The Depot: 1870: Strategy
First, I really like a lot of things about 1870. I like the privates, I like the fact that the companies are all pretty comperable, and I like the train situation and destinations. I think it's an excellent 4-player game. However, I think the dynamics of a 5/6 player game are very different.
Unfortunately, I came away from this last game with some negative feelings about the 5/6 player game. While I have enjoyed the 4-player version, I've played 5/6 players twice and in both games there were one or two players who ended up essentially watching, with a hope of only a respectable finish if they worked very hard. Plus, unfortunately, this was based on mistakes or circumstances that occured in the first few SRs! This problem, in my opinion, comes from the shortage of intial cash, private auction/first SR, and price protection. All three are closely linked. Now, I admit that I just may need a bit more experience to work this out, but OTOH these problems with the 5-6 player game seem to me to be very fundamental.
The strategy for the first SR is incredibly precise. It's not like 1830, where you can work your way through the privates, and as long as the C&A goes for more than $200 you can be assured of a reasonable game. The Frisco is very tricky, if you overpay for it or set the par too low you can be completely hosed. Likewise, with the terrible cash shortage, where the priority deal lands after the initial auction is incredibly important. The Bridge and Port have very specific applications and their value can be vary incredibly based on where the priority deal lands and whether or not you can cut a deal to start a company on SR1. Plus, the final location of the priority deal is critically important because that player will have a crack at the Katy, which can be floated by a single player even with 6. When bidding on privates, you really have to know exactly what you are doing with 5-6 players. This is fine for competition play, considerably less good for casual friendly play.
This game still works like 1830, too, in that the people who get the OR1 starts are in the best shape; in every game the people who didn't get starts on OR1 have yet to crack the top 3. With 5 players, anyone who gets a single, small private is in questionable shape, since they'll be just below what they need to start a company without getting much value for the expenditure. Plus, whereas normally in 1830 the initial starts are going to take a stock hammering when the other 2-3 players cash out of their stock to start a new company, now they will just price protect. This makes it a lot harder for the later starts to catch up.
OK, so now maybe 3 people have started companies - the Firsco starts automatically, the Katy will start because of the 5-share thing, and the player with the Bridge can probably talk some people into buying some MP shares. If everything works out right, there might be 4 starts; one player didn't buy a private with 5. If the port and the Missouri-Kansas private are owned by different players, though, neither of those players will be able to start a company (unless, of course, the Frisco owner got one of those two privates, which should never be allowed to happen). Anyway, let's assume 3 start.
So now, what's going to happen? 3-4 OR's later, two players are going to be rolling over their stock in the inital startup companies to get into their own companies. The president is now just going to get to price protect them. Now the presidents of the first 3 startups, who already have a big advantage, are going to be sitting on 80%-90% of the stock between them and their companies. What are the minority shareholders going to do? They've got to start up companies to compete. If they don't, they are going to be looted and dumped on. They have to flush those shares ... giving them to the president via price protection. The 60% president/40% company is a hugely powerful combination. The president can always use share redemption to give him enough cash to price protect.
Finally, to heap insult on injury, the share limits are too low. With 5 players, it's 13. That's 5 for your first company, 5 for your second, and three to play with. This just isn't enough. In the last game I was up against my limit before the first 5-train was bought, which is only about halfway into the game. This limits my interest level considerably.
What I'm looking for is a viable early game startegy if you aren't running a company. What can a player who has no hope of a company on the first round do to be competitve? Especially with 6, if you didn't get a first round start-up, you may have to wait 6-8 ORs before you accumulate enough cash. This is very bad.
My initial thought was that two players, one with a big private, one with a smaller one, cut a deal ... they split a company 50/50, the company agrees to buy the privates for double ASAP, and the second player guarantees to sell the stock in a manner so that the president can price protect. Unless the private is the Katy, though, I still think this helps the president a lot more than the minority position. They get the private bonus, a 60/40 president/company split (or better), and a first round startup. The second player has to content himself with a 60% presidency and 40% just out there, plus he has to pay the price of one OR with no income and a stock hit, without the added bonus of plastering another player for 4-5 rows. Finally, this may not work at all if other players decide the new company is going to be a good investment and limit the investors to 30% each. Considering the lost earnings and the lost time bringing the runs up to a normal level, the minority holdings player will still probably be behind on getting a second company. This is still a lot better than nothing at all, though.
Don't get me wrong, I think with 4 players, this is an excellent, extremely well-balanced game. With 5 or 6 though, my feeling is that 1856 is considerably superior.
I also admit that a lot of what I've said is a bit generalized; things won't always work out peachy for the first OR starts if people dump before they have a chance to accumulate enough cash to protect or if the initial starts all have a stock value that is too low. However, the bottom line is, that I think 1870 has given more power, through price protection and redemption, to the players who get to start a company early. What I want to know is, where is the balance? What new tactics/advantages do the players who start a few ORs later have? What is the counter-strategy for the people who *don't* get a first round start; with 5 or 6, there are going to be one or two, and I'd like to think that they aren't irretrievably hosed. What I'd like is to be convinced that a player without an immediate start-up still has a good shot at the top slot regardless of what the other players do.
I've come to the conclusion that the 12s should virtually always see play. There should almost always be somebody who will see a big advantage in scrapping the 5s, and I don't see a huge problem in amassing the required cash, especially if a lot of companies are sitting on 40% of their stock. If one player is playing for it and is willing to go into his pocket, he can probably do it, which means the other players have to be more careful, more or less guarenteeing the 12s will come out.
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