Players:
Emile (me) - Purple
Joost – Red
Marieke (Scarlet) - Yellow

In my previous games, I had arrived at the conclusion that building high-level buildings was the way to win the game, and to do so, it seemed, you had to specialise, because it’s difficult to reach the high-level buildings for all of the industry types. So, I (Purple) decided to specialise in Coal Mines and Iron Foundries for this game.

So, in the first three rounds Purple started off with developing Coal Mines and Iron Foundries, building a mine in Oldham and digging a Canal from there to Manchester, so the Coal could be used.
Red build a mill in Preston, dug a canal from there to Lancaster, and developed two Port tiles away. Yellow built a port in Liverpool, a Mill in Colne and connected Colne to Yorkshire.
Now, Red built a port in Lancaster and shipped his cotton. Purple took out a loan and build a Foundry in Preston, which could sell its iron to the demand track (and flip immediately)
Yellow took out a loan and shipped her cotton.

So far, it seemed my planned strategy would work. Red and yellow where going to compete for the cotton deliveries, so in the mean time, my coal would probably get used. However, Purple was going to get competition…

With cheap iron available, yellow developed two Mill tiles away, and built a new Mill in Lancaster. Canals where dug from Liverpool to Wigam and then to Blackburn, where another Mill was built. Both new Mills now shipped; one to foreign markets, and one to Yellow’s Port in Liverpool.

Red dug a canal from Preston to Wigam and built a Coal Mine in Wigam, which could ship immediately. After that, he developed two Mills and two Shipyards away. Next was a canal from Wigam to Warrington & Runcorn, where another Coal Mine was built.

Purple dug a Canal from Oldham to Rochdale and built a Foundry in Rochdale (Four of the available iron was subsequently used for development by red). Next was a Canal from Manchester to Bury, and a new Coal Mine in Bury. Next, Manchester was connected to Warrington & Runcorn, and a Port was built in Warrington & Runcorn.

I probably focused too much on getting early to the high-level coal buildings. I figured it would not be too bad if my coal would not get used right away, because it would be very useful in the Rail Period. However, my first coal mine hadn’t emptied yet. I was hoping for a quick development of Manchester, which did not happen; only Red had gotten cards for Manchester, and he had seen more early opportunities in the East. Now that he was approaching Manchester, he had his own coal nearby, and was unlikely to use my coal.

Purple built a Mill in Manchester and took out a loan. Next, he developed a Mill and a Port away, and built a port in Liverpool. A Mill was built in Burnley, and a can was dug from Burnley to Blackburn to connect it to the big network. Finally, Purple shipped his Cotton, Finally, Purple shipped his Cotton, flipping his two Mills and two Ports.

Red developed a Shipyard and a Foundry away, and built in Foundry in Manchester. A mill was built in Bolton, and a loan was taken out. A canal was dug to connect Bolton to Manchester, and the cotton was shipped. Finally, a shipyard was built in Liverpool.

Yellow built a Mill in Manchester and ships the Cotton to her mill in Manchester. A loan was taken out, Stockport was connected to Manchester, a Mill was built there and the Cotton was shipped through a Purple port.
(This happened before the Purple shipment, forcing Purple to ship his last cotton to the uncertain Distant Markets.)

The Canal Era had ended, and the situation on the board was as follows:

The score was pretty close: Purple 46, Yellow 47 and Red 53.

Before the end of the period, all my mines and foundries had flipped, and upon seeing the close score I wasn’t unhappy about the decision to focus on iron and coal. However, the coal and iron had flipped too late in the game. They are meant for early income, which they hadn’t provided. I had been forced to take the most loans, and had collected far less income than the other players (which was pretty bad, considering I had focused on money-making industry). In total, I had received -3 in income, while Red had received 49 and Yellow 44. Now that everything had flipped, the income levels had evened out again: Purple had an income of 11, Yellow 10 and Red 13.

Purple builds some more coal mines, and all player start building Mills and some ports in several locations. Iron demand rose quickly. Yellow pushed it up some more by developing a Port and a Foundry away, then built a (immediately flipping) Foundry to get back her money. Purple also built his final Foundry, immediately selling half of the Iron.

In the last turn before the deck would be exhausted, it was time to take out our last loans. Yellow and Purple borrowed £30 each, while Red spent to actions on loans, taking out £60.Now, the final moves were made. Yellow and Purple built some more Mills and Ports to make some final shipments. With nothing left to do, they now went after the available Rail connections.
Red, with no competition on Shipyards, first went after Rail connections, and after that, built his two Shipyards.

The last turn held a few more surprises. Yellow had effectively closed out the Southern part of the map, making it impossible for Purple to do anything more with his two actions than to build a single Rail connection and pass. Yellow could overbuild one of Purple’s Coal Mines (she’d preferred to take some points from Red, but didn’t have the cards for that) and get herself some more rails. Red had been decided to build his Shipyards one turn early, so he could now empty the Iron Demand Track and overbuild one of Yellow’s Foundries.

During the end of the Rail Period, another disadvantage of my early run for Mines and Foundries became clear. Now that the demand was great, I did not have any Mine or Foundry counters left to profit from it.

Final situation on the board:

Scoring:
Purple had 46 and now got 50 from Rail Links, 76 from industry and 2 from money, for a total of 174.
Red had 53 and now got 56 from Rail Links, 101 from industry and 3 from money, for a total of 213.
Yellow had 47 and now got 55 from Rail Links, 78 from industry and none from money, for a total of 180.

All in all, it was a victory for Red. Luck may have played a part in this; he seemed to have an easier time playing his cards during the Canal Period, whereas Yellow and Purple felt they were interfering with each other. Red also had the opportunity to develop cheaper, often getting his turn directly after another player had built a foundry.
But the most important thing, probably, is that Yellow and Purple did not try to compete with Red for the Shipyards. This meant that he could wait a long time before building them, instead of investing in them earlier in the game.

As for my Iron & Coal strategy, it seems it can work, but it is far better to take it somewhat slowly, and wait for shortage on the Demand track before building, so you have some amount of control on when your industry flips.


For fun, a count of the actions taken during the game:

Actions taken Purple Red Yellow
Build industry 8+11 8+9 7+8
Build canal/rail link 5+6 4+5 4+7
Development 2+0 4+1 2+2
Sell Cotton 1+1 2+3 4+2
Take Loan 3+1 1+2 2+1
Pass 0+1