1830 Rules Clarifications from the Avalon Hill General, Vol. 23, no. 6
(1987), page
46:
4.0 May a player
buy and
sell the same share, or different shares of the same railroad, during a
single player turn of a Stock Round?
A. Yes.
10.0 If a railroad stock
is valued in the Brown Zone and has shares for sale in both the Bank
Pool and Initial Offering, can all of the shares in both places be
bought simultaneously?
A. No. Stock may be purchased from
the Bank Pool or Initial Offering, but not from both in the same player
turn of a Stock Round. The special buying rules for stock in the
Brown Zone only apply to those shares available in the Bank Pool, not
those remaining in the Initial Offering. Those shares may still
only be bought one at a time.
10.0 If two different
corporations have stock available for sale in the Bank Pool and both
are valued in the Brown Zone, can one player buy up all the available
stock for both?
A. No, you may buy stock in only one
corporation per player turn.
19.0 Does the first
sentence of the second paragraph mean that each railroad begins its
first turn of operations by immediately playing a token on its base
hex, thereby establishing a railroad and allowing track construction
that turn?
A. Yes, precisely.
19.0 Does the token
placed as a special feature of the D&H Private Company count as a
corporation's one token placement that turn?
A. Yes, but remember that a railroad can
still place a token on its base hexagon for free in its first turn of
operation.
20.2 If all the Diesels
have been purchased and no 5 or 6 trains are
available from the Bank, should the bank be assumed to have an
unlimited number of Diesels?
A. No. In this unlikely event, a
corporation without a train
cannot buy one from the Bank, so it will just not make any more money
and its stock will continue to fall in value unless it can buy a train
from another corporation.
20.2 If a railroad has no
trains and no trains remain for sale in the
Bank (all "5", "6" and Diesel trains are already owned), is the
railroad really doomed to fall in value because it may not pay
dividends?
A. Yes.
21.0
If a railroad has no trains but has the cash to buy one from the
bank, may it instead purchase a train from another corporation (and
perhaps even pay more than the bank's train would cost)?
A. Yes (yes).
21.0 May the president of
a corporation sell a train to another corporation he is also president
of, and then have the second railroad operate the train during the
current Operating Round?
A. No. Trains are not sold, they are
bought. There is a distinction.
Any transfer of trains takes place during the purchaser's turn.
The purchase of trains occurs in Step 5 of the operating sequence,
after Step 3 when a railroad runs its trains. Therefore trains
cannot be operated during the same Round they are acquired. If
that were not so, all eight railroads could operate using the same
single train.
23.1 Does the sale of a
private company between two players count as a transaction for the
purpose of placing the Priority Deal Card?
A. No. The Priority Deal Card
pertains only to transactions passing through the Bank, not the
transfers of private companies between players. Note however that
all sales and purchases of stock take place between a player and the
Bank.
24.0 When selling stock
to assist a corporation in purchasing a train,
must the shares be sold as a block or can they be sold one at a time,
receiving the next lower share value each time?
A. Either way is proper, but the second
procedure seems reasonable if
you are trying to go Bankrupt.
24.0 When a railroad has no
trains but does have the cash to buy one
from the bank, may the president add some of his personal funds to buy
a train instead from another corporation?
A. No. The President's cash may
only be used to raise necessary funds
when buying a train from the bank.
Table 1 When exercising
the D&H's special feature on behalf of either the NYC or the Erie
(both of which must lay a tile on their base hexagon to establish their
base station), may the player lay a city tile and a station using the
D&H special feature as their first tile placement? If so,
does the station established in the D&H hexagon count as the first
free token which the railroad would normally have laid on its base
station?
A. Yes. No the token placed on the
D&H is free, but another token must also be placed (free) on the
NYC or Erie base hex, even if no tile is there. The first player
to thereafter lay a tile on these base hexagons can orient the tile and
token as they wish, since the NYC or Erie owner has passed the
opportunity.
An opinon
on how to understand the clarifications regarding train purchases
It is important to note that the second question above pertaining to
rule 24.0 does not truly contradict point #2 under rule 24.0 in the
rule book. In Rule 24.0 is the
sentence: "However, when adding in his own cash the president may not
pay more than face value if buying a train from another
Corporation." AH's answer to the second rule 24.0 question is
clearly in regard to a
situation in which the company has enough cash to buy a train from the
Bank. No, the president cannot use his cash in that case.
Unfortunately, the explanation that follows the word "No" is not well
worded and should have been left off. But I believe the intent
was to say
that "When buying a train from the bank, the President's cash may only
be used to raise necessary funds [because the corporation doesn't have
enough.]" Note that I have taken the last phrase of the answer
and placed
it first. The bracketed section is my own added
explanation.
Now suppose that the corporation does not have enough of its own money
to buy
the cheapest train from the bank, or perhaps the bank may not even have
any trains left. In either case, the only option for the
President to acquire a train will be to raise sufficient cash to buy
one from the bank or from another corporation, which is indeed allowed
by the rules. However, if the seller from another corporation
wants more than the face value of the train,
the President's cash cannot be used in such a transaction, although the
Corporation's own cash could be used, if sufficient. So it is
possible that a President could have sufficient personal cash (or
sellable shares to attain sufficient cash) to buy a train offered for
sale by the President of another corporation, but cannot buy that train
because it's purchase price is greater than face value, negating the
President's ability to use his own cash. If the bank had no
trains, and the only potential seller's price was too high for the
President to be permitted to make a train purchase, we could see a
player unable to buy a train but not yet personally bankrupt (because
he in fact still has assets other than shares he cannot sell).
This
would leave that President operating a corporation without a train, per
the answers to questions regarding rule 20.2 above. In fact, it
appears that the President would not
even have had to sell off any of his shares if there is no available
train to legally purchase.
Interesting....
--Lou Jerkich
Return
to Lou's Game Corner: Railroad Game Links Return
to Lou's Game Corner
Return
to Lou's 1830 game page
This page first posted on 6 December 2008.
If you have a
game interest or question, you can leave a message by writing to
"gamecorner".
I use earthlink.net.