Pre-printed track & Bilbao

[Ian D]

Those of you who have managed to look at the map may have noticed some
pre-printed track in grey bits around the edge of the board. These are
there primarily to allow cities near the edge of the board to upgrade.
One of these is next to Bilbao (in the NE corner). Somebody has
pointed out that this track has been drawn "in the sea" and so
looks... wrong.

An alternative is to put a port there instead. This will be less use
because:
a) Bilbao is mostly an even number of hexes from other places (and the
early trains have even numbers), and
b) another route out of Bilbao allows a company to run 2 trains
through it.

So I have a choice between utility and geography. Any thoughts?

Ian D

[Chris Shaffer]

Provide a special upgrade tile for Bilbao?

--
Chris

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

[Ian D Wilson]

I did do this originally, but I prefer to keep the number of new tiles to a minimum (there's already 20!). I guess this makes option (c). --- On Wed, 26/1/11, Chris Shaffer <chris....@gmail.com> wrote:

[Scott Petersen]

Port-dit like Alicante.  Ideally, players will not even use that spare bit of track anyway.

[Ian D Wilson]

--- On Wed, 26/1/11, Scott Petersen <sc...@redracecar.com> wrote: >Port-dit like Alicante. Do you mean like Cartagena? (BTW, Cartagena is a port city separate from Murcia. NE of Bilbao is just sea.)

[Scott Petersen]

Yes, like Cartagena since there is no great need to maintain the connection to the San Sebastian hex.  If its only purpose is to prevent the question about the "sea track," I think the port will serve the purpose.

[Dave Berry]

Does the hex look wrong just because it is coloured grey? In other
hexes, the grey is only used to colour the land, so the graphics in
this case make it seem as if there is a new stretch of land adjoining
the west coast of France. Try making the hex blue and seeing how
that looks. (It's what I've done in my game).

If you still feel pressure urge to change it, do you need to consider
the following questions?

- How much does the ability to run two trains through Bilbao affect
game play and game balance?

- If Bilbao were to have a special tile, to what extent would this
guaranteed upgrade affect game play (as opposed to the appropriate
tiles potentially being used elsewhere) ?

If in doubt, I'd pick utility over geography.

Dave.

[Carlos Moreno Serrano]

How about making it an "astillero" or ship-building facility?
The extra bit of track would be in order to supply the raw materials
and could be the foundation for a minor company.
Last summer I was in Huelva and they have train track directly into
the sea for the very same reason.

Carlos

[John Shelley]

If you aren't too keen on the port idea, could you not just tweak
geography a bit and make the coastline go go to the north of the San
Sebastian hex?

Or if a port is inevitable and you don't want the company to be able to
run two trains through Bilbao have a rule, like in 1849, where a town to
its own port isn't a route.

--
Cheers for now,

John, from St Ciers 33820, France