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18CO: Rock & Stock

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Chris Shaffer edited this page Dec 23, 2020 · 58 revisions

Table of Contents

General Information
Implementation Notes
Rules Highlights
Designer Game Play Notes
Open Issues

General Information

  • Designed and Implemented by R. Ryan Driskel
  • 3-6 players
  • Location: Colorado, USA
  • Rules
  • BoardGameGeek

Implementation Notes

  • 18CO is in alpha and is available for play.
  • Alpha games can be deleted at any time, so we highly suggest LIVE play only.
  • Do not expect a perfect experience. If you encounter a bug, please report at 18xx.games New Issues
  • The designer (Ryan) watches the #18xxgames channel at https://18xxgames.slack.com/, not the chat box on the 18xx.games home page.
  • Salt Lake City is intentionally slightly adapted compared to the original printed map to allow for a smaller map size. It has a trivial impact on game play.
  • The rules make reference to mine tokens granting a terrain discount. This was removed during playtest. Mines do not grant terrain discounts.

Rules Highlights

  • The company auction continues until all players choose to pass (an "everyone is happy" auction). Companies that are not purchased are placed in the open market and may be purchased as a stock action in future stock rounds.
  • Players may move previously placed bids to another company if they add at least $5 to the amount of the bid (and the new bid must be the highest bid on the selected company).
  • The DSNG president certificate is auctioned with the D&RGRSB company. The DSNG floats with 20% (automatically) and the par value must be set in the green zone at 75. The DSNG begins the game with a permanent 2 train, which in all other respects is a normal 2 train.
  • Corporations started in the green zone at 40, 50, 60, or 75 float with 40% sold. Corporations started in the purple zone at 80, 90, 100, or 110 float with 50% sold. Corporations started in the brown zone at 120, 135, 145, or 160 float with 60% sold.
    Stock market
  • Incremental capitalization. Shares are always bought and sold at current market value. Shares in the treasury pay dividends to the corporation; shares in the market do not pay dividends.
  • Only the president of the owning corporation may buy third-party shares from a corporation. (e.g. if corporation A owns shares of corporation B, only the president of corporation A may buy those shares. Any player or corporation may buy shares of corporation A from corporation A.)
  • At the beginning of its operating turn, a corporation may redeem its own shares from the market, and may buy shares of other corporations from their treasuries or the market.
  • If a corporation becomes president of another corporation (because it has the most shares), a takeover is immediately performed.
  • At the end of its operating turn, a corporation may issue its own shares to the market, and may sell shares of other corporations to the market.
  • Corporations must be able to 'see' existing track on a plain track tile in order to connect to it. This prevents corporations from branching into a line that they cannot currently access. Note that corporations may upgrade a tile to create a "bridge" that does not connect to existing track, and may always upgrade cities, towns, and villages.
  • Green towns (but not villages) may be upgraded to brown cities. Towns are marked with an "upward arrow in a circle" icon.
  • Corporations may lay two yellow tiles OR one yellow tile and one upgrade tile per operation round.
  • Corporations gain mine tokens for laying track in mine hexes. Each mine token pays $10 to the treasury of the owning corporation if the corporation ran a train on a route (whether withheld or paid as dividends).
  • Towns and villages do not count against the length of a route.
  • D trains double the value of the cities they run, but may not score towns or villages.
  • Routes from an Eastern red city to Salt Lake City gain a 100 bonus, added to revenue (to be withheld or paid as dividends).
  • If dividends are paid, move the stock market token right. If dividends paid equal at least double current market value of the corporation, additionally move the stock market token up (vertically, not further right).
  • Corporations in the red zone of the stock market are auctioned for takeover by other corporations.
  • Corporations must own a train at the end of their turn. Emergency money raising is a) corporation issues shares; b) president contributes cash; c) president sells shares. Third party shares may not be sold during emergency money raising. Player bankruptcy does not end the game. Note that a corporation that owns the permanent 2 train may never enter emergency money raising.
  • When a corporation takes over another corporation, the treasury of the acquired corporation is distributed to shareholders, along with the bid, if any. The acquiring corporation may replace two of the acquired corporation's tokens, the rest are removed from the game. The acquiring corporation receives all remaining assets and its train limit is increased by 1. The acquired corporation is removed from the game and may not be restarted.

Designer Game Play Notes

  • There is a lot of cash flowing in this game, unlike 1830-based games.
  • Not all corporations are created equal, intentionally.
  • Corporations owning shares open up a lot of game play possibilities that can be missed if you ignore them.
  • Players often forget the tile lay rule for upgrading plain track tiles from yellow to green/green to brown. It is easy to build a "wall" of track to prevent other corporations from accessing part of the track network.
  • Upgrading towns to cities may or may not be desirable to the corporations running trains on said track.
  • Use the unique track lay rules to keep opponents from using important track, such as a route to Salt Lake City.
  • Be careful on competing for a route you won't be able to access. Consider investing in corporations likely to complete such routes.

Open Issues

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