Errata:
Page 5. The following sentence should follow the first paragraph:
If nobody bids on stock that is put up for sale, it is sold to the bank for 1/2 value, rounded down. It is then available for purchase.
Page 6. The Boom Town Bonus is available each time a building is placed, that is there is no limit on how many bonuses per town.
FAQ:
Buildings and Boom Town Bonus
Q. A building is constructed in a town which has two mines within 2 areas from it, one operating and the other not yet. Does the operating mine gets +12 on the income track or only +6 and the other mine at the very first moment that it starts to operate increase +6 its initial value?
A. The operating mine gets 12; the other mine gets nothing. When the other mine becomes operating, it receives no bonus as there is no retroactive adjustment.
Q. Two mines are in the vicinity of a town. One becomes depleted and is closed down at the end of the turn. The other is still operating. A player 'boom-towns' the town on the next turn, by placing a building. Is there one mine in the vicinity or two for the purposes of increasing the only operating mine's stock price, and at what level, 12 or 6?
A. One mine, because there is only one "operating" mine, so it increases 12.
Q. Does each new building built on a town have a boom town effect for R.R. and Mine(s)?
A. Yes, there is an additional Boom Town bonus each time a building is placed.
Q. When a R. R. Co. lays track into a Townsite that already has a Building on it, does the R. R. Co. then gain stock value for the Building (Boom Town bonus) as well as for the Town?
A. No, there are no retroactive Boom Town bonuses for a R.R. Co. that later connects to a town with a building(s) on it.
Q. Can a R.R. Co. issue a bond to buy a building?
A. Yes.
According to the rules, "The payment for a building purchased on a mine can be made from player holdings, the mine holdings, or the holdings of a connected railroad." Thus the following 3 questions arise:
Q. Can I combine funds from two (or three) of these sources to pay for the building? Or does the entire sum have to come from a single source?
A. No, always a single source.
Q. I'm assuming a similar ruling about paying with combined funds would also apply to buildings placed on a town site. Correct?
A. Yes, single source from connected railroad or personal holdings.
Q. How about paying for track? Can I pay for track from multiple sources? How about if I pay for one piece of track from the railroad holdings, and two from personal holdings?
A. No, it must be from a single specified source which is the railroad.
Assume that the railroad is paying for a building on it's start position (e.g. the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad building in Goldfield), but no track is present on that space.
Q. Does the building get the reduced cost $20,000 for being connected to a railroad?
A. No. It is only reduced if there is track present, (it can be track from any railroad).
Q. Does the building give a boom town bonus to the railroad?
A. Yes, since the railroad company must be in operation to be the entity who is making the payment, the railroad (regardless of the presence of track) and any operating mines within two areas also receive a boom town bonus.
Lay Track Action and R. R. stock adjustments
Q. Are R. R. companies not yet connected to a mine allowed to pay dividends?
A. No.
Q. "The first time a company lays track during the game, it places a train (representing the laid track) in its starting area." Does this mean that you can only place one train in the first Lay Track action?
A. Some players are interpreting this rule by placing one train on the start town when they purchase the R.R. Charter; this is not permissible whether it is paid for or not. A Lay Track action is required to place the train. (In real life, if I buy stock in a R. R. company, track does not instantly appear for free.) Others are interpreting it to mean that you can only purchase one train on the first Lay Track action. You may place up to three trains with each and every Lay Track action but the first train must be placed in its starting area.
Q. Do you immediately get the R.R./Town connection bonus when you lay the first track for RR, since it's always on a town space. Do you immediately get the +12 after you finish the Lay Track action? Or, is the first town ignored?
A. You do get the immediate bonus of 12. However, it is possible that another R.R. Co. has laid track there already, in which case you get 6 and the earlier R.R. goes down 6.
Q. Can you build track on the mountain space with the action track?
A. Yes, but I also don't see why you would-- it's surrounded by to the two Death Valley spaces, which are both $30,000 instead of $50,000. Building into that space for $50K and then through one of the Death Valley spaces for $30K = $80K, whereas building through the two Death Valley spaces is $30K + $30K = $60K.
Q. If I take the "Lay Track" action, and I control 2 different railroads, can I place one section of track on one railroad, and two on the other?
A. Yes, even more combinations track may be laid with the Railroad Commissioner (why not since there is no rule against it). Note: this is a fantastic question, as it never came up in a year of playtesting!
Stock, Charters and Dividends
Q. Does the Purchase of the Charter adjust the company value by +5.
A. No.
Q. What happens to the income track for a R.R. company connected to an operating Mine with no cash left to pay dividends (for example after paying the last bond)?
A. Nothing happens, the track is untouched.
Q. If a R.R. company with outstanding bonds passes the 100 mark on the income track but subsequently drops back to 100 or below during the same action round, does this constitute an end game trigger (on the assumption that the loans are fully cleared during the Income phase)?
A. Yes.
Assume someone started a railroad for $10,000; they built track in its starting area, and only its starting area, also for $10,000, leaving it with zero. His third action was to purchase a building with his own cash in the same area, thus increasing the railroad's value by a boom town bonus.
Q. In the income phase, since the railroad was not connected to a mine, it did not get any income. So it still had zero dollars. The charter-holder could not pay out dividends but had no outstanding bonds; does the income track get adjusted?
A. No because there is no money, (even if there is some, but insufficient money to divide for a dividend) there is no penalty.
Q. You receive 1/3 the current income value per share you own. Is this true even if only two of a company's stocks are in play? Does each player receive 1/2 the income or just each 1/3 the income when two players each have a share/charter? If a single player has two stocks and the third is out of play, then that player would only receive 1/3 x 2 of the income value or would they actually receive 100% of the income value?
A. 1/3 no matter how you slice it.
Q. "A dividend payment is a disbursement of cash from the Company Charter". I take this to mean that you're not being paid 1/3 of the company's income value, but 1/3 of the cash on the Charter! Granted, the company is going to earn their Income Value before Dividends are paid, but if you pay off bonds in the same Income Phase, are you going to earn 1/3 of the stated Income Value, or 1/3 of the money left on the charter?
A. 1/3 the money left on the charter.
Q. Interest. If you need to pay interest but cannot, you must take a bond to cover what you cannot pay. The rules state you must immediately pay 10% interest... on the new bond? So effectively, you would take a bond and then pay 10% on the initial bond + 10% interest on the new bond?
A. Yes you pay the 10% on both the old and the new bonds now.
Q. What happens if you try to sell stock and nobody bids on it?
A. The bank buys it for 1/2 value and It then becomes available for purchase again.
Mines
Q. When a mine becomes active by within two areas of a townsite that already has a Building on it, does the mine then gain stock value for the Building (Boom Town bonus)?
A. No, there are no retroactive Boom Town bonuses.
Q. If, for example, only six mines were started, and five become exhausted, would it trigger endgame?
A. No, this endgame trigger is only really functional assuming that all mines have been activated. These are gold mines and as such are ripe for making money - therefor they usually will be activated. But since they do not have to be activated, that is why there are two endgame triggers, so if all the mines are not activated, the game will still end in a reasonable amount of time by means of the stock value endgame trigger.
Cards
Q. The Assayer gives the holder an extra action, but we were unsure whether this was meant to mean immediately after the action round or at end of the cycle following the remove exhaust mines phase, which is it?
A. At the end of the Action Round.
