| 18xx - FAQ | Back to FAQ | |
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| General | |||
| Q: If a railroad does not buy a train (due to not having a route), does the stock market token move to the left since the company did not pay a dividend that turn? Or does that drop in value only occur if the company made money? | |||
| A: Any time a company does not pay a dividend the stock value will drop. It does not matter why no dividend was paid. Since a company can only purchase a train at the end of the turn, that means that all new companies (created without trains) will not be able to pay dividends for at least one turn (since they have no train, they can't make any runs to earn income). | |||
| Q: When I start a public company (by purchasing the first share of stock), do I choose the share value, or is there a set value for each company? | |||
| A: When you purchase the first share of a public company, you choose the starting value for that company’s stock. You can normally choose any value you wish. Of course, you must be able to pay the price you choose! For example, if you only have $35, you cannot set the price at 40. You will also want to consider what money is available to invest in your company. If the price is too high, then you might not be able to “float” the company (sell the minimum number of shares for the company to operate), in which case your investment would be wasted. On the other hand, if you set the price too low, then the new company might not be able to afford an engine or pay the expenses it must pay to operate profitably, which could cost you financially down the road! | |||
| Track Tiles | |||
| Q: Is the number of railway track tiles in 1856 an intentional design limitation? | |||
| A: The tile mix included in the game is a deliberate limitation included by the designer. This was done to force players to upgrade their tracks during the game, a feature that the game designer thought enhanced the experience of play. | |||
| Q: Can a company place or upgrade track, or place a station marker, on a route that is linked to one of that company’s station markers, and could be reached by a train, but which passes through a city that is “filled” to capacity with station markers belonging to other companies? | |||
| A: A railroad company cannot “pass through” a city that is filled with tokens that belong to other companies for any purpose. That includes building track and placing station markers. There must be an empty space in the city, or a station marker belonging to the company building the track. | |||
| 1856: | |||
| Certificate Limits | |||
| Q: Where do I find the certificate limits? | |||
| A: The certificate limit is determined by the number of players. You should be able to find a chart on page 6 that shows the certificate limits. | |||
| Cities | |||
| Q: Some tiles with two "cities" on them only have one denomination figure, while others have two. Can I run a train to two "cities" on one tile that only has one denomination? For example, does changing Toronto from brown to grey change the maximum value of Toronto from 160 (80+80) to 100? |
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| A: Some tiles in the game have more than one city on them. These cities can be independent, or they can be connected by a white field that surrounds both cities. If the cities are independent, then it may be possible for single track to connect both independent cities and score for both of them. It does not matter if both cities have a value printed next to it (if the tile has only 1 value on it, then all cities on that tile pay the same value). So, it is possible for a single train to score points for Toronto more than once, since Toronto begins as a series of independent cities. This can grant a maximum value of 160, as you describe in your question. However, later in the game Toronto can be upgraded to the grey level. At this point, the cities on the tile are connected by a white field. Since they are no longer independent cities, it is no longer allowed to connect to Toronto more than once with a single train (no city may ever be counted more than once for a single train, no matter how your track bends back around to it). At that point, the maximum payout you can receive from Toronto is 100. |
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| Engines | |||
| Q: Can a company sell engines? | |||
| A: No, you cannot sell engines. The last activity that a company may take each turn is to buy engines. Eventually, they will be retired when they become obsolete, but the company cannot sell them. | |||
| Q: On page 24 of the rules, in the section about trains for the CGR, it says:
“It must buy a diesel when it can first afford to.” But the next sentence says that the president can choose to buy a lesser value permanent train. This begs the question: why have the first sentence about the diesel requirement if the president can purchase something else instead? |
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| A: What this rule means is that the CGR can never buy any train that is not permanent. If there is no other train available, then it must buy a Diesel when it has the cash. This prevents the CGR from borrowing a train when it can buy one instead.
The bottom line is that the CGR can only buy permanent trains, regardless of where the train is purchased (either from another company or the bank). |
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| Forced Sales | |||
| Q: If a president sells his shares of a corporation for a “forced buy” and that sale causes the corporation to close before sufficient funds are raised, does the president keep the proceeds for the sales of his shares? | |||
| A: When you “force buy” shares, you are selling them at the current market price for that stock. If this price is above the “closed” area on the chart, then you would get the cash from the sale even if the company will close because of your sale.
Note that this cannot happen to the CGR! Also remember that you cannot sell to transfer the presidency, or to have more than 50% of the company in the stock pool. If you can meet all the above conditions, then you can sell a company into the closed area and keep the cash! |
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| Q: But if you were “force buying” to pay for an engine, do you keep the money, or does it go towards the purchase of the (now unneeded) train? | |||
| A: If the company closes, it cannot buy a train (and has no reason to). In that case, you are no longer forced to buy the train, and can keep the money. There is no “partial payment” made against the train either, so all the proceeds of the sale (and any cash you had on hand) are yours. | |||
| Paying Dividends | |||
| Q: The rulebook states that a public company's shares in the open market have their dividends paid to the company's treasury and that dividends of shares still in the initial offering are paid to the bank. This does not seem logical to me. Shouldn’t the open market dividends go to the bank and the initial offering dividends go to the company treasury? | |||
| A: Your question sparked quite a bit of discussion here for a while. Personally, I agree that it would be more logical to pay out the dividends as you describe. But the rules are written the way the game designer intended them to be. It appears that it is a game balance issue. So, that is the way it should be played. | |||
| Private Companies | |||
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and the KATY |
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| Q: How does this company operate? I understand that I take a 10% share card in the initial stock round. Does the president set the par value at this moment? Does it operate like a normal railroad? What happens to the ownership of the KATY when the President’s Certificate is purchased? What happens to the KATY? Can it be sold to a company? | |||
| A:Yes, the owner of the KATY also receives the 10% share certificate as a bonus. But, that certificate has no value until the par value for the MKTR has been set and the company opens. No par value is set until the President’s Certificate for the MKTR has been purchased. This allows the president to set the par value, and the company can open.
None of this affects the ownership of the KATY, because it is a separate “private company” with no stock shares, and no “president” as far as the game is concerned. The KATY can be sold to a public corporation the same way that any private company can be sold: for any price between 50% and 200% of the actual cost of the KATY. |
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| Stock Values | |||
| Q: The fifth paragraph on page 8 describes the arrows that direct the movement of tokens when the edge of the stock value chart is reached. But, there are some squares next to the vertical “ledges” with arrows. The third and fourth paragraphs say that the ledges don’t affect token movement to the left or the right. So am I supposed to ignore the arrows next to the ledges? | |||
| A: Sorry! There is an error in the rulebook. Here’s the way it’s supposed to work:
If the stock value token is moving UP on the chart (increasing in value) than the red ledges have no effect and are ignored. If the stock value token is moving DOWN on the chart, then the red ledges can block the movement unless at least two shares are being sold. If the stock value token is moving LEFT on the chart, then the red ledge has no effect and is ignored. If the stock value token is moving RIGHT on the chart, and it moves “past” a box with an arrow, then the token moves UP one space instead of moving RIGHT through the red ledge. The red ledges act similar to the edges of the chart: they block the movement of share values, pushing the value token upward on the chart. |
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| Q: When I buy stock in a company, does the stock value counter move up? | |||
| A: Buying stock in a company does not affect its share price. However, if all the shares of a company are owned by the players at the end of the stock phase, the share value will go up 1 space to reflect 100% ownership. | |||
| Q: What is the “Par Value” chart used for? | |||
| A: The "Par Values" chart is used to mark the original purchase price for stock in a company (this is set by the player that "opens" the company). This is the price at which you can buy stock in that company until all the shares have been purchased. | |||
| Q: So, when I start a company (as the first president), I can set the par value to any amount within the limits and values given on the white spaces? | |||
| A: Exactly. The player who purchases the “President’s Certificate” is the player who has the right to set the par value of the stock issue. | |||
| Station Tokens | |||
| Q: The Waterloo & Saugeen Railroad Co. allows a company to place a free station token. Does this token have to be the first ($40) token, or can I choose which token to use? Does the free token count against the company limit, or is it an extra token? | |||
| A: The free station token does not have to be your "$40" token. But you must still obey the order of placement. So, if you use the free token as the first token for that company, then you have to use the token in the $40 space on your charter. If you have already built your $40 token, then you would take the next token from the charter (from a $100 space). This is not an "extra" token. You are still limited by the number of tokens on your charter. It just doesn't cost you any money to place it. | |||
| 1870 | |||
| Destination Runs | |||
| Q: On a destination run, if a railroad has two (or more) trains, can it double the destination for all trains? Or is the destination token used as a regular station for the extra trains? | |||
| A: If the destination can be reached as an end point for both trains it does indeed count double for both. In fact, for the rest of the game if the destination taken is taken as an end point for a train it is doubled. | |||
| Q: Can the destination city double if it is hit by a train on the destination run even if the train does not end the run there? In other words, does it double if the destination city is in the middle of a run? | |||
| A: No. In order for a destination city to double the value of a run, it must be the “end” of that run. It cannot be in the middle. But, if you can make two trains both end at the destination city, then both of those trains can score the double run. | |||
| Off-Board Locations | |||
| Q: Are the separate arrows on a red hex considered separate cities (so a train could return to the same hex more than once)? | |||
| A: The separate arrows are NOT considered separate cities for this purpose. Each train can only hit a given off-board hex once. | |||
| Mississippi River Bridge | |||
| Q: Can tile #7 be placed on hex D19 facing West and Southwest before the Mississippi River Bridge Company has been bought by a company? There is a very tiny sliver of land on that side of the river in that hex. | |||
| A: You cannot build on the west side of the river on space D19 because you would have to cross the river.
Basically, all of the spaces on the board that have building costs on it are the actual spaces that the river runs through (as far as the game is concerned). So, without "crossing" the river by building track through the hex with a cost associated with it (like D17), you can't build on the "other side" of that row of hexes. |
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| Stock Prices | |||
| Q: When a stock token is in the green zone of the stock chart when I purchase 80 % of the railroad, the token moves up to the yellow zone. Do I now have to sell down to 60%? | |||
| A: The answer for this one is on page 14: "The purchasing president may end up with more than 60% of the shares in the company through price protection purchases. The player is allowed to hold these shares in excess of the normal 60% share limit. If the player subsequently sells any shares in this company, sufficient shares must be sold to bring the player within the 60% share limit." When a game effect allows you to violate the 60% limit, you can retain those shares until you sell ANY shares from that company, at which point that sale must include reducing your share count to below 60%. |
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| 1835 | |||
| Minor Companies | |||
| Q: Do minor company charters count as certificates? | |||
| A: Yes, the charters for the minor companies do count as certificates. | |||