Post originally by Chris Farrell at 2004-03-31 09:55:40
Converted from Phorums BB System


Just a couple additional comments:

When building the deck of stock cards at the beginning of the game, there is an optional deck-contruction procedure at the end of the rules. It's somewhat convoluted and involves stacking the deck to separte the scoring cards, but is absolutely recommended. The game becomes a bit of a crap shoot when the scoring cards are randomly distributed.

Secondly:

> As noted above, I suggest two variants: don't allow Union Pacific shares to be selected, only exchanged for...

I think this variant is unnecessary, and in fact is undesireable. Allowing the UP to both be drafted and swapped for gives the players more choices and generally makes the game more interesting. While the UP will tend to seem really important the first time or two you play, it's actually not the game-winner it might first appear. I've played a lot both ways, and definitely find the draft & swap way superior.

Chris
http://homepage.mac.com/c_farrell/iblog