Any Rail Baron Players here?

[rah]

We have played it for years. Different strategies have evolved over the years.

But recently there have been a lot of three player games and fewer and fewer railroads are being purchased. In one recent game, Ming won a game buying only 1 railroad. Guess which railroad it was.

[Urban Ranger]

One of the "Big 3," or the one that connects to his hometown.

Anyway, that strategy can certainly be countered by buying up railroads.

The game is kinda fun but you need at least 4 players to make it interesting, and it's luck dependent to a fair degree. I remember I won one game by having a destination very close to my hometown. I made the trip, got enough to declare, and went back home the next turn, beating another player who had declared before me.

[Jonny]

I play Rail Baron some. But I haven't played it too much recently, because my summer has been busy.

Pretty much everything UR says is true: although it can be fun with 3, you really need 4 players, and a lot of the game depends on the roll of the dice.

As for the railroad, I'd say Ming probably had either the PA or the AT&SF.

[rah]

Yes. In a four person game. All the railroads will be bought. In a three man game it is very difficult for two players to buy all the railroads before a third player can win. The current three man games have evolved to where only about 12 railroads are bought.

I'll let a few more people guess the one railroad before revealing the answer. You will be suprised and impressed.

[Urban Ranger]

Hm.

CMSt.P&P or NYC.

[rah]

Hmmm, NO

[Urban Ranger]

Blast!

What about IC? [Sooner or later I'd exhaust the list ]

[rah]

enough torture.

It was the WP

I forget what his home town was. But I doubt the WP hooked to it.

[Ming]

Yep... it was the WP, and my home town was New Orleans, and I rolled St Louis, and had over 200K when I got there, so I was close enough to declare, and then rolled it.

We are wondering if it can be done without buying a rail, but the WP is more like an insurance policy in case somebody does waste the money to buy a second big western rail

If you buy your Super Chief after the WP (or no rail)... you are cruising. And you can get to 200 before the rails get bought on you. At only a 5 thousand penality, even if they buy the rail on you when you are going some place, they lose ground on you

Yes... the game isn't desigined for only 3 people. with 4 people, the game plays like it should.

[rah]

Technically if you add it up.
8 for the WP,
40 for the superchief
200 to win.
+ rail usage. 40x1 and let's say 6 pimp destinations. Of them you get in and out on 4 of them for 5k. Pay 10k on the other 2.

If done quickly, you probably only need just over 330k to win. Assuming an average payout of 15K, that's barely over 22 destinations that must be rolled. That drastically reduces the number of opportunities to roll a Boston or Miami.

To pimp you, the other two players must buy all three big western rails (you'll still have the WP to get into the #1 probablility city) and the three main NE rails.
40+40+42+30+29+24=over 200k plus 80 for their chiefs divided by 2 = close to 150 k apiece. to your 48K. If you only have to roll 22 destinations to win, do they have the time to catch up that 100K. The rest of the board is wide open. (unless they want to spend even more)

In the game that Ming won, they did not. If you roll bad destinations, they do. But in only 22 destinations, you're minimizing that possibility. My model is guessing you will have over 1/4 pimp destinations. (6/22).

You will still be able to reach over 25% (san fran, oakland, reno, sacramento) of the possible rolls in the west, over 19% in the NE (buffalo, washington) and you will only be locked out of clevland and indianapolis in the NC.

Every other destination will be open unless they spend even more. By that time, they'll just be falling farther and farther behind.

RAH

And, yes, these were wild approximations, but the theory is the same.

[Ming]

Great minds think alike... I was about to post a very similar discription.

Yeah, even if you are off on some of the numbers, the idea is solid.

With only 22 or so destinations, you can only get so screwed (granted, if you get TOTALLY unlucky, that's something else, but what are the odds)

Every additional rail they buy makes it tougher for them to compete.

[Urban Ranger]

I thought NE is the most likely region?

At any rate, I found Mayfair's railroad games (yeah, the one with crayons ) are more interesting than Rail Baron. Empire Builder for the US, British Rails for, well, UK, and they probably have others.

[Jonny]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
At any rate, I found Mayfair's railroad games (yeah, the one with crayons ) are more interesting than Rail Baron. Empire Builder for the US, British Rails for, well, UK, and they probably have others.

Yea, I like Empire Builder a lot too, but I still like Rail Baron as well.

[Urban Ranger]

Empire Builder is a lot less luck dependent.

[rah]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I thought NE is the most likely region?

It is. But SanFran/Oakland is the most likely city. Followed by New York.

NE 20.83%
SW 16.66%
NC 15.27%