1861: Railways of the Russian Empire & 1867: Railways of Canada

We started the year with little trains and, perhaps unexpectedly, an absolutely friendly atmosphere. From the very first round, the table chose not to exploit a mistake of mine that could have thrown me out of contention — perhaps even out of the game. Later I returned the favour to hida, and we also collectively retconned a move that would have knocked two of the four players out. It is not a bad thing, now and then, not to be 100% Coal Baron; there is such a thing as sporting competition. Lol. Reading this back, I can already feel the three ghosts of Scrooge approaching the table.

In this session, moves carried enough weight that an early mistake could completely change someone’s position in the game. I will not present it as a detailed mechanical breakdown — the evening was more about the company than a strategy manual — but it was clear that decisions do not go unnoticed.

The interaction, meanwhile, came mostly from how the table responds to other players’ moves and mistakes. Here we chose not to twist the knife: they did not exploit my early stumble, I returned the same goodwill, and we all corrected a move with enormous consequences. So, rather than an elimination game, we ended up with a tight race to the finish.

And what a race: it was decided by a 98-dollar difference against the well-known rising coal-squid potato-eater, the coalphisius bottomphinterius, protégé of a well-known player who is going places. Thankfully, The M1ke was there to bring balance to the Force. A very good game, and a very good way to say “choo choo” and head into 2023.