1876 Rules Clarifications and Admendments

If you have any further questions then please ask and I will include them into this document. Please address any comments to me, Chris Lawson. It is also advisable to read the 1830 Rules Clarifications and Admendments by Steve Thomas to answer any generic 1830 questions.

• Place the Shares for the Corporations on the board in the space allocated for them. The President's Share goes on the top, the Tokens can be placed here as well.
• In the 1876-35 set you will find two extra 'shares' for the MBR. These are used to help remind players when it becomes available. Insert the one marked 'Now Available for Sale' inbetween the 4th and 5th SFR share and the one marked 'Not Yet Available' on top of the MBR President's share. Once 50% of the SFR is sold, you will have the reminder that the MBR is available for sale (and at this point you can remove both reminders.
• When the Trains are correctly laid out (by placing the largest first on the right and then overlapping them), then they will have displayed all the relevant information (i.e. Train Class, Price and Rust point). Alongside the Train Pool is a reference chart to remind Players of certain key events.
• At the start of the game place the OR marker on the area marked 'Stock Round'. At the end of each SR move the OR marker to the relevant location (this is easily determined by checking which Tiles are currently available, so if Green Tiles are out then move the marker to the green location). At the end of each OR, move the marker clockwise, when the marker reaches the white area it indicates that it is a Stock Round.

Q)

Why is there an Elephant on the Priority Deal card.

A)

In my gaming circles this card is known as 'the Elephant' (the one good thing to come out of 1853). I would like to maintain this tradition (likewise the term 'Rust' to mean obsolete).

Q)

How 'real' are the Corporation names, are the Private Company crests based on real designs.

A)

None of the names are real. The Railway History of Trinidad I included is all true as far as I am aware but the names are just inventions of Peter Jacobi and myself. The PC crests are based on real historical (non-Trinidad) ones.

Q)

Why do the Trains have dates that precede 1876.

A)

Initially, Trinidad would have used older second hand Trains. Or, I do not have enough drawings of trains to reflect the later start. I preferred to have a different train on each card if at all possible.

Q)

Why the small size of bank note.

A)

Well, as this is a mini-game I thought mini bank notes. I prefer the smaller size, they take up less room, I may plan to continue with this size in future gamekits. Hope you noticed all the banknotes have different serial numbers.

Q)

Does / did Trinidad really use $ for currency.

A)

Currently they use the Trinidad Dollar. Back in 1876 it would have been a mix of UK £'s and American $'s.

Q)

With 1876-35, how does the Advanced Game Start work.

A)

Each Player writes a hidden bid for each seat position. Once all bids are in, they are revealed and the highest bid of all is declared valid, all the other bids from this Player and for that seat position are deleted. This procedure is repeated for the remaining bids until all Players have been allocated a seat position. Before starting, a method to resolve ties must be agreed on.
So if there are four Players, each writes down four bids. These sixteen bids are compared, once the highest has been determined there will be nine bids left, then four and finally only one.
The amount bid does not come out of the Players Starting Capital, it gets deducted from the Final Standings at the end of the game.

Q)

At the start of 1876-30 the Corporations take at least three ORs before they can earn revenue (four ORs for the 1st). Is this correct.

A)

Yes. Since only #57 tiles are available, they must lay this followed by a curve before they can get to another (large) city. Don't forget that they cannot place on the small towns before the PC has been purchased (and this cannot happen until Phase 2).

Q)

A Corporation can only purchase one Train during each OR? Even after Phase 1?

A)

Yes, don't forget this during the game. It is too easy for the first player to run a Corporation and "just buy all these '2' Trains and the first '3' Train" to get to phase 2.

Q)

With 1876-30, can the Corporation bases ever get upgraded beyond a Green #14 or #15 Tile.

A)

No, normal rules apply. A Orange #63 is illegal. As a matter of interest, the #63 Tile only can be placed on Tunapuna (that is why there is only one in the tile mix).

Q)

With 1876-30, does Arima really drop in revenue after the #53A Tile is upgraded to a #63A.

A)

Yes, consider this a feature of introducing an extra Station. If enough requests come in I will consider releasing a new Orange Arima Tile with revenue of $60.

Q)

With 1876-35, does the Gulf of Paria 'exist' before the start of Phase 2?

A)

No it does not. The only time this matters is if you try to run a Train between San Fernando and the Gulf of Paria during Phase 1 for a revenue of 20. This is not a legal route as it has only one station (the GoP does NOT count as a '$0' station).

Q)

Some of the standard tiles seem to be missing, e.g. Yellow #1, Green #88.

A)

They are not needed as there is nowhere to place then on the map (i.e. they would be illegal).

Q)

During a SR, when does a Corporations turn end, is it after it (optionally) purchases it's Train.

A)

This only matters if you plan to sell / buy a Private Company. We play that the President declares when the turn is over for a Corporation.

Q)

With 1876-35, what is a 2+2 Train?

A)

1835 introduced the concept of N+N Trains. The first number indicated the number of Stations (large or small) the route can include, the second number indicates the number of additional small Stations that can be included. It is true that the 6+6 cannot be fully used in 1876-35 but I kept it like that for familiarity sake (no, it was not a mistake!).