1830 Private Company Auction.doc (59 KB) (Log in or Register to download.)
I always wished there was a good way to keep track of who bid for what in the private company auction. So I created this page to do just that. I also included the special abilities, start cost and income of each company.
-- Give each player a different colour of poker chips. --Players bid by adding one or more chips to the top of the stack on a private. -- The first bid in the stack is a bid of $5 over face. The next chip over that is a bid of $10 over face, etc. -- A quick glance at the height of the stack shows what the current bid is (face value plus $5/chip) -- The order of colours in the stack show who the bidders are, who has next bid and who is currently winning -- As the players win the privates they keep the stacks of chips on them, thus documenting their bids -- Once all the privates are sold it is then easy to distribute player cash: just subtract the face values and bid stacks ($5 per chip)
-- The first bid in the stack is a bid of $5 over face. The next chip over that is a bid of $20 over face, etc.
Shouldn't 10 come after 5?
Also I thought players were allowed to bid in non-multiples of 5 (+6, +7, +8, +9 etc., though why you'd want to...)
One reason you might want to is if you think you know the other bidder's limit. If your opponent can only spend $100 without losing the ability to open a RR then jumping from $90 to $96 would position you to get the private at the cheapest possible price.
(feel free to mentally alter the numbers to ones that could occur in actual play)
Also I thought players were allowed to bid in non-multiples of 5 (+6, +7, +8, +9 etc., though why you'd want to...)
If I remember correctly there was some debate about this awhile ago. Some group I've played with only allow increments of 5 on the public auction. If you do want to open it up just use an extra color of poker chips to represent 1s. These would be common to everyone so there shouldn't be confusion.
-- Give each player a different colour of poker chips. --Players bid by adding one or more chips to the top of the stack on a private. -- The first bid in the stack is a bid of $5 over face. The next chip over that is a bid of $20 over face, etc. -- A quick glance at the height of the stack shows what the current bid is (face value plus $5/chip) -- The order of colours in the stack show who the bidders are, who has next bid and who is currently winning -- As the players win the privates they keep the stacks of chips on them, thus documenting their bids -- Once all the privates are sold it is then easy to distribute player cash: just subtract the face values and bid stacks ($5 per chip)
Simple, fast, self-documenting & obvious.
Thanks for posting this method again. Just the other day I was combing the forums for it with little luck. It's by far the easiest method.
-- The first bid in the stack is a bid of $5 over face. The next chip over that is a bid of $20 over face, etc.
Shouldn't 10 come after 5?
Fixed.
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Also I thought players were allowed to bid in non-multiples of 5 (+6, +7, +8, +9 etc., though why you'd want to...)
The minimum raise is $5. The PC game also insists on all raises being a multiple of $5, which many groups have carried back to the board game. If your players wish to bid odd amounts, just keep a second chip-stack of (white) $1 chips as part of each bid. The main stack and its colours will function as above and the second stack will track if the bid is 0-4 off the 5 multiple.
Thanks for posting this method again. Just the other day I was combing the forums for it with little luck. It's by far the easiest method.
You're welcome.
Another pattern I've seen but only with 1870 is:
-- Arrange the privates in a vertical row -- Use the poker chips solely to record which players have bid on a particular private -- Slide the private one space (width of the private card) to the right for each $5 raise
This is of course clumsy when som privates sell for a lot more than face value (eg the $160 C&A selling for $225+ or so).
I am not sure how much things have changed since the AH version, but we usually just have players place the money they bid next to the private company card (the cards are laid out in a row). One player places bids to the left of the card with the notes "portrait" orientation, another to the right "landscape" and so on, so it doesn't get mixed up. When it comes to the auction for that private company, players take back their bid money and the auction begins "proper" with the current highest bidder. This also stops overbids, since players can't bid more than they have.
The best way we've found to do it is to lay out the Private certificates in a zig-zag formation (like a Rail-fence cipher).
Then each player puts their bids in the corresponding corner of the certificate (4 corners + 2 long sides incorporates 6 players) as to their seating position at the table (4 corners + 2 long sides).
No tricky charts or fiddly orientation. Just treat each card as a mini-version of the table and place your bid at where you would be sitting around the 'table'.
The best way we've found to do it is to lay out the Private certificates in a zig-zag formation (like a Rail-fence cipher).
Then each player puts their bids in the corresponding corner of the certificate (4 corners + 2 long sides incorporates 6 players) as to their seating position at the table (4 corners + 2 long sides).
This seems less useful for 1830 as it doesn't preserve the order of bids (significant for auction resolution) and determining the current high bid is less obvious than in the approach I outlined above.
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No tricky charts or fiddly orientation. Just treat each card as a mini-version of the table and place your bid at where you would be sitting around the 'table'.
I use this approach in Corner Lot as player cash is a frequent limit and is tracked across multiple rounds.
