1947: Stock Round
Welcome back to this first introductory newsletter about 1947, our next 18xx title that will soon see the light on Kickstarter.
In this first newsletter we will talk about the Private Companies and the Stock Round!
Private Companies
Private Companies in 1947 are not really small railway companies, but rather they are abilities (more or less limited according to the Private Company) that players can exploit during the game: such as being able to place tiles for free in expensive hexes; to gain priority; to not suffer reductions in the tour based on the season in progress in the Operational Round (OR); to be able to take advantage of the commercial bases on the map, to be able to pass through Cities totally blocked by stations of other Companies, etc.
Furthermore, the Private Companies all have a starting point of 10 Rupees for the initial auction and can be resold at a percentage of the hammer price (to be noted on the appropriate chart in the game) to the Railway Companies.
In the Stock Round we have some innovations not found in other games of the 18xx series: in addition to the usual (Ordinary) Share Certificates there will in fact be both Savings Shares and Convertible Bonds.
Savings Shares are share certificates that are considered to be “half a certificate” when reckoning the maximum certificates a player can own; they also give half the income of a normal share certificate if the Company President decides to pay dividends. Players should also note that although a Savings Share still counts as a normal 10% shareholding, it cannot be counted towards holding a company Presidency (in this way players can avoid having a poor company dumped upon them).
A player who does not hold the Presidency of a Company can convert their own Certificates from Ordinary to Savings at any time during the Share Round as long as the result always respects the rule that a player may only own one Savings Certificate for every 2 Ordinary Certificates they own, regardless of which Company they belong to.
A player may not own a mix of Ordinary and Savings shares of the same company.
Convertible Bonds, on the other hand, are a form of loan-taking that the President actions and which they issue during a Share Round. Each 10% share they own in a company entitles a player to be able to buy a Convertible Bond. The newly purchased Bonds cannot be sold immediately, but may be sold in subsequent Stock Rounds for a value equal to 50% of the Stock Market value of the Company’s shares (they are also included at this value in player holdings for the end-of-game calculations).
Convertible Bonds do not pay dividends, and are not counted against the Certificate limit, but they can protect against the sale of Company shares: if another player sells a Company share, the President can remove 2 Convertible Bonds from the game to take that share and ensure that the Company’s price does not go down on the Stock Market!
In the next newsletter we will explore some details of the Operational Round (OR).
See you next time!