Any Rail Baron Players here?

[Urban Ranger]

I like Rail Baron too. It's more deterministic, tough. For example, you always try to get the PA first. On the other hand, Empire Builder is more random, how you build your railroad largely depends on the contract cards you draw. So the strategy is more of a guideline instead of step-by-step instuctions.

[rah]

Considering RB is the staple of the Friday night drinking society, maybe it's best that it's instructions.

[Urban Ranger]

How do you remember them when you are drunk?

[rah]

Play the game as many times as we have, and you'll find out. Please consider that we have the destination table 99% memorized and a good number of payouts too. Even some of the obscure ones like Billings to Atlanta. 25K (Possibly the best pay in the game for distance traveled.)

[Ming]

Yeah... even totally trashed, we can play Rail Baron...
I've gone through many copies of the games, but only one was retired because somebody threw up on the board

[rah]

Beer spilling, however, is the norm.

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by rah
That would require that we actually buy the game.

Is that a problem, considering you were planning on buying multiple RB copies?

[rah]

The extras would be for sale though.

But for it to work, everyone in the Friday night group would have to buy it. (just the way it is)

[Ming]

Or it could make a nice Christmas gift

[rah]

I think we'd want to test it out first for playability. I keep remembering other games that people have tried to introduce.

[Ming]

After a few beers... any new game is a risk

So any other rules ideas for a three person game... or should I really be asking if somebody knows a real good three person game that can be played by a bunch of drunks

[Rex Little]

As you guys have discovered, the best strategy for 3-player RB is to buy a superchief and nothing else. In 4-player, my group found that it often works well to buy the superchief before starting on your rail network. You'll never get more than one of the big 5 (PA, NYC, ATSF, UP, SP), but you'll build faster and avoid a lot of double payments on locked cities.

This plan doesn't work with more than 4. You lose out on too many railroads by the time you get the superchief.

Someone mentioned that there are other Mayfair variants besides Empire Builder and British Rails. This is true. There's Eurorails, Japan Rail, and I think one or two others. There's even Dragon Rail, a fantasy variant. At least these all existed at one time; I don't know how many are still in print.

[Ming]

Rex Little... that seems to be the way things are going now in our three person games. The B&M and NYH&H get bought early because you usually don't have enough for a Super Chief on your first buy, and these kind of rails are the ones that will usually pay for themselves.

Another strategy tried was somebody buying the ACL and SAL after their Super Chief. It didn't pay out because nobody but him ended up going down to "killers corner"... It is a strategy that can work if a lot of South East destanations are rolled... but it is down on the probablity list.

A rail like CN&W or the NW might be bought if two people end up going to the cities they lock at the same time.

Otherwise... rails are no longer being bought very often.

In 4 person games some people have bought super chiefs as their first buy... but it really depends on the situation. It's not an "automatic" victory, and sometimes can really limit the rails you can get.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Originally posted by Rex Little
Someone mentioned that there are other Mayfair variants besides Empire Builder and British Rails. This is true. There's Eurorails, Japan Rail, and I think one or two others. There's even Dragon Rail, a fantasy variant. At least these all existed at one time; I don't know how many are still in print.

Euro Rails and Nippon Rails are Empire Builder, just different maps basically, they even say so on the packaging. There's a fourth one that I can't remember right now and they are still in print as of a few months ago.

[Urban Ranger]

That's true, but a different map is enough for the game to be played quite differently. I can't vouch for others, but Empire Builder is quite different from British Rails.