Empire Builder Ever wonder what it would be like to be a Rockefeller or a Carnegie, the good old fashioned industrialists who made their fortunes and changed economics forever? Have you wondered how a swine gets out of Saskatchuwan so it can be bacon in Baltimore? You will find out when you play Empire Builder. In Empire Builder, you are the train tycoon. You wear the top hat and gold pocketwatch, and you decide where to build track and what to transport on it. As a train tycoon, your skill involves shipping as much goods as possible at the least cost to you, as well as connecting the cities where the most action is. Your goal is earning big bucks. With big bucks, you can improve on your railroad cars (as well as purchase your second home, and take a fancy vacation, but this you do on your own time) and eventually amass enough profit and connect enough cities to win the game and squash your lowly competitors. So think profit and think economics, take on a mean edge, call on the spirits of capitalism, and last of all, read the instructions. *Top hat and watch not included. Creating a game: To play Empire Builder with more than one player, one player initiates the game and then "invites" other players. This person has the advantage of being that game's creator, which means they get to decide who can play and who can't, and set the winning conditions. Meaning, they start out as boss. Try to be the creator, because it shows you mean business. You can create a game in the bar, where all future train tycoons come to hang out and drink whiskey, or at the table. In either place, you will see the following options To create game: When you click the "create game" option, you will see the terms you can influence, including: whether borrowing will be allowed, how much money is needed to win, how many major cities must be connected to win, and who is invited. When you are finished choosing the terms, or you accept the standard one ($250 to win, connecting 5 major cities) click on OK. You may now invite players. Entering the Game: On your screen will be four items: A map, a player card, three demand cards, and a control menu. You will also see a menu bar across the top of the screen. All four items may be arranged on the screen in whatever order you wish, so feel free to re-decorate. To move an item, click on its frame and drag it over to where you want it. The menu bar stays where it is. The map shows the turf for your railroad enterprise, which is the Continental United States and the south of Canada. On the map you will see the following symbols: (orange hexagon) which represent major cities (orange circle) which represent mid-size cities (yellow circle) which represent small cities (black triangle) which represent mountains (black dot) which represent the mileposts the trains may connect The map comes in two sizes: one global, one regional. To focus in on an area within the global map, click the word "regional" up on your menu bar and then click a city in the area you wish to magnify. A regional map will appear. The player card shows who you are in the game. There is a picture of both you, train tycoon, and the train which will be the vehicle of your success. If you don't like the face of your character, or it is not the face of a train tycoon as you imagine it, you can click on the face and choose from the photo album (which appears when you do this) by clicking a face you like better. If you don't like the color or name of your train, then tough luck. Beneath the face and the train are your load windows. As you pick up and unload throughout the course of the game, the symbols for the various loads will appear and vanish accordingly. The demand cards are unique for each player. Each player always has three cards, each with three loads. For each load, you will see the price of delivery, and the city demanding it. If you click on a load you will see on your map a display of where the load and the city that will pay for it (represented by a dollar sign, naturally) are on the map. A few things you need to know about demand cards are: ---You may trade in your demand cards by clicking the "trade in cards" option on the control menu. This trades in all of the demand cards, and forfeits a turn. Also, the new cards will be drawn from a pile that also has disaster cards in it. Read about disaster cards to see why this is risky. Still, if your demand cards are a bad bunch, trade them in: be a risk-taker. ---You may only deliver one load from each card, and when you deliver it, the card is replaced with another one. In some cases, two different demand cards may have the same item (pigs, for example) which will have the same pick-up cities but be in demand in two different cities. In this case, it is possible to pick-up two of the same load at one city. Other reasons for picking up two loads, either of same load or of two different loads, are that 1) one of the disaster cards requires that you dump one of your loads, so it may be safe to keep a spare load if you have the space and 2) when you unload, you will get a new demand card which may have the load you are already transporting on it, and that will save you a pick-up trip! ---You can take a peek at your opponents demand cards by clicking the face of that player and holding the clicker there. The player's demand cards will appear in your demand card box. Unfortunately, everyone can peek at your cards as well. The control menu is a graphic listing of your playing options. They are all listed in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Also listed in the menu bar, but not on the control menu, is the borrowing option. Playing the Game You should first make sure it's your turn. To check, look on your player card. Is there a raised signal beneath your mean, scowling face? If yes, it's your turn. If no, take it easy. No fair playing out of turn. (And anyway, it's impossible.) Building If it is your turn you will tap into your 60 million dollar start-up fund and start building railroad tracks. Don't do this haphazardly, check your demand cards first. If you have demands in Winnipeg and Los Angeles, don't start your tracks in Atlanta. Choose a major city which will connect a supply station with a demand station, and preferably move the expensive loads. Remember, only one load may be delivered per card! Once you have chosen a city, click the "build track" option on your Control Menu, then click to a milepost at the city's perimeter and drag the arrow from that to the next milepost. A colored line will trail you. Keep building (heading towards a supply city, hopefully) until you run out of money. The costs are as follows: (milepost dot) one million (mountain triangle) two million (yellow circle) three million (orange square) three million (major city hexagon) five million Additional costs include: A river crossing: two million Crossing an ocean inlet: three million Restrictions on Building: ---You may only spend 20 million dollars per turn, although you need not spend that amount. ---New track can only be built onto old track, or out of a major city milepost. ---You may build twice from a major city milepost in the same turn. ---The area inside of a major city is a free zone and cannot be built upon, but any train is allowed to cross it and to resume building from a milepost across the city. ---Any number of players may build into a major city, but only three players may build into a mid-size city, and only two into a small-sized city. ---No one player may build more than three track sections into either a mid- or a small-sized city. ---Only one track may connect any two mileposts, but different tracks may intersect on a milepost. ---When you are finished building, click "END TURN" on the control menu. Otherwise your opponent(s) will be hanging around wondering what's up with you, and the game won't go anywhere. Surveying: In some areas of the map, particularly the mountainous ones, or through mileposts involving a water crossing, or if you want to know how much a stretch of track would cost to build compared to another stretch, or if the dots and triangles blind and confuse you, you may want to "survey" before you build. To do this, click the "survey" option on your control menu. A black, rather than colored, line will trail your arrow. This track is retractable, so you can experiment. The amount that the track will cost to build appears as you survey. If you decide to build the track, click the "build track" option. A colored line should appear now. This track is not retractable. It is paid for, so make the most of it. Moving Once you have completed three, full turns of building, whether you have or have not spent your entire start-up fund, you will be given your train. A command will ask you to choose the city your train will begin from. Click on this city. Your little train should appear and be ready to work. If you wish to move this train to head towards a pickup, click the "move train" option on your control menu. Then click on the next dot outside the city where you would like your choo-choo to be. It should move. If it doesn't, click the "move train" option again, with a bit more authority. Your train will budge to the next milepost dot. Keep clicking on dot after dot to make the train travel. If you get impatient, try the "auto move" option on your control menu. This will move the train all the way to the next city or railway junction, which is a little bit speedier. ---Your train can move a total of nine mileposts per turn, unless you upgrade it. ---If at any time you run your train on an opponent's track, you pay $4 million. ---Any number of trains may rest on a particular milepost at once (which can occur if tracks intersect at that milepost.) Building after a move: When you have moved as far as you can in a turn, you can still build in that turn. Click the "build track" option on your control menu and the amount of $20 million will appear on the control menu. As you build, this amount will decrease so you can keep track of your spending. You may stop building at any time before the $20 million is spent by clicking "END TURN." ---If you decide to build before your moves are completed, you lose the remaining moves. ---You cannot move after building. Loading: Once you have a train line between a supply and a demand station, and you have patiently moved your train to the pick- up station, you are ready to load. To load, click the "take on load" option on your control menu. A display of that city's loads will appear. Choose the load you came for by clicking it, then click OK. The load should appear on your player card. If you want to pick up two of the same load, you must do this twice, and two loads must appear on your player card. If you have any moves left, you can start to move towards your unload city. Unloading: To unload, click the "unload" option on your control menu, and watch the load disappear and watch your money add up. This is called profit. You may find yourself smiling. This is called greed. You are becoming a true train tycoon. ---You may load and unload as many times as your nine moves allow. ---Loading and unloading do not forfeit movements. Dumping: If you are carrying two loads from the same demand card, or you wish to replace one load with another, or you need to make room for another (perhaps more expensive) load, use the "dump" option on your control menu. It does not forfeit a movement, it does not cost, and you can go back and load that item in the original loading city again if you decide that you need the load after all (due to a bit of bad planning.) Unfortunately, once dumped, the load becomes property of the city and you can't have it back from that city. Consider it a donation to the municipal. Details, details: Event cards: These are the disasters, social or natural, which rudely disrupt your hard work and put dents in your profit. They come in the form of floods, derailments, lost loads, strikes, and taxes, and are, like all of these things, unpredictable. They simply happen at your inconvenience. Floods erase tracks which cross the river in question. These must be rebuilt when the flood is over, at the end of the drawing player's next turn. Be sure to thank the player who drew this by sending a nasty telegraph. Derailments effect the trains in the area at the time that the card is drawn. Trains entering the area afterwards will not be penalized. If you pass a derailed train, be sure to wave. Lost loads give you the option of choosing which load to lose. This way you can let go of the $4 million load instead of the $30 million load (unless, of course, both your loads were worth $30 million, in which case you scream and pull out your hair.) Borrowing---should be done within reason. Game or no game, you will be charged interest---one hundred percent of it, to be exact. The greed of train entrepreneurs is rivaled only by that of loan bankers, so beware! The amount you borrow will be subtracted the next time you unload. If you don't have the funds (uh-oh) you will be charged anyway and you will have negative wealth, which can be worse than no wealth. So don't borrow to build unless you stand to make enough profit to cover your borrowing. Don't rely on the bank! Keep enough money in your account to cover a flood, lest it happen, and to connect small cities to your trainline if they appear in your demand cards and you can make money there. Borrowing appears on your menu bar. An announcement will appear on every player's screen to inform them that you have borrowed. Too many announcements can get a little embarrassing. Upgrading your train can be a good idea, but it costs. If you decide to upgrade your train, click the "build new train" option on your control menu at the beginning of a turn. Hardworking builders will get busy soldering, and charge you the low rate of just $20 million---per upgrade, that is. One upgrade allows you to move 12 mileposts instead of 9 mileposts per turn; the other allows you to carry three loads instead of two loads. You can do either or both. Is it worth it? Hey, you're on your own. You're the railroad tycoon. Sending a telegraph: If you want to be more than just a pretty face on the screen of your rivals, send them a telegraph. Intimidate them. Cajole them. Threaten them. Just say Hi! Be a pest. Distract them midway through an important loading. Congratulate them on surviving a particularly devastating derailment that did not affect you. Send them advice they don't want. Give inspirational tips that don't make any sense. Ask how the weather is where they are. Comment on their hairdo. Ask how the kids are. All of these possibilities are yours with a telegraph. Simply click the "telegraph" option on your control menu, decide who to send to---by selecting "all," or by clicking the box of the specific player you wish to communicate to, typing your missive, and then clicking Enter. If someone sends you a message you don't like, ignore it and get to a major city or load before they do. Strategy Tips from the Pros. Carnegie: "My advice to those playing Empire Builders is to work with the cards you have. Check your demands and build a network that will connect your major business centers with the least track. Check your high-paying loads first and try to imagine a system that will touch the demand cities close to each other, with access to mid- and small-size cities along that track. And always eat a good breakfast." Rockefeller: "Well, depending on your demand cards, it may be a good idea to build a very small, very economic network that may not deliver the most expensive loads, but can deliver a lot of small loads, quickly and frequently. Keep turning over those demand cards, that's what I say. Give to the Arts if you have a spare million." Bob: (bartender who knew a lot of train tycoons on a first name basis) "If you're in a city and there's a totally excellent load there that pays a big chunk of dough, pick it up, man! Save it, who knows, you can deliver it next time on another card or something. The really hot stuff only appears on a few cards, so snatch it up when you can before those sleazy scumballs trying to wring your neck do. Besides, it's good for your image to be equipped with the right load when you draw a demand card for a city you are currently residing in!" Tzorita: (Who has been on many a railroad, although the railroad owners didn't know it at the time) "They say, 'he who has the most tracks ... is the looser.' Tracks cost money, so think twice before putting down a set of tracks. Think 'Is the load I am going to get worth the cost of this track I am laying? Am I going to use the track multiple times? Is it designed for the short term or the long term of the game?' Sometimes you might want to consider putting in short cuts to reduce the distance between two points you already have connected. Ask yourself the same questions. And don't hesitate to pay someone four million to use their tracks for a one time drop off when it might have cost you six or seven million dollars to build track there in the first place, assuming that you can build track there in the first place!"