The Northern part of the map is very cool looking and intricate! The use of all those complex crossing and coexisting tracks is really interesting and clever.

I am curious though about the Southern part of the map. I don't have this expansion yet so I don't really know, but is it really worth it for Red to build that 7 length track to connect the yellow and blue cities in the South? I mean at least there's no competition down there, but it seems like a lot of investment for very little reward. There's no way to urbanize down there to break that up into two links I'm assuming? Just curious, thanks.

I had hoped that someone else would respond so I wouldn't have to, but I'm lazy that way. I have this exp, but I have not played the Italy map. Also, I'm too lazy to go get the rules, so this is from memory and I reserve the right to be wrong.

There are no towns on the Italy board, only cities, so no, there is no way to split up the Southern link. In addition, on a turn a player can build one complete link between two cities, no more and no less. They must also do it in the most inexpensive way possible. It is quite possible that building the seven track link in the South was, toward the end of the game, one of the least expensive and most useful track builds available.

Also, considering that the map comes with "complete" track tiles that use all six sides of the tile, the North doesn't look that convoluted to me. In other words, it could be worse.

Again, I may be wrong because I don't have the rules in front of me and I've not actually played the map.

Thanks for the explanation Malachi, I appreciate it. I'd read about the need to build a complete link on your turn, but didn't realize aboutt he lack of urbanization. It still seems hard to see how that route in the South could ever turn a profit, but it sure looks like an interesting map, so I'm looking forward to giving it a try at some point.

Remember, in Age of Steam money is only a tool. Victory points are what count in the end. That southern link was expensive, but it provides 7vp in track. In addition, this is a picture of the end game and all of the goods for dark 6 came out but none of them are left on the city. That means 5 or 6 goods were probably shipped over that link.

Sure, it may not have paid for itself, but it's also possible that the track was built near the end of the game, when red may have been making money. If that was the case, then it was well worth the cost because the money wouldn't have made a difference in hand anyway.

Then again, I'm just guessing. That southern link may have been the fool's move that cost red the game.

I haven't counted the track tiles, but it looks like Red must have lost by a fair bit since he is 5 behind on the Income Track AND issued 2 more shares than Yellow, but you make a good point. If the link in the South was just built at the end to use up money and get victory points then it makes sense. I'm a bit confused how 5 or 6 goods were shipped out of the Southern Yellow Dark 6 city, since Red would have had to use his opponents links for any non-Blue cubes, no? And it's not like he could just use one opponent link and get back to using his own links right away then, since he had nothing come out of the Dark 1/2 (Red and Blue?) city either. Anyway, I guess I'll just have to get the game and play it for myself! But having only played the base game 3 times so far, I think I need to get in a few more playings of that before I really explore Italy.

The original caption of the picture says, "Yellow 175, red 163, green 161." Which is a fairly close game.

Yes, red would have had to use two non-red links to move those goods more than 1, but at least they could be split 1 and 1 to mitagate that damage.

However, I find it more likely that green and yellow decided to ship those goods giving red 1 income each for the access. That's a position I like to be in myself, since your opponents are pretty much giving you points and you still get to move your own goods.

Ah yes, I hadn't remember about the caption providing the final score. For some reason it doesn't show the caption when you're viewing the photo with comments underneath, I wonder if that's an oversight or not. Anyway, you're right, that is pretty close, I guess Red must have more track there since I figured he'd be 15 back from the income track and 6 more back from the issued shares.

That's interesting, I guess getting your opponents to ship those goods over your own link is definitely a good reason behind building that Southern link, or I suppose shipping them yourself and splitting the benefit between your opponents, I wonder which it was, maybe a mix of both happened I suppose.

Well, now I really want to try this for myself, heh!