'20 acceleration

[J C Lawrence]

Pseudo-mocked up a 4 player game this weekend with 2 ORs per set in
which all players focused on floating companies and tokening up the
board. All low pars (so as to maximise cheap tokens) and a clearly
pathological case. Track development was also about as bad as I can
make it, and all the privates were closed (converting their tokens to
blocking tokens) rather than selling them to anyone else and potentially
helping them even more.

The result was a fast trains game, the publics couldn't grow fast enough
to absorb all the extra tokens and the board filled with blocking
tokens...and none of the publics were viable running FLOOD trains.
FLOOD runs ranged from $1K to just over $2K against a maintenance series
of $650, $,1000, $2,500. And as the first FLOOD was bought by a public
near the bottom of an OR, the rest were stuck looking at fully
withholding just to cover maintenance.

I played with a few approaches and one chap did something interesting:

1) Grew his public to a 20-share and got lots of treasury.
2) Floated a new 5-share company somewhere irrelevant.
3) Sold his main public full of money down to the bare presidency.
4) The main public stock price collapsed and fell below his new
public.
5) His new public bought the train up from the main public for
$1 and thus didn't pay train maintenance.
6) The main public fell trainless, bought the train back down
for all its money after paying off all its loans, and again didn't pay
maintenance.
7) The new public shrank to a 2-share company.
8) In the next OR the 2-share bought the train back up again,
still not paying maintenance.
9) The public bought the train back down again...still not
paying maintenance.
10) And the 2-share went private -- netting its owner a hew
$hundred in profit over the two ORs from the remaining capital from the
20-share capitalisation.

All the other players variously...cratered.

Whereas prior to the recent changes it was clear that there would be 2-3
viable publics in each game, it now appears that it is possible that
zero publics are viable in the end-game. I don't think it will
happen...but much like the 2Ts rusting in 1830 before they ever run, it
can actually happen.

*Is this a problem?*

-- JCL tends to think that as long as it is rare, it is fine.