1947: Operating Round
Welcome back to our newsletter; this is the second introductory view of 1947, our next 18xx title that will soon see the light on Kickstarter.
In this second part we will show you the Operating Round and its peculiarities!
In 1947, at the beginning of each Operating Round, the season will change and affect the game play in the following ways:
- during the Dry Season, laying tiles in the non-monsoon part of the map causes a 20% reduction in the Company revenue
- during the Monsoon Season, laying tiles in the monsoon part of the map causes a 20% reduction in Company revenue, and all the cities in the monsoon zone have their revenue reduced by 10
- during the Fertile season Cities in the monsoon zone have their revenue value increased by 10.
- the intermediary season has no effect
In 1947 right from the beginning of the game it is possible to upgrade non-city tiles to green or brown, regardless of the last train sold. Upgrading City tiles, on the other hand, follows the usual 18xx rules based on the last train sold. In addition, once the first T5 train has been bought, it is possible to place an ordinary yellow tile on a map hex containing a dit Town, effectively removing the town from the game (a la 1856).
On the map, various coastal cities and their upgrade tiles have some dead-end tracks and tracks leading to Trading Posts. Dead-end tracks assist when placing particular City tiles, while Trading Posts serve as extra revenue if you own the relevant Private Company.
Unique to 1947 is that around the map, connected to certain hexes, there are Expatriation Sites. When a Company reaches them, it can acquire different bonuses that vary depending on how many Expatriation Sites it has already connected to. Each Company Charter has a track that indicates the bonuses that can be obtained, they’re the same for all the Companies. The possible bonuses are:
- extra revenue for the Company
- Workers (bonuses to the player) may allow: a train route to pass through a City blocked by other Companies’ Stations; the placement of 2 Stations in the same Operating Round; a second placement of tiles in an Operating Round; or workers to be converted into Stock Brokers
- Stockbrokers (bonus to the Company): they discount the price by 50 Rupees for advancing in stock market when you’ll reach an expatriation site
- Stock market opportunities: these allow the Company to take an immediate action to advance its Stock Market token up or to the right
- Movements in the market: upwards (free) or to the right (at a cost of 50% of the value of the Stock market space the token moves to)
Each Company is associated with a particular Temple on the map that must be reached in order to remove a 20% penalty on the Company’s revenue each OR turn. Reaching your own Temple also provides a free ‘connection’ to an Expatriation Site of the player's choice from those among the Company has not yet reached.
Finally, from the sale of the first T8 train, a simplified calculation of the train route is introduced: each Company only counts its highest value train and based on the value of the other train it owns will receive a revenue bonus, as shown on the train cards.
Now we just have to wait for the start date of the Kickstarter campaign! Stay tuned to know more!