<shrug> FNM can be a pretty good company. I've seen plenty of games where the
guy who owned it cruised to victory: I've even been that guy a couple of times
myself.

Also, if you play in a four-player or <shudder> five-player game, you're never
going to see more than two companies unless your opponents make some pretty
awful blunders. Why not have one of them be one of those that generally do well?

Of course, all this is predicated on the appropriate helpmeets: it's generally
nice to have the Gotthard minor company, and of course a tunnel right would be
helpful as well.

----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Shaffer
To: 18xx@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 12:55 AM
Subject: Re: [18xx] Re: 1844 - the suboptimal run optional rule


Ah, I see. I guess the reason I didn't think of it is because I've
never seen anyone buy two shares of FNM. If nothing else, why
wouldn't you wait until SR2, and buy them at 10 cheaper, or from IPO,
after you've seen what happens in OR1?

--
Chris

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree,
grow for ages, not hurt anyone. -Czeslaw Milosz, poet and novelist
(1911-2004)

On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 9:51 PM, David G.D. Hecht <Barzai@...>
wrote:
> It's the same sort of "strange monkey business" that has just consumed an
endless time discussing it in 1835: the 1844 equivalent of building BY in a big
circle.
>
> If someone other than the FNM President has two or more shares after the
ISR, the President builds a #5 tile going back to Italy. He then buys 4 x 2h
trains, leaving the forthcoming FNM president with no legal route and no way of
obtaining one short of either (1) buying across with another company, or (2) the
green phase.
>
> Shucks, even in the absence of the dump option, one can take advantage of a
loophole in the rules as written: by buying a 2h-train rather than a 2-train,
you give the private company (P6) another day of life, paying $30 instead of the
$20 you would otherwise get if you built more normally. Of course the company's
price falls an extra square, but hey, that's tomorrow's problem...
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Chris Shaffer
> To: 18xx@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 12:27 AM
> Subject: Re: [18xx] Re: 1844 - the suboptimal run optional rule
>
>
> > 2. That the FNM has to buy at least one 2, not 2H, on its first turn
> > to stop any strange monkey business. The FNM can buy more trains if
> > it wants.
>
> What strange monkey business are you preventing? As best I can tell,
> you're just forcing the FNM to spend 20 more on a train. That said, I
> can't imagine why the FNM president wouldn't want a 2 train, unless
> someone else was foolish enough to buy 2 shares on the first stock
> round.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> This is a message from the 18xx mailing list.Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>




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