18AL Rule Clarifications John David Galt, 22 February 2006 Since I took over production of 18AL from Mark Derrick, I've rewritten its rule book to be complete enough that you shouldn't need to look anywhere else for clarifications. (If I'm wrong, please contact me with your questions, and I'll make sure the answers get into the next version of the book.) The old Q&A section of the rules, with many new questions added, is included in the new rules as Appendix 1. However, for the benefit of players who are familiar with earlier versions of the game, I'm including here an exhaustive list of all differences between the new and old versions, including both differences in the rules and differences in the physical components of the game. Rules: * The rule book in previous versions was not complete. Players were expected to be familiar with other common 18xx games, particularly Avalon Hill's 1830. Everyone I played the game with back then used 1830 as the authority for all questions not covered in the 18AL rules, and I recognized that practice in my earlier clarifications document. Thus, rather than introduce unnecessary changes, I've written the new rules to agree with 1830 on every question I could find that was not covered in the old rules, except those listed here. * The question of whether players' and companies' money holdings are public or private information is controversial in some groups, so I felt it needed answering. The old rule book did not cover this question, making 1830 the authority. 1830 explicitly says that company treasuries are private but does not say whether players' money is public or not. In a draft version I wrote an explicit rule making players' money public (since most people play 1830 that way) but making company treasuries private. Mark disapproved, so I changed it to make everything public. This is paragraph 2 of new rule 6. * Tile upgrades are "semi-restrictive" (you can upgrade a tile only if you can trace a connection to at least part of the track newly added by the new tile, or to a city on the tile). This has always been true in 18AL. I mistakenly gave out an earlier "clarification" saying they were permissive, but that was an error on my part. * The old rule book did not say whether you can sell just 10% of a president's certificate, nor does 1830. Since most people play that you can (in both 1830 and 18AL), I've said so in new rule 3.2(a)(4). * The old rule book did not say whether you can sell just half of a president's certificate (that is, sell one 10% share when holding only the president's certificate), nor does 1830. Since most people play that you can (in both 1830 and 18AL), I've said so in new rule 3.2(a)(4). * The second sentence of old rule 3.2 said that a private company owned by a player blocks tile laying in the hex it occupies. This rule exists and makes sense in 1830 and 18GA, but in 18AL, private companies do not appear on the map at all, so I've deleted it. * The "delayed obsolescence" rule for 4 Trains (new rule 4.2.5.1) was added in version 1.6. The idea is Mark's, but I've spelled out the details so that it works exactly like the optional rule in the 1830 computer game. I've also put in an optional rule, 7(d), that takes out "delayed obsolescence" and makes the game work as before. * The last sentence of paragraph 3 of old rule 3.5 implies that a corporation may purchase trains from other corporations in any phase of the game, not just after the purchase of a 3 Train as in most other 18xx games. After confirming this fact with Mark, I have made it explicit in new rule 4.2.5(d). * The question of whether you can sell stock during a forced train purchase but still buy the train from another corporation was not addressed in the old rules, and is unclear and controversial in 1830 (especially if you dump the presidency of the selling company in the process). New rule 4.2.5.2(a) requires you to purchase a train from the bank, not from another corporation, if you contribute any money from your hand, whether or not you sell stock, because that's the way it is in Avalon Hill's published "clarifications" for 1830 (despite the fact that Avalon Hill's 1830 computer game does allow the move). * New rule 4.2.5.2(d) makes clear that you can sell only as many shares as necessary to buy the train. This, too, was unclear in the 1830 rules. Again, I've written it the way most people already play it. * The old rule book had two different rules saying exactly when the game ended as the result of a corporation's price reaching $300 per share. Paragraph 7 of old rule 3.5 said just to complete the current operating round, but paragraph 6 of old rule 2.1 said that all other companies get one more operating turn each. The two rules work the same if the company that first reaches $300 is the first to operate in that round, and this will usually be true, but it may not be if there are two or more companies at $270 and the one that operates first withholds or has no train. If that happens, and you follow old rule 2.1, you wind up playing part of the next operating round. This opens two big cans of worms. First, does the company that reached $300 operate _again_ during the partial round? (It normally _would_ operate again before the company that withheld does, since their prices at the beginning of the partial round are $300 and $240, respectively.) Second, if a stock round occurs before the partial operating round, the player who has the Priority Deal card gets a great opportunity to abuse the market by dumping his shares in corporations that will never operate again (a situation that _all_ 18xx games go out of their way to prevent, by not allowing the game to end during a stock round). I talked Mark into having the new version follow old rule 3.5 because it avoids these problems. In the new rule book this is rule 5(b). * Paragraph 5 of old rule 2.1 confusingly defines a new term, "set of operations", which is what's called one operating round in all other 18xx games. It then redefines an "operating round" as the whole sequence of operating rounds between two stock rounds. (Confusingly, the rest of the old rule book - and particularly old rule 3.5, discussed in the preceding paragraph - does _not_ use these definitions!) I've deleted this. New rule 1 gives complete definitions of all terms which need them. * I've added one optional rule of my own: new rule 7(c), which makes the number of 4D Trains unlimited. Physical components: * The trains and private companies are now printed on white paper rather than the gray that Mark used. Mark felt that the gray paper made them look more distinct from shares and other components of the game; I felt it made them hard to read. * In my first printing, I used Mark's original masters for the stock certificates, trains, and private companies, which unfortunately meant that they were not all the same size physically and sometimes were not lined up in exact rows and columns for easy cutting. My second printing fixes these problems. I've also added color pictures on the train cards, and a second color-stripe on the president's certificate of each company. * The Coal Field tokens are now provided as stickers (and brown or unpainted wooden tokens, if you get those). Mark merely printed them on one of the train sheets, but I felt that made them hard to see during play. * For the same reason, beginning with my second printing, the two train-name chits have been moved onto one of the yellow tile sheets, so they are now yellow. * In the present game, you have to cut out all the track tiles. Mark's versions included pre-cut tile sheets from Mayfair Games' 1870, plus one laminated sheet of tiles unique to 18AL. I chose not to use these because I wanted all the tiles to have a consistent appearance; I didn't want to depend on Mayfair, whose games 1856 and 1870 are out of print; and I didn't want the sets to contain extra track tiles which are not supposed to be used in 18AL (according to the contents page of old sets) but sometimes were anyway. * Rather than go to the expense of color-printing the tile sheets, I provide 1/2 inch round stickers to be placed in the city spaces on the tiles. Chris Lawson deserves the credit for this idea, which he uses in 1841. (Beginning with my second printing, the gray tile is an exception, since it is printed in black-and-white anyway.) * In the present game, all tiles are numbered. I assigned tile numbers 441- 446 to the tiles unique to 18AL. (I have since learned that tile numbers 441-444 had already been used in the game 1854, but I don't intend to change them because it would only introduce more confusion.) In Mark's version of the game these tiles were unnumbered. * The green small-town tile with three tracks in a Y shape has been renumbered from 145 to 144 so as to agree with other games that have the same tile. Numbering it as 145 was probably a typo on Mark's part, but the number 145 persists in my first printing because I didn't notice the discrepancy until Erik Vos pointed it out to me in January 2004. * The _Lumber_Terminal_ tile, number 445, is now yellow instead of gray. This is a change in appearance only, and does not affect play. As before, this tile may be played only by a corporation which owns the Brown & Sons private company, and only in an empty swamp hex, and it can never be upgraded. I made the tile yellow in order to make obvious (a) that it must be played in a previously empty hex - not as an upgrade of a brown tile - and (b) that you don't have to wait until a "4D" train has been purchased before playing the tile. (And in fact you can't - when the first "5" train is purchased, all private companies close, and if the tile hasn't been played by that time, it can never be played.) * The brown tiles for Birmingham and Montgomery now carry both city names, since they were already identical except for the name. * Mark's versions of the game included "player aid cards" which summarized the game phases and their effects. In my experience these cards were inconvenient and rarely used, so I've deleted them and moved the information into the rule book as Table I. * I've also moved the list of private companies to the back of the rules as Table III, and added Table IV, which shows all the legal tile upgrades (including how they can be rotated) graphically. Leonhard Orgler, who publishes 1837, deserves the credit for this wonderful idea. * In the present game, the map is provided in parts, which are actually cut- down legal size (8.5 x 14 inch) sheets. (In my first printing it was three parts, but I've redrawn it to fit onto two for my second printing.) In Mark's versions it was printed in one piece. I changed this because the map, as a whole, is slightly larger than 11 x 17 inches, and because the cheaper of the two print shops I know that can handle originals that large quoted me $16 _per_square_foot_, or about $25 per map. The present method costs $1 for each page. * Neither the old nor the new version includes a mounted board as professional games do. Neither Mark nor I know how to make them. If I figure it out, I may offer them in the future. * The present game includes money and (optionally) wooden tokens. In Mark's versions you were expected to supply your own. * Beginning with my second printing, the spaces on the stock-price chart that indicate which round it is are now colored brown/gray, green, and yellow (plus a blue space representing the stock round or end-of-game). Instead of counting "operating round 1, 2, 3" and having to remember how many rounds there are before the next stock round, you simply move the marker at the end of each stock round to the box that matches the latest available _tile_ color, then count forward from there. Chris Lawson deserves the credit for this idea, which he used in the game 1899. * Also beginning with my second printing, at Mark Derrick's suggestion, I have added the table showing players' starting cash and certificate limits for each number of players to the rule book, even though it also (still) appears on the stock market display. That is now Table II, and the existing Tables II and III have been renumbered to III and IV.