NIPPON RAILS RULES?? HELP!
randy...@chrysalis.org
> - How does one upgrade his train? There are frequent mentions in my
> rules of upgrading to a faster/bigger train, but it never says how
> much said upgrades cost or how to do them.
After you have moved in any turn, you are allowed to build up to 20
billion yen in either tracks or trains. If you want to upgrade, you spend 20
billion yen to go from a Freight to either a Heavy Freight or a Fast Freight.
If you already have a Fast or Heavy, you can "cross-grade", which means you
switch from Fast to Heavy or vice versa. This change costs 5 billion yen (and
consequently means you could build up to 15 billion yen in rails during the
same turn). Finally, to go from the Fast or Heavy to a Super Freight also
costs 20 billion yen. Just keep in mind that the money spent upgrading or
cross-grading is part of the 20 billion yen per turn building limit. So if you
build your Fast Freight, you can build no rails that turn.
> - How does one build track from Honshu to Shikoku? There are ferrys
> to Hokkaido and Kyushu, but none to Shikoku. Is it valid to build
> track across the small channels separating Honshu and Shikoku? Is
> this what they are talking about with "ocean inlets"?
Yes. To build the ferries, you pay the cost of the ferry (in the
little circle) the first time you build onto a ferry port. From there, you can
build from the opposite port normally. When you need to cross an ocean inlet,
you are forced to pay the cost of building a bridge (3 billion yen plus the
cost of the milepost for ocean inlets). There are, therefore, lots of
approaches to the southern islands. Several of them are far from cheap.
Hope this helps!
Randy...
Internet E-Mail randy...@chrysalis.org
randy...@chrysalis.org
Maybe you guys can tell me if I was the only Mayfair Rails player that
was playing wrong. I was just at ORIGINS '93 here in Ft. Worth, and in the
first builds of the Empire Builder tournament, I had it pointed out to me that,
oh, by the way, you've been playing all wrong.
The rules state (not very clearly, I might add) that during a player's
turn he can build track a) from any major city milepost, or b) from any
milepost to which that player has already built track. Now, call me dense, I
guess I just never caught the significance of this rule. We always played that
all of a players track must be contiguous. According to my opponent in the
tournament (he won our round) and according to the Mayfair Games officials,h€ a
players rails can be spread all over.
The only reason I bring this up under the heading of Nippon Rails is
that I think this rule has the greatest effect on Nippon Rails, especially in
games with more than three players. With the hotly contested passes through
the mountains around Tokyo, and with access to the major city on Honshu so
limited, the ability to build out of these cities early is a tremendous factor
in planning. Have any of you had any experience with this, or am I the only
one who's been playing "contiguous track only"?
Randy...
Internet E-Mail randy...@chrysalis.org
Matthew Galer
Perhaps it would make the game quite different.
The ability to build out of major cities adds a bit of strategy to the
game as to when you want to build that line that is useless now, but
gives you the cheapest or shortest route for later. I think that
anyone who uses this rule will generally beat anyone who builds only
contiguos track.
Later!
Rich Shipley
The biggest reason to use this rule (from any major city) is to avoid
paying the 5 Million to build TO a major city. Remember you can only do
this twice per build phase (in Eurorails at least I assume its the same here).
The other reason is to play a "cuthroat" game where you use this rule to
block other players from the easiest entrances to cities (or you build
before they can block you). Remember though that you have to leave space
for everyone to connect to each city somehow (through a large mountain
counts!) I don't usually play this way with my family, but in a tournament,
I bet this is used alot.
Rich
randy...@chrysalis.org
> The other reason is to play a "cuthroat" game where you use this
> rule to
> block other players from the easiest entrances to cities (or you
> build
> before they can block you). Remember though that you have to leave
> space
> for everyone to connect to each city somehow (through a large
> mountain
> counts!) I don't usually play this way with my family, but in a
> tournament,
> I bet this is used alot.
Yeah, well, one thing I like about Mayfair Rails is the fact that every
player has to play their own game, and the potential for backstabbing seemed
kinda low. I, for one, don't find screwing over my friends (even new ones met
at cons) to be all that fun, so when I heard this ruling, and realized what it
could mean, I was concerned. As it was, in the ORIGINS tournament, it turned
out that cutthroat play was not necessarily to way to victory. I'm glad of
that.
Some may say that by allowing people to block others' paths into
cities, you add a much needed element of player interaction. In my opinion, if
you want to inject player interaction, a much less ruthless and less intrusive
optional rule is the "field warehousing" rule, which can work in a positive or
negative way, and allows for much more deal-making.
Randy...
Internet E-Mail randy...@chrysalis.org