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America is opening the Great Plains and America’s railroads are forging ahead, across the Mississippi and going West as fast as they can. Hardy pioneers are building towns & cities as they raise cattle and grow wheat & other crops. The railroads are needed to carry this bounty to the hungry East. Six major railroads are funded by aggressive investors looking to get rich in this venture. The railroads vie for dominance in this expanding market, driving west.
Players are investors and railroad Presidents in this struggle to capitalize this explosive market to the greatest extent possible. Balancing time vs money is critical in this game. The ability to react to organically growing markets increasing constantly adds a level of decision making where recognizing savvy opportunities
is a key to success.
Prairie Railroads - Learn While Playing
- Investment in railroad companies and building networks to increase income and dividends.
- Railroad expansion across the American Midwest from the eastern coast to the Great Plains.
- Rule-focused tutorial narration
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Auction / Bidding — Players bid to buy one stock in each of six railroads.
- construct track — Pay money to place cubes on the map to increase a railroad's income; growth of cities via dice (discover growth) influences income.
- discover growth — Roll a D6 twice to determine a city to develop; development increases income for connected cities.
- dividends — At dividends, income is paid to stockholders for each stock owned, based on company income; then money is added to bank for each share.
- End Game Bonuses — Game ends after eight dividend cards have been played or when a player starts a turn with no cards and the draw deck is empty; then endgame dividends are paid.
- endgame dividends and end conditions — Game ends after eight dividend cards have been played or when a player starts a turn with no cards and the draw deck is empty; then endgame dividends are paid.
- initial auction of stock — Players bid to buy one stock in each of six railroads.
- offer stock (auction from market) — Active player starts an auction for any unsold stock; minimum bid equals a function of stock value; others bid in turn until all but one pass.
- Time Track — Pay money to place cubes on the map to increase a railroad's income; growth of cities via dice (discover growth) influences income.
- turn actions (play or draw) — On a turn, a player may play a card from hand to construct track, offer stock, pay dividends, or draw the top card from the deck.
- west build — Certain tracks can be built West with a special West action; first West build costs $15, subsequent West builds cost more.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- each player is an investor buying stocks in various railroads that are building from America's eastern coast out west because the Great Plains are where cattle wheat and other crops are being grown in abundance and there is a lot of money to be made transporting those goods back to the east
- the game ends at the end of any player's turn if all eight of the pay dividends have been played