless I'm aiming for a knockout blow I usually won't take out many shares to finance anything. Building early debt hurts you throughout the game since you're losing income on every single turn. (If it's possible to buy back your stock and not pay for it every turn, I'm going to be annoyed with someone.)
I have two general strategies for Railroad Tycoon. My preferred strategy is to build in the Northeast and start making short deliveries to make money. This usually involves getting track down out of New York and into Washington as soon as possible. Washington is particular is good because it gives the option to cross the mountains into Pittsburgh and start expanding across toward Chicago. My secondary strategy is to get into Chicago early and look to establish the Western Link. If both of those are being pursued before my turn, I'll just work over the South and try to deliver wherever I can while disrupting anyone else pursuing my preferred strategies.
Event cards are clearly useful, but I usually won't go out of my way to pick up any of them unless I can do it without disrupting my general strategy. The most important event cards are generally the hotels. The Chicago hotel is probably the best card in the game if there's more than one person in the Chicago area.
Tonight's game featured five players. I was playing as black and started the game with a hidden bonus of 6 points for being the first person to have a size 6 train. We started with 3 hotels on the board, but they were Boston, Charleston and Atlanta. I'm not a huge fan of those destinations and there didn't appear to be any resource advantage for any of them. There was also a "Gain two free actions" card available which I chose and used to build a one link connection into New York and then delivered the first good of game for a 1 route delivery and a +1 bonus for the first delivery. The following players picked up the hotel cards and a card that allowed all track on flat terrain to built for free for one turn. Blue starting in the Southeast working mostly out of Atlanta; Purple was in the Southeast mostly out of Charleston; Red was in the Midwest mostly around Chicago; Green was in the Northeast around Boston.
My general strategy was to build up routes in the Northeast, cutting out the Green player as much as possible. I also wanted to build up my train to a size 3 for a bonus for a 3 link delivery and then to a size 4 for a bonus for being the first to size 4. This would also further my hidden card that needed me to reach size 6 first. I quickly cut off the easy lanes south of New York while the Green player tried to take advantage of his hotel in Boston. There were few goods available for him since I intentionally delivered the ones useful to him early. While I was building one and two link tracks and consistently delivering one and two link goods the other players were mostly building track. Green was very quickly pushed out of the Northeast and moved into the South to Atlanta and its western environs. Blue and Purple built up their links in the Southeast and started creeping up towards Washington from the south. Red did very little besides rack up huge debt with a train too small to deliver goods from his widely spread rail system.
The other players failed to recognize the strength of the Northeast. We've played this game enough that they should have known better, but they left me alone long enough to build up to a size four train and consistently make 3 and 4 link deliveries. Green made a mistake in buying an early town expansion in the Northeast hoping to get more goods for his hotel in Boston, but quickly realized that there was no good way to get farther south without paying to build track in the mountains. When he moved his operations to Atlanta, it left me completely free with no threat larger than a single track into Baltimore from the south.
The game was conceded when I built across the mountains from Washington and the other players realized that my existing lead was soon going to expand greatly when I connected Baltimore and Toledo for another bonus. This worked well for me because I could move a fair number of goods in both directions between the Northeast and the Ohio River Valley. Had Red effectively cleaned out that area, I would likely have still tried to cross the mountains and then angled to the southwest rather than towards Toledo and Chicago.
The bottom line: Don't allow anyone to stay in the Northeast without competition.
Also, the post next week will include pictures to illustrate. I didn't plan this very well.
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Recent Blog Entries by Humbaba
- Railroad Tycoon, The Board Game (03/17/08)
