Game: Stephenson's Rocket

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dimitroff — 2008-08-23T12:15:51+00:00

Autographed copy by game designer Reiner Knizia

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LordP — 2008-07-30T06:56:19+00:00

All the stations

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LordP — 2008-07-29T15:13:14+00:00

Detailed view of all the good-tokens

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LordP — 2008-07-29T15:11:20+00:00

Detailed view of the railroad tiles

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LordP — 2008-07-29T15:08:43+00:00

It's all about the money...

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LordP — 2008-07-29T14:55:50+00:00

All available trains

Thread: Re: Is it worth to buy if you like age of steam and co.?

clearclaw — 2008-05-19T19:46:55+00:00

godfeather wrote:
SR fell flat for me, as it felt more mechanics than a game (ie. it wasn't intuitive)...

That's probably the easiest thing to say about Stephenson's Rocket: It isn't intuitive. I specifically consider it counter-intuitive. If you don't like counter-intuitive games, stay away from Stephenson's Rocket.

It is quite unclear without experience what you should or may even want to be doing at any point in Stephenson's Rocket. It normally seems to take 2-3 plays for most people before they catch on to the balancing act. The first play normally gets them to the I-clearly-have-this-all-wrong-but-I-have-an-idea point, the second to I-think-I-might-see-this-now! and the third to the Now-I-sorta-get-it! stage. I like that a lot. Other's don't.

Thread: Re: Is it worth to buy if you like age of steam and co.?

godfeather — 2008-05-19T19:37:26+00:00

SR fell flat for me, as it felt more mechanics than a game (ie. it wasn't intuitive), and I like AoS. I would suggest try before you buy if possible.

Thread: Re: Rules question on train engine placement

Aldaron — 2008-05-19T18:41:06+00:00

PlayMe1 wrote:
I read the rules several times, but it just seems weird to me that the engine is placed ahead of the track rather than on track, and the cities are connected even though track doesn't reach them yet. Thanks for your help clarifying.
There's noting weird about it at all. Just think of the engine as a special piece of track, that's all it is. Remember the rules, and not the metaphors, define the game.

Thread: Re: Is it worth to buy if you like age of steam and co.?

clearclaw — 2008-05-19T18:30:20+00:00

Stephenson's Rocket is a rather counter-intuitive perfect information Acquire derivative that is built atop three fields of area majority systems (shares, stations and tokens). Playing well is very much a confrontational balancing act of those three areas and in making your opponents constantly play extra for their tenuous balances via vetos. It is a great little game but really is not a Train Game (tm).

If the above sounds interesting then go for it. As MGBM indicates, it is a strongly bivalent game: generally people either love or hate it.

Thread: Re: Is it worth to buy if you like age of steam and co.?

qzhdad — 2008-05-19T18:16:51+00:00

I really like the game, but don't expect it to be like AoS.

RGG has announced that it's going to make another version (The Great American Railroad Game or something like that) which is a very similar game with a different map. That may cause the price on Stephenson's Rocket to drop.

Thread: Re: Is it worth to buy if you like age of steam and co.?

Windopaene — 2008-05-19T18:15:55+00:00

SP is far more of an Acquire-like game rather than an Age of Steam type train game. There are connections being made, but you aren't shipping goods in SR.

Thread: Re: Is it worth to buy if you like age of steam and co.?

MGBM — 2008-05-19T18:14:53+00:00

Being someone who both enjoys AoS And SR I can say that they both are quite different in execution, with SR being much more of an euro than AoS. However I find SR to be one of my all-time favourite games and I recommend it. But James is right and you should try it first because it's not a game for everyone. Indeed, you either love it or hate it, at least it's been like this with everyone who played it with me.

Personally though I find SR to be a gem of a game and if you do love train games and don't mind a heavy middleweight euro than SR is the game to get.

Thread: Re: Is it worth to buy if you like age of steam and co.?

jdludlow — 2008-05-19T18:08:59+00:00

If you're getting a good price and you think that you can find people to play it against, then it's probably going to be worth it for you. It's an interesting game that rewards skillful play.

I assume that your buddy is selling it, because he doesn't enjoy it. Could you borrow it from him and try it out first?

Thread: Is it worth to buy if you like age of steam and co.?

d0gb0t — 2008-05-19T17:51:05+00:00

Hi geeks,

thinking about buying this game from a buddy but don't know if it is worth. I'm a huge age of steam (and other train games) fan and don't know if i would like it.

Some hints/statements about this?

Thread: Re: Rules question on train engine placement

PlayMe1 — 2008-05-19T16:35:55+00:00

Thanks, everyone!

I read the rules several times, but it just seems weird to me that the engine is placed ahead of the track rather than on track, and the cities are connected even though track doesn't reach them yet. Thanks for your help clarifying.

Thread: Re: Rules question on train engine placement

rgmnetid — 2008-05-19T16:16:27+00:00

Rules wrote:
1. City: When a player connects a city to a new railway line (i.e. when a player moves a locomotive to a space adjacent to a city)...

2. Railway town: When a player connects a railway town to a railway line (i.e. when a player moves a locomotive to a space adjacent to a railway town)...

Rules wrote:
3) Place a track tile - The active player then places a track tile on the space the locomotive just vacated, unless it was the starting town.

The rules are surprisingly helpful for these...rule...types of questions.

Thread: Re: Rules question on train engine placement

PlayMe1 — 2008-05-19T16:08:28+00:00

Hi Mark, JC - Thanks for your help! Of course, now I have another question. When I move a locomotive for the first time I move it one hex outside the city. Does any track get placed for this first move and do I put it behind the engine on the city?

Thread: Re: Rules question on train engine placement

Gyges — 2008-05-19T13:13:50+00:00

The engine.

Thread: Re: Rules question on train engine placement

PlayMe1 — 2008-05-19T12:46:10+00:00

Follow up question: So the engine is always one hex in front of the most recent piece of track placed, right? Do you connect to a city when the ENGINE is placed adjacent to the city, or when the TRACK is placed adjacent to a city? Thanks!

Thread: Re: Rules question on train engine placement

clearclaw — 2008-05-19T03:06:03+00:00

Yes. The train is a snail and leaves a trail of track.

Thread: Rules question on train engine placement

PlayMe1 — 2008-05-19T02:21:34+00:00

Hi, I am just trying to teach myself Stephenson's Rocket and I have a question:

Does the train engine always stay one hex in front of the tile? For example, if I build one segment of track southward out of York, do I place the train engine one hex in front of that, and does that immediately connect me to Sheffield? (I hope I worded that correctly.) Thanks.

Thread: Reseña en Español (Review in Spanish)

Niyes — 2008-05-07T09:42:00+00:00

Stephenson's Rocket es un gran juego de Reiner Knizia, aunque lamentablemente, no es uno de sus títulos mas conocidos. Aquí nos volvemos a encontrar con la mecánica de “poner losetas” que tan buenos resultados le ha dado en otros juegos (como máximo exponente cabe destacar el Tigris & Eúfrates) a la que añade un elemento de gestión económica a través de certificados de acciones de las diferentes compañías ferroviarias. En cierto aspectos recuerda mucho al Acquire de Sid Sackson, solo que eliminando completamente el factor aleatorio, por lo que el resultado es un juego mucho más profundo y rico.

Hoy en día es un juego difícil de obtener, pero Rio Grande prepara para finales de este año o primeros del 2008 una nueva versión que se llamará The Great American Railroad Games, en el que se trasladará la acción desde Inglaterra hasta los Estados Unidos.

Introducción
Estamos en el siglo XIX y durante la década de los 30, la nueva máquina de vapor diseñada por George Stephenson, conocida como Rocket, ha ganado el concurso para elegir que locomotora se utilizaría en los ferrocarriles que unirían Liverpool con Manchester, la primera línea férrea en transportar pasajeros. La Revolución Industrial, con Inglaterra como su estandarte, está en pleno apogeo. Nuevas mercancías serán producidas y transportadas entre las crecientes ciudades. Los nuevos magnates de los ferrocarriles no dejaron pasar la oportunidad de desarrollar una extensa red de ferrocarriles que les dejara grandes beneficios.

En Stephenson's Rocket tienes la oportunidad de meterte en la piel de uno de los primeros magnates del ferrocarril y por lo tanto decidirás cuando fundar o desarrollar las líneas férreas, donde construirás tus estaciones y en cuales industrias invertirás. Tendrás que hacer todo eso sin perder de vista a tus rivales, ya que intentarán quitarte todas esas lucrativas oportunidades de negocio. Planifica sabiamente y con antelación y podrás obligar a tus rivales a que fusionan sus compañías con las tuyas (para un mayor beneficio personal, claro). En este juego revivirás la fiebre por los ferrocarriles que se vivió en la cuna de la Revolución Industrial, Inglaterra.

Componentes
Como es habitual en la mayoría de los eurogames, los componentes son de cartón y madera de una calidad bastante buena. Dentro de la caja del juego, que todo hay que decirlo, es demasiado grande para lo que contiene, nos encontramos con:

* El manual, de tan solo 4 páginas de reglas muy bien explicadas y con gran cantidad de ejemplos ilustrados.
* El tablero, de un cartón grueso y que se pliega en cuatro partes. En el están representadas varios pueblos y ciudades inglesas.
* 7 locomotoras de madera, cada una de un color diferente para representar a cada una de las 7 compañías del juego.
* 18 certificados de acción para cada una de las compañías, que no son más que cartas de tamaño pequeño.
* 18 cartas de certificado de acción extra, por si se acabaran las de alguna compañía y esta hubiera de emitir más.
* Las fichas de mercancías y de pasajeros, hechas de cartón y de forma redonda.
* 28 estaciones de madera, en 4 colores distintos, para que los jugadores puedan realizar el transporte de pasajeros además del de mercancías.
* Un buen motón de billetes de papel, en varias denominaciones, que en realidad se emplean para llevar la cuenta de los puntos de victoria.

El desarrollo de la partida
Las reglas del juego son bastante simples, pero como suele suceder en muchos juegos, siempre querremos hacer más acciones de las dos que tenemos permitidas en cada uno de nuestros turnos. Un elemento muy interesante del juego es la posibilidad de que los accionistas de las distintas compañías puedan vetar las decisiones de ampliación de las líneas férreas que realicen otros jugadores, lo cual hace que los tiempos muertos sean, prácticamente, inexistentes. Además esta posibilidad de veto aumenta la interacción entre jugadores, así que Herr Doktor ha conseguido con una sencilla regla matar dos pájaros de un tiro.

Con estas premisas, un juego sin tiempos muertos, sin factor suerte y con buena interacción entre los jugadores, no hay que dejar pasar la oportunidad de probarlo si se tiene ocasión, en especial si te gusta el Acquire o el Shark.

Cada jugador puede realizar durante su turno dos acciones, iguales o diferentes, la única limitación es que no puede ampliar dos veces la misma compañía en un mismo turno. Las acciones las puede elegir de entre las siguientes opciones:

* Coger una mercancía de alguna ciudad.
* Colocar una de sus estaciones.
* Ampliar una línea férrea.

Las mercancías
En el juego nos encontramos cuatro mercancías diferentes, acero, textiles, licores y cuero. Cada ciudad produce tres mercancías al principio del juego que representan contratos permanentes para transportarlas, por lo que al final del juego se puntuarán y otorgarán dinero (PVs) a los jugadores que las posean.

También se puntúan las mercancías cada vez que una nueva compañía llega a una ciudad por primera vez, aunque esta ocasión solo se tienen en cuenta las mercancías que produce esa ciudad en cuestión.

Las estaciones
Cada jugador posee un total de 7 estaciones, las cuales puede colocar donde desee, siempre que tenga en cuenta que se deben de ubicar en espacios vacíos del tablero y que no pueden estar adyacentes ni a otra estación ni a una locomotora.

Uno de sus cometidos de las estaciones es poder conseguir el quinto tipo de “mercancía”, los pasajeros, pero además de eso se puntúan en diferentes ocasiones a lo largo del juego, ya que cuando una línea férrea llegue al pueblo por primera vez, los jugadores que tengan más estaciones en el itinerario de esa compañía verán engrosadas sus arcas y con ello sus opciones de victoria al final de la partida.

Al final del juego se vuelven a puntuar, recibiendo los ingresos nuevamente los jugadores con mas estaciones en cada una de las compañías.

Ampliar una línea férrea
Las locomotoras al ir desplazándose por el tablero van creando una red de vías con las que se van conectando los pueblos, ciudades y estaciones. Cuando un jugador elige ampliar una línea férrea desplaza una de las locomotoras en juego a uno de los tres espacios que tenga frente a ella (teniendo en cuenta que nunca pueden entrar dentro de los pueblos o ciudades), e inmediatamente recibe un certificado de acción de dicha compañía.

El movimiento ha propuesto el jugador activo no es aprobado de inmediato, ya que los accionistas de dicha compañía pueden vetar la decisión y proponer una ruta alternativa, que no impedir que la compañía crezca. Esta ronda de veto la inicia el jugador sentado a la izquierda del jugador activo y es una subasta a una sola vuelta, donde se puja con las acciones de la compañía correspondiente. El jugador que mas alto puje mueve la locomotora al espacio que desee de entre los legalmente disponibles. En estas rondas de veto el jugador activo tiene una clara ventaja, ya que además de ser el último en pujar, tan solo necesita igualar la puja mas alta para ganar.

Una vez que se ha decidido hacia donde se ampliará la compañía, se coloca un tramo de vías en el espacio desde el que se ha movido. Si el nuevo trazado pasa por una estación de otro jugador, el jugador activo recibe una ficha de “mercancía” de pasajeros, pero hay que tener en cuenta que esta ficha solamente la puede ganar el jugador activo y solamente si fue el quien eligió ese trazado para ampliar la compañía (si un jugador veta con éxito la decisión que tomó el jugador activo, ninguno de los dos podrá tomar la ficha de pasajeros).

La puntuación durante el juego
Durante el desarrollo de la partida se pueden dar tres condiciones donde los jugadores reciban dinero contante y sonante para llenar sus bolsillos. Que llegue una nueva compañía a una ciudad, que se conecte por primera vez un pueblo o que dos compañías se fusionen. A efectos del juego se considera “conectar” cuando la locomotora está en un espacio adyacente a la ciudad o pueblo en cuestión.

* Cuando una locomotora de cualquier compañía conecta por primera vez una ciudad, se comprueba que jugadores poseen mas fichas de mercancías de la ciudad correspondiente. El jugador con más fichas recibe 2.000£ y el segundo jugador con mas fichas 1.000£. Esta puntuación puede ocurrir varias veces en la misma ciudad.

* Cuando un pueblo es conectado a cualquier compañía por primera vez, se comprueba que jugadores poseen mas estaciones en la compañía correspondiente, y el jugador que más posea recibe 1.000£ por cada pueblo o ciudad en el trazado de la compañía. El segundo jugador con más estaciones recibirá 500£ por cada pueblo o ciudad. Este tipo de puntuación solo se puede dar una vez en cada pueblo.

* Si al hacer crecer una compañía ferroviaria se hace de tal forma que la locomotora de esa compañía entre en contacto con el tramo de vías de otra compañía, la compañía que se acaba de ampliar es absorbida por la otra. Cuando este sucede se mira que jugadores tienen más acciones de la compañía que está siendo absorbida, recibiendo el accionista mayoritario un dividendo de 1.000£ por cada pueblo o ciudad por la que hubiera pasado la compañía que desaparece. El segundo accionista mayoritario recibe un dividendo de 500£ por cada pueblo o ciudad en el trazado. Tras el pago de los dividendos, la compañía desaparece y se hace una conversión gratuita de los certificados de acciones, dos certificados de acciones de la compañía absorbida, se cambian por 1 certificado de acción de la compañía que permanece en juego. Cuando una compañía desaparece por haber sido absorbida, su locomotora y sus certificados de acción se retiran del juego.

El final del juego
El final de una partida al Stephenson's Rocket se puede producir de dos formas diferentes, ya sea por que solamente quede una compañía en juego tras haber absorbido a toda la competencia o si en el algún momento se acaban de poner los sesenta tramos de vía que vienen con el juego.

En ambos casos, el jugador que se encuentre en su turno finaliza sus acciones y seguidamente se procede con la puntuación final del juego, durante la cual tendremos en cuenta tres elementos, las mercancías, las estaciones y los certificados de acción.

Durante la puntuación final lo primero que se hace es valorar los cinco tipos de mercancías, de tal forma que el jugador que mas tenga de cada uno de los tipos recibe 6.000£ y el segundo jugador con la mayor cantidad de cada tipo obtiene 3.000£

A continuación procederemos a contabilizar las estaciones que cada jugador posea en cada una de las líneas férreas de las compañías aún en juego. En cada una de esas líneas, el jugador con mayor cantidad de estaciones recibe un pago de 1.000£ por cada pueblo o ciudad que se haya conectado en el trazado de esa compañía. El segundo jugador con la mayor cantidad de estaciones, recibe 500£ por cada pueblo o ciudad.

Finalmente se tienen en consideración la cantidad de certificados de acción que cada jugador posee en las compañía que han logrado llegar al final de la partida, ya que el resto de certificados de acción se fueron descartando durante el juego. El jugador que sea el accionista mayoritario en cada una de las compañías recibe un dividendo de 1.000£ por cada pueblo o ciudad por el que pase su trazado férreo. El dividendo a percibir por el segundo accionista mayoritario será de 500£ por cada pueblo o ciudad.

Tras este recuento final, se concluye la partida y aquel de entre todos los jugadores que haya logrado amasar una mayor fortuna, será el ganador de la partida.

Conclusiones
Un juego económico sobre las compañías ferroviarias inglesas, aunque el tema perfectamente podría haber sido otro completamente distinto, en este caso esta bastante bien integrado en el resultado final (el Kniziamento hace maravillas).

Como ya comenté al principio de la reseña, el juego se parece al Acquire, pero quitándole todo elemento aleatorio, quedando un juego bastante redondo y para mi gusto superior al de Sid Sackson. Tan solo con la genialidad de los vetos de los accionistas, Knizia consigue eliminar la falta de interacción del Acquire y además le da un cierto toque de incertidumbre a tus acciones a la hora de ampliar las compañías ya que nunca se sabe si algún otro accionista tiene una idea completamente diferente sobre el futuro de la misma.

La única pega que se le puede poner, es que con determinados tipos de jugadores se quedan bloqueados con el análisis-parálisis, ya que al ser un juego de información perfecta se puede caer en la tentación de intentar controlarlo todo.

Un muy buen juego, próximo a ser reeditado, siendo una magnifica oportunidad para hacerse con este gran título de Herr Doktor.

Ausencia de azar: 5/5
Claridad del Reglamento: 5/5
Componentes: 4/5
Independencia del idioma: 5/5
Interacción entre jugadores: 4/5
Rejugabilidad: 4/5
Relación calidad/precio: 4/5
Opinión personal: 13/15

NOTA.- Puedes consultar esta reseña con imágenes y enlaces en la siguiente dirección: http://blog6d6.blogspot.com/2007/12/stephensons-rocket-resea...

Thread: Re: Request: scan of english overview

Pum_ — 2008-03-07T20:25:57+00:00

Thanx for the scan Rik. Just what I was looking for.

Thread: Re: Request: scan of english overview

rnijholt — 2008-03-04T20:06:05+00:00

Well that's way better than my translation anyway
Thanks Rik

Thread: Re: Request: scan of english overview

Rokkr — 2008-03-03T20:55:39+00:00

Image

Rokkr — 2008-03-03T20:24:41+00:00

game board summary table

Thread: Re: Request: scan of english overview

Rokkr — 2008-03-03T20:19:23+00:00

I have a scan for him. Need an email address please.
Nix that, it's legit image upload, I'll submit it.

Thread: Re: Request: scan of english overview

rnijholt — 2008-03-03T20:10:57+00:00

Well, I'm not sure if that's safely legal, so I'm sending it to your mailbox if that's alright.

Thread: Re: Request: scan of english overview

Pum_ — 2008-03-01T23:30:24+00:00

Cheers Zip! No other offers as yet. Perhaps you could do a public service an post an English translation in the files or images section. I've done a player aid that I'll post after I've play tested it.

Thread: Re: Request: scan of english overview

rnijholt — 2008-02-27T21:30:50+00:00

I also (obviously) own the Dutch version, but if no one can help you I can always provide you with a decent translation in English.

Thread: Request: scan of english overview

Pum_ — 2008-02-26T14:05:25+00:00

Hi, I just got Stephensons Rocket, but it is the Dutch edition. I have the English rules, and the game is otherwise language independent, except there is an overview panel on the board in Dutch, which would be nice to have in English. Assuming there was an English edition of this game, would someone be so kind as to post a decent quality scan of the English overview panel, so I can print it and paste on my board please.

cheers, Pum.

Thread: Re: Looking for translation of French 2-player variant

pdclose — 2008-02-23T16:53:20+00:00

I did a more complete translation to English which you can find here.

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Niyes — 2008-02-23T08:08:22+00:00

Dodging the black stations

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barbate — 2008-02-14T10:28:00+00:00

Thread: Re: Re-release and re-theme: The Great American Railroad Game

Rappak — 2008-01-30T18:33:26+00:00

Hey buddy... You do realize that there is an entry already for The Great American Railroad Game for... 4 months? Mark introduced me to this game and I can't wait for it to come out too!

Thread: Re: Re-release and re-theme: The Great American Railroad Game

Keith Shapley — 2008-01-30T16:06:04+00:00

Out of interest where did you buy it? Im in Belgium on holiday in a couple of weeks time and hope to visit a game shop or 2 over the week. I'll be based with family in a Chateau near Namur

Thread: Re: Isolated line

fs1973 — 2007-12-17T21:56:26+00:00

Thanks Russ. Now i've got it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

bye,
costa

Thread: Re: Isolated line

fs1973 — 2007-12-17T21:55:27+00:00

Thanks Larry,

Yes it helps, i was burning my brain with this and the solution is obvious. Sometimes i tend to complicate easy issues, duhh!!

Thanks a lot and MERRY CHRISTMAS Larry

bye,
costa

Thread: Re: Isolated line

Larry Welborn — 2007-12-17T21:18:51+00:00

Generally, a railroad becomes isolated when it is run into the side of the board and cannot turn in a manner that would let it connect with another line or city/town. Remember that it cannot cross over it's own existing line, so it is possible for it to become isolated in the middle of the board if it is run into a circle.

The two criteria are the following:
1.It cannot link with any new railways towns or cities.
2.It cannot merge with another line.

It doesn't matter if another line can merge into it.

Hope this helps.

Thread: Re: Isolated line

russ — 2007-12-17T21:12:31+00:00

It's not true that it could always merge into another line. To merge into another line, it must be able to reach a hex adjacent to another line. Imagine, e.g. a railroad which makes a circle so that its engine is inside a closed loop of its own track.

Thread: Isolated line

fs1973 — 2007-12-17T20:40:07+00:00

Hi,

Maybe i'm getting this wrong, but i still cannot see how can a line be considered isolated. If a locomotive cannot reach another city or town it can always merge into another line.
Sorry guys, but i cannot figure this rule out. How do you determine this "isolated" status?

MERRY CHRISTMAS,
costa

Image

saminurmela — 2007-12-02T19:52:18+00:00

3 player game

Thread: Re: Is this worth playing woth 2, or not?

clearclaw — 2007-11-27T18:08:23+00:00

Stephenson's Rocket is excellent with 2, 3 or 4 players and plays very differently with each player count. I highly recommend the game.

Thread: Re: Is this worth playing woth 2, or not?

Reedo — 2007-11-27T14:57:33+00:00

Simply put, yes.

Thread: Re: Is this worth playing woth 2, or not?

russ — 2007-11-27T14:10:47+00:00

I have played it with 2 players multiple times and enjoyed it. It is of course a pure strategy game that way, with none of the multiplayer chaos element. If you don't like pure strategy, then that might be an issue, although SR is sufficiently intricate with various rules subsystems that it doesn't feel like you're playing some elegant abstract deterministic game like Go or Hex or whatever.

A hand-waving argument in support of it naturally working fine with 2 players is that no special rule hack is needed for the 2-player version, like one often sees in some analogous games (e.g. Acquire).

Thread: Is this worth playing woth 2, or not?

MindBend — 2007-11-27T10:27:51+00:00

Recently picked this one up for a good price. Chances are I'll only be able to get it to the table as a 2-player for the time being.

The general comments in the SR forums as well as the "optimum # of players for a game" Geeklist give conflicting opinions on the playability with 2.

Would some of you care to share your opinion, and why SR in your view is any good or not at all with 2 players?
That'd probably help me in deciding to keep it in on the shelf for now or try a few plays.

Thread: Re: Re-release and re-theme: The Great American Railroad Gam

siempietiempie — 2007-10-03T15:08:50+00:00

Actually i just bought it for 10 euros! lucky me!

Thread: Re: Re-release and re-theme: The Great American Railroad Gam

dyfrgi — 2007-06-02T00:40:48+00:00

I'll be housesitting my parents place in Newton from July 7 - 22, so I'll definitely be in town then. I'll probably be in town for another weekend between now and then - want to finish fixing my car first, though, which has proven to be harder than I was expecting.

Thread: Re: Re-release and re-theme: The Great American Railroad Gam

Gyges — 2007-06-01T16:42:52+00:00

Come to Cambridge, Michael; SR is one of my favourites, and we can play it and Imperial. And I promise not to suggest Goa or Die Macher.

Thread: Re: Re-release and re-theme: The Great American Railroad Game

rnijholt — 2007-05-28T12:36:30+00:00

Too bad you don't live in the Netherlands. The game has been going for a song and a dance here for years now at several internet stores. (Well, if I say a song and a dance, it's 15 euros, or about 20 dollars, but that's dirt cheap for these parts.)

Thread: Re-release and re-theme: The Great American Railroad Game

dyfrgi — 2007-05-28T07:32:58+00:00

Stephenson's Rocket is due to be re-released in 2007 by Rio Grande Games. The re-theme is tiny - from England to the USA - but it's still a change in location and, presumably, the map. It is "likely to appear in 2007", according to the April 25 RGG website update. No more information has yet been released.

I'm definitely looking forward to this. I liked Stephenson's Rocket when I played it and I'd very much like to play more of it, but the current prices are too much for the game. Hopefully the re-release will be purchasable for less than the current high OOP prices.

Thread: Re: Reprint in 2007

Eldard — 2007-05-04T20:20:53+00:00

woodnoggin wrote:
I hear the reprint will feature a board of the USA instead of the original England map. Aren't there enough USA train games already? How can the game even be called Stephenson's Rocket if it's going to be set in the USA? It's not often I get to play a board game which features the city I live in, so I'll be sticking with the England map.

Don't be dismayed, Rich. Age of Steam has a map of southern England, and British Rails has all of England and Wales, and most of Scotland. Then there's the 18xx series games --- I think 1829 covers part of England. And Lancestershire Rails? (I probably misspelled that one.)

But I must say that although I'm American, unless there's something earthshaking about the re-release, I, like you, am sticking with Stephensons Rocket.

Thread: Re: Reprint in 2007

JeffyJeff — 2007-05-04T20:00:06+00:00

woodnoggin wrote:
How can the game even be called Stephenson's Rocket if it's going to be set in the USA?
Because it's current title for the reprint is "The Great American Railroad Game"

See http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1481068#1481068 for more info

Thread: Re: Head-on collision merger?

clearclaw — 2007-04-10T20:27:50+00:00

sparr0 wrote:
If line B moves one more hex west, it merges with line A. Are there any legal moves remaining for line A, since it is stuck between two cities (X) and line B's final merger track?

No.

Is it isolated?

Yes.

This is a contrived example, but in a recent game we had three lines (the ones in the NW corner of the board, purple, grey, red) come almost to a 3-way collision, resulting in TWO chances for this dead end case to occur.

I've had this happen, tho in our case with green/orange or with yellow/orange.

Thread: Re: Goods discs -- too weak to be worthwhile?

Dave — 2007-04-10T19:35:10+00:00

clearclaw wrote:
I'm about 15 games in now and regularly win games without ever collecting any tokens.

Like you and others have said, this is because others are valuing them. The treasures in Tikal work similarly, which is why I do not like it for 3-players; I do not have enough experience with SR to know whether it has a similar effect for a certain number of players. I agree with Joe's take, especially "they can make the difference in an otherwise close game."

Thread: Re: Goods discs -- too weak to be worthwhile?

clearclaw — 2007-04-10T19:15:47+00:00

Eldard wrote:
Amongst experienced players, they do tend to go rather quickly.

Shrug. I'm about 15 games in now and regularly win games without ever collecting any tokens. While I've also certainly lost games to token collectors the apparency is that the more tokens are collected the less they are comparatively worth. Certainly the more other players concentrate on tokens the easier it is for me to ensure share and station plurality.

Thread: Re: Goods discs -- too weak to be worthwhile?

Eldard — 2007-04-10T18:16:57+00:00

fellonmyhead wrote:
I've never thought of them as too weak; but if they are (it's been a while since I've played) I would say a small increase in their value for scoring purposes, but not so much they imbalance things, might do the trick.

I agree; we've never thought of them as being weak. I'd worry about play imbalance if their values were increased.

fellonmyhead wrote:
I seem to remember it being a no-brainer to collect them early - especially if somebody was nearing connecting a city - unless you had some alterior motive (such as a serious takeover preempting another railway doing the same). I must get this out again soon...

Amongst experienced players, they do tend to go rather quickly.

Thread: Re: Goods discs -- too weak to be worthwhile?

sparr0 — 2007-04-10T17:46:13+00:00

I played for the first time yesterday and placed too much emphasis on the goods tiles. Thankfully so did everyone else. We had picked up all but one by the turn after the earliest that is possible (don't make me do the math, im begging you). Fortunately this meant that overall the distribution of city connection payouts and goods majority endgame points was somewhat even, bringing the game back to what we discovered was the majority of points, that being stations and shares.

I can definitely see that they are less important than I thought at first, but giving away majority to a single player could hurt, as previous posters have said.

Thread: Head-on collision merger?

sparr0 — 2007-04-10T17:14:11+00:00

[c]
. . . . . .
. . X . . .
- - A . B -
. . X . .
. . . . . .
[/c]

If line B moves one more hex west, it merges with line A. Are there any legal moves remaining for line A, since it is stuck between two cities (X) and line B's final merger track? Is it isolated?

This is a contrived example, but in a recent game we had three lines (the ones in the NW corner of the board, purple, grey, red) come almost to a 3-way collision, resulting in TWO chances for this dead end case to occur.