End of Game Statements
Paul Bolduc: Bad luck early on with the disputes ruined my chances. The snowplows failing on Turn 24 didn't help any -- could've made it to 4th place if both had come through.
Dave Hooton: This was my first time playing the campaign game and my first time with the optional rules.
Early in the game I had to decide between building south to Hillsboro silver, north to South Fork silver, or west Farmington coal. I chose to sell Hillsboro to Bill for a fair price and use the proceeds to finance the build to Farmington and south towards the El Paso market. Hillsboro was good to Bill, lasting the entire game. South Fork turned out to be a disappointment.
I was able to set up a rotation of coal and lumber deliveries to Santa Fe and El Paso, and that was key to my position.
Thanks to all of you for this most interesting game.
Dave Partridge: Congratulations Dave. It's been pretty obvious for a while that he had it wrapped up, I'm impressed with how close Bill got. I'm just happy not to finish last. My whole strategy and position went down the tubes at the beginning when I lost the Canon City - Salida contest and was playing catch up from then on.
Bill Scharf: A very good game. The main stumbling block to avoid is overspending early....that will cripple you. Congrats to Dave Hooton on his win...whew...I can tell you that having a Santa Fe player DRASTICALLY impacted my game...and not for the better.
If you can avoid running out of cash, it becomes a game of balances...you need mines, track that will get you economically to those mines, trains capable of delivering your goods, snowplows that keep critical parts of your track open all year. Add in the varibles of maybe dipping your toes into passenger traffic, and outguessing your opponents as to critical builds and buys and it becomes an interesting game of resource management. Add in the variability and its a vastly different game every time. Each city has its own challenges...I highly recommend it.
Thanks for running it Chris.
Andy Lewis: Congrats to Dave H and thanks to Chris for running this game. I thought I was doing well there for a while. Not having played the games in at least a decade probably had something to do with it. I find it interesting that the players outside the main area finished at the top. That was my thinking from before about the game.