Alan Moon's "re-think" of his classic Airlines...

better bits, better theme, better game!

last update: November 20, 2004

2nd Edition Rules

I know you're thinking... what's with this 2nd edition rules thing? Well, Alan likes to tweak his games... even after they're finished. (Witness the epic discussion about how to obtain cards in Elfenland... yipes!) As well, one rule was left out of the1st edition rulebook (the one having to do with track cards). So, without further ado, here are the changes.

Variant Rule

"Players may not draw a UP Stock Card. They must always draw one of the four face up Stock Cards or the top card from the deck. The only way to acquire a UP Stock Card is to trade one Stock Card in your hand for one UP Stock Card."

Additional Rule

If all train spaces of a track type are full, the Track Cards of this track type are unplayable. A player may discard an unplayable Track Card at the start of his turn and draw a replacement (the unplayable card should be removed from the game).

Rule Changes

1. At the start of the game put 6 Stock Cards on the bottom of the deck. This means that the last Score Card cannot be one of the last six cards in the deck.

2. Deal 5 Stock Cards to each player at the start of the game instead of 4.

It's my opinion that the variant rule and the two rule changes lead to a tighter, cleaner game. For example, in a 6 player game, there are potentially 18 less stock cards able to be played to the table than in the 1st edition game. (6 at the bottom + 14 that were traded for UP stock.) It's also MUCH easier to explain how to get UP stock when the only option is to trade for it.

What's Public? What's Private?

The long-running argument from UP's great-grandaddy, Acquire, continues on...

Money

While Jay Tummelson, the head of Rio Grande Games, plays Union Pacific with open money, we here at Game Central Station play with the old "pile" rule.... you don't have to show us how much you have, but you do have to keep it all on the table. In fact, we play most "economic" games this way - giving players a guess at what you've got while avoiding the "I put the play money in my pocket & forgot about it" problem.

Union Pacific Shares

The artwork should be dead giveaway on this one... but just in case, Jay clarified that it is legal to ask a player how many shares of UP they are currently holding.

Stock Cards in the Draw Pile

Alan Moon (the designer) has always played that it was permissible to count the remaining cards to make 'informed' decisions about investing or building. Around here, we don't allow that at all.

One interesting variant from "Steve" (can't find more information about his real name in my notes) caught Alan's eye (and mine!). Discards are placed on the BOTTOM of the deck, which prevents people from counting in a very interesting way!

Is U.P. Stock Too Darn Valuable (or not)?

Hey, I'm in the "not" category - I think it works just fine - but there are a ton of would-be rail barons out there who disagree. What follows is a pair of the most convincing arguments in favor of the game "as is" (2nd edition rules)... then a couple of interesting ideas for dealing with the perceived problem.

wisdom from Greg Aleknevicus, editor of The Games Journal and creator of Wooden Cubes & Cardboard.

I think people get fooled by the high values for UP stock when they should really be looking at the payout DIFFERENCES. In a 3 player game the most that anyone will gain in UP is $18. (Assuming everyone played at least 1 piece of UP stock.) While $18 is a decent amount of money almost every other company will pay out more than this over the course of the game.

In fact, I think UP might be a LOSING company because of this. Its big advantage is that you can always choose to contest its ownership whereas with other companies you're somewhat at the luck of the draw. I'll happily give up first or second in UP if it means that I can take over another company. Taking second place in a company that's only worth 6 points pays off $12 over the course of the game. (Simplistically speaking.) A bigger payoff than swapping a level in UP. ($9 per level for all 4 scoring rounds.)

I suspect that the "problem" your group has is that everyone thinks UP is valuable. Therefore everyone always fight for it and the winner ends up winning the game. What "should" happen is that one (or more) players ignore UP (with the exception of his/her single stock declaration) and takes control of one or more other railroads while you're fighting. He/she then goes on to win the game. A lot of games suffer from this so-called "group-think" syndrome. There are a couple of games that my group just doesn't play "right". Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix is one of them. We always bid far too little for the cars and I'm sure that a good player would probably clean the floor with us.

from the brilliant mind of Steve J. Chapin

I know the all-out-to-collect-UP-stock approach would fail in our games, and I still strongly suspect that it will not succeed forever in yours.

This is what I was suggesting is a result of group think. In early play (as a group), the UP seems to be extremely valuable, and so everyone goes for it.

Then the next phase will be at the other extreme, when some players decide early on to only have one or a few shares of the UP (turning in "dead" shares, where one has little or no hope of even a 2nd place in a rail), but gaining holdings in many other rails (thereby simultaneously adding to their earnings and diluting their opponents', as almost no one else should have exclusive ownership of a rail).

The third phase will be a between the two, where players balance interest in the UP with development of minor rails.

Help move your group along; play the next couple of games at the opposite extreme (buy no extra UP). See how well you do. I know that in games where I've sacrificed "dead" shares for what turned out to be meaningless UP shares, I've regretted it later, because I could've been in a position to take over first or second place in a rail.

It's rather like the joke about the guy coming in last in a race in the Olympics: "You mean I trained four years for this? I could've sat on my couch and still come in last." You can lock up a last-place share in the UP without ever trading in other stock to draw another UP share beyond your starting position. Try it and see...

and speaking for the Loyal Opposition, "docterw", with the Ventura Variant

After playing a track card and placing a train, the player chooses a share card and places it in his hand. He may chose from the four face up cards, or the topmost card in the draw pile or a UP share stack. This ends his turn.

In essence, this variation is just to limit options for drawing a share card to the three listed on page 8 of the rules. The option to collect a share of UP by discarding as listed in the "note" under "The Union Pacific railway company" on page 9 is _not_ allowed.

Under this variant, a player will add one share card to his hand, select only one share in the turn, and pay a slightly higher cost for his UP share in that the only way to collect one is by foregoing the adding or selecting of another share card in the turn.

<B>the down-under-wonder himself, Pat Brennan, pipes up with the variant they like the best (note: Pat's not the only guy to mention this one - Mark Guttag & Jonathan Degann did as well...)

If I'm playing with UP pro's, we usually play a variant where you're not allowed to trade for a UP stock in the same turn that you build / pick up a stock card. Switching a stock card in the hand for a UP card instead takes their whole turn.

It makes UP stock very expensive, and usually means there are UP cards left over at the end of the game. How much it gets picked up depends on the number of players. With 3, the end difference between first and third is only $8m so it doesn't get picked much. With more players it gets more attractive as the difference between first and last is more pronounced.

The variant does provide a better solution for getting rid of 'useless' cards in the hand towards the end of the game, whereas in the 2nd edition rules, UP is usually gone by the time the second dividend card comes out, and definitely by the third dividend card.

Dave Blizzard suggested using this same variant, but allowing players trading for UP to still build track while NOT receiving a new stock card. I think I'd prefer that way, if I ever chose to play with this kind of variant.

and once again, Greg "I've Got An Idea" Aleknevicus with a final U.P. variant, proving once again he's one of the brighter bulbs in the building

You cannot select or trade for a share of UP until after the first scoring round

This MAY work better than it sounds for the following reason: By the time of the first scoring round rivalry's should have started amongst the other companies. This makes the opportunity cost of selecting UP that much greater. In the few games I've played UP gets grabbed right away because everyone knows its going to be fairly valuable and they're unsure about their other holdings (relative to the other players anyway). A couple of "regular" rounds and players might realize where they are strong and have more reason to defend and control the other companies (which I feel contribute more to victory than the UP). Grabbing UP would then be relegated to what I believe its original intent was: A way of converting usless stock.

We haven't tried this last variant here at Game Central Station, but for my money, it's the one with the most merit.

Too Much Time on Their Hands

I'm devoting the middle of this overly-long page to stuff that's anything but "middle of the road". Folks, you're gonna love this stuff or hate it (honestly, I'm not a big fan of most of it), but it's educational to see just what an intriguing game design can do to the minds of a group of people with too much time on their hands... so, without further ado (whatever "ado" is), here's a smattering of very odd variants.

<B>U.P. Stock as a One-Time Dividend</B> Jim Pulles<BR>

In one game, we went a little overboard and played that UP shares were much like a one time dividend and that ALL UP shares went back into the common pool after each scoring round! This made competition in UP a little too erratic... but it was exciting after the 3rd score card came up!<P>

<B>Re-Doing the Payouts for U.P. Stock</B> Dave Arnott<BR>

For scoring rounds 2 and 3, simply give each player $1 for each share of UP they have on the table, and for the final scoring round give players $2 for each tabled share. You could try doing $1, $2, then $3... but that might be too powerful. Or maybe not. This reduces the "power" of the UP shares, but also

restores a bit of the "power" by not penalizing people who are tied, shares-wise. Not so much of an arms race as it is a bonus. <P>

<B>One Safe Round</B> Dave Arnott<BR>

At the beginning of the game put N*3 stock cards off to the side (where N = number of players). Set the game up as usual now, not using these cards. After

each scoring round, place N cards on top of the stock deck. This guarantees that after each scoring card, all players will get at least one turn before the next scoring card comes up. Actually, we mostly use this in five and six player games, as that's when you can get burned the most, but it works great in four-player games as well.<BR>

<I>Note: this one actually looks like it would work...</I><P>

<B>One At A Time</B> Peter Evett<BR>

Place initial stock cards face-up in turn order rather than simultaneously -- thus players are not stung by splitting initial stock ownership unless by choice. (Split ownership can be devastating when a quick 1st score comes up and all other players are scoring 1st & 2nd place in their company)<P>

<B>Three of a Kind</B> Dave Arnott<BR>

If you start your turn with three of the same type of track, you MAY (but are not required to) declare "three the same," show your track cards to the other players, discard one... and then draw TWO to begin your turn. Of course, about half the time you're going to draw two more clear tracks anyway.<P>

<B>Dividing Equally</B> Rich Shipley<BR>

With 4 and 5 (and 2) players, all players can get the same amount of UP

stock. With 3 and 6 players, you could take out 2 UP shares to have be true

in those games also. UP stock is not the only way to win, but this may make

it seem more fair to the players.<P>

<B>Unlimited U.P. Stock</B> mentioned by a number of folks<BR>

There is no limit on U.P. stock - make up new stock for the game and allow players to acquire as much as they like.<P>

<B>I Don't Feel the Love</B> Five different gamers take on the "problem" of unloved stock cards<BR>

WARD BATTY: About the unloved cards syndrome in UP, maybe a fix would be when you draw a down card off the top of the deck, you turn up the next card so there are 5 up (or 6, etc.). When players draw an up card, don't replace them with another from the deck it if there are still 4 or more exposed cards.<BR>

JONATHAN DEGANN: My fellow Left Coasters Dave Arnott and Winton Lemoine

have developed (and developed!) an elaborate two player UP. <I>[Conductor's Note: the 'finished' version is at the end of this page.]</I> Their card drafting rule requires you to put a token on the left most card when you draw from the closed pile. Next time, put a token on the next card. If you draw a card with a token, take the token off. If all three cards have tokens, then the next time you draw from the closed pile, you discard the left most card and the token.<BR>

"XOSSFS": During phase one play as normal. In each subsequent phase pay $1000 per phase to pass over the face-up cards and draw from the face-down pack. With each phase the price is getting more expensive. I have yet to play this way but I have watched games played this way and the "lesser" railroads get played in a lot earlier and the stock spreads are much tighter so many people have a chance in a road instead of getting as many runaway owners with no chance of anyone else getting into the railroad.<BR>

MARK BIGGAR: One possibility would be to retire the four up cards and replace them when ever a payout card is drawn.<BR>

MARK EDWARDS: How about this one, borrowed from Vinci. Whenever you take a random card from the draw deck you must place a token on one of the face up cards. You must place them evenly (like building houses in Monopoly). When a player picks one of the face up cards with tokens on it he gets paid a bonus of $2 per token.<BR>

<I>Or how about leaving it like it is? He he he. Anyway, Stven Carlberg does a fine job of answering the question of the "unloved cards" in the section below.</I><P>

<IMG SRC="unionpa2.jpg" WIDTH="250" HEIGHT="140" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="2" ALIGN="right">

<A NAME="defense"></A>

<H3>In Defense of of the Game</H3>

<I>Muscian, poet, scholar, & friend, Stven Carlberg (he of the Missing "E") has written a number of eloquent & well-thought-out posts to r.g.b. and other online gaming communities that do a bang-up job of defending UP pretty much 'as is'. If you're one of those folks tempted to throw EVERY variant I list on this page into the mix, read this first... it's a 'greatest hits' collection of Stven's thoughts on U.P.</I><P>

I'm finding it amusing that certain people are complaining that the four

cards face up to draw from are a problem (let's avoid that "broken" word --

I agree it should be saved for games that truly don't make sense) because

the situation can arise where people's choices are so limited that nobody

wants any of the cards showing....<P>

And at the same time, certain people are complaining that the track cards

should be dispensed with because they're NOT limiting people's choices

enough and are therefore a waste of time.<P>

My group has played Union Pacific at least a hundred times -- obviously we

like the game quite a bit! -- and we like both of these mechanisms just the

way they are.<P>

First, the four face-up cards: Yes, the situation can arise where nobody

particularly wants any of the four cards showing. In our experience, it's a

rare game where this situation does NOT arise. It can occur even early in

the game, but it's a standard feature of the late middle game, where you're

around half to two-thirds of the way through the deck and the last Union

Pacific stock gets traded for. At this point, a useless stock in your hand

is going to be a useless stock in your hand for the rest of the game --

there's nothing left to trade for. So the wisdom of taking a face-up stock

that only MIGHT be useful to you goes way down. And as always, you run the

risk of turning up a really GOOD face-up card for somebody else, one that

you could have drawn yourself as a secret. Yet the possibility of drawing a

secret which is completely worthless to you also exists, compared to drawing

a card from the face-up display which has at least some small but known

worth. THIS IS ONE OF THE GAME'S TOUGH DECISIONS. This is what makes you

have to think. This is what makes the game interesting, and not just a

matter of knowing you're routinely going to be handed a good card every

turn. Those four cards are SUPPOSED to sit there while the turn passes

around the table three or four times, with people drawing secrets or taking

the opportunity to meld. This situation FORCES THE ACTION. This is a GOOD

thing.<P>

Now, as for the track cards. If you have never been in a situation where

you wanted to build a train for a particular railroad but none of the cards

in your hand would let you do it, then you just haven't played enough Union

Pacific! It's true that it is quite difficult to block a railroad's growth

completely -- yet in almost every single game, at least ONE railroad does

become completely bottled up. Even if you can only block a railroad's

growth on one particular type of track, that can prevent another player from

building on it because he doesn't hold that particular track card. The

track cards most certainly do put limitations on players. Obviously the

situation is frustrating to some who would like to be able to block trains

more easily, but that doesn't mean the mechanism isn't working -- it just

means it takes a little more patience to complete the block. Another common

situation is that the mere THREAT of a block, among our experienced players,

will prod somebody into building a train to keep from being blocked...

sometimes when he might rather have built somewhere else. So again, this

mechanism FORCES THE ACTION, and again, this is a GOOD thing.<P>

<I>And then Stven responded to the whole "trading for U.P. stock controversy"...</I><P>

There are VERY few actual "crap cards" (stock) in Union Pacific, especially during the early stages of the game before leadership has been established in most of the stocks. Often you have a handful of cards that you definitely want and are looking at four face-up cards with at LEAST one that you also definitely want. Or perhaps you have two or three shares of different stocks that would be worth second place somewhere if you could just get one more -- but you don't know WHICH of those two or three stocks you're going to have a chance to draw a matching share in, so you'd rather not discard any of them just yet. My experience has been that, right about the time you know which stocks you're out of the race on and can afford to discard, the Union Pacific stock runs out (typically a little before the third dividend card comes up), so THEN the problem becomes, you might draw a face-down card you don't need and there not be any Union Pacific left to trade for. But before that point, you're more likely to be scrambling for something you can bear to trade.<P>

So, to put it in a nutshell, the practical effect of having to trade for it is that Union Pacific is not half so tempting a grab, and not every player WILL choose to trade for it.<P>

Indeed this process does cause "more confusion about who has a majority in the other companies," as certain stocks are discarded out of the game, thus changing the numbers required for an absolute majority in that railroad. We regard this confusion as a good thing. Also note that, if you are the player who has discarded a particular stock, it leaves you with an extra piece of information which you may be able to use to your advantage. The other night, for example, I was in a situation where I needed to trade for one of the two last Union Pacific

shares in order to preserve my second place in UP. I had two of the purple shares (9 total shares of stock in the company) already declared and two more in my hand, and one other player had one purple share declared. Obviously this was not a "crap card," but I chose to trade purple for the UP (instead of two other choices in my hand I liked even less) because that left me at least with a little bit of knowledge about where the purple stock was. This paid off later in the game when a third player declared a share of purple, and I drew one more, and I knew that my four shares would be good for first place and could go full

steam ahead building up purple on the board.<P>

<I>Big finish now...</I><P>

I do agree with the comments that Union Pacific seems to have been published in about a 90% finished state. Alan Moon's "fix," which hit the newsgroups at about the same time the first copies of the game were hitting our tables, where you can only get Union Pacific stock by trading for it, was essential in my opinion and brought us up to about 99%. The game would not be nearly so interesting if you did not have to face the decision about whether the stock you have in your hand is worth less to you than the Union Pacific stock you can trade it for. The other details, such as how to prepare the deck and what to do if there's no place left on the board where a certain type of track card can be used, constitute the other 1% in my informal estimation. <I>(Conductor's Note: in other words, Stven likes the 2nd edition rules listed at the top of this page... with the variant deck construction rule at the end of the English rule book.)</I><P>

We also know Acquire backwards and forwards and played at least 300 games of

Acquire before we ever heard of Union Pacific. Acquire is a classic game

and gave us the first-and-second-place payoffs mechanism without which Union

Pacific and dozens of other games would never have existed. What Union

Pacific adds to the equation which makes it especially interesting is the

meld mechanism -- the business about owning cards but not having them count

for you until you have declared them. The decision of whether you can

afford to take that juicy card from the four face up without being caught by

the dividend card before you get a chance to meld (and often having to make

the decision for multiple turns in a row!) is another key part of what makes

Union Pacific such an interesting, and for us endlessly replayable game. <I>(Conductor's Note: What Alan did with Airlines, in my opinion, then did one better with Union Pacific, is to meld elements of Acquire & his own Get the Goods/Reibach & Co. into a wonderful whole.)</I><P>

<A NAME="strategy"></A>

<H3>Union Pacific Strategy</H3>

<I>You know, I worked for almost two years trying to sort out strategy thoughts & ideas... then Pat Brennan sent me this and I realized I was wasting my time. So, what you've got below is Pat's original post, with added commentary from the Conductor. In case you haven't figured out by now, I'm the guy writing in italics.</I><P>

I've played the game over 20 times now, mainly because the family keeps clamouring for it and its an excellent game to introduce to non-gamers. There is luck in the game of course (and some gamers may scoff that a strategy guide for UP is a contradiction in terms) but managing that luck is the key. A lot of it is just good gaming practice, but here's how I do it.<P>

<B>1. Initial investment card</B><BR>

Play as low a card as you can, but only if you've got a good chance to get two more trains built for it (check your track cards).<BR>

<UL>

<LI>1a - By playing a low card, its unlikely other players will also get that card invested before the first round, giving you both first and second prize money.</LI>

<LI>1b - Be confident you can build two more trains in that colour so as to get to the $6m mark ($4m for first, $2m for second). Grey is ok (spotty track seems to come up regularly), Gold is bad (white track never comes up when you need it), Brown is marginal (thick track seems to be more frequent than white, but not as good as spotty), Light blue is fine. And I don't care what the track card distribution officially is :-)</LI>

<LI>1c - Middle tier is ok (white, royal blue, black) - at least it gives you a base to build on and you may get lucky</LI>

<LI>1d - Top tier is begging for competition</LI>

</UL>

<B>2. Second investments</B><BR>

If you can get another line or 2 to yourself, excellent, otherwise invest on other people's lines to stop them getting 1st/2nd combos and get them to defend. This is preferable to trying to be first in 5 stocks - you only have so many builds (roughly 18 to 23 with 4 players) which means you can only build one or two lines to its max anyway. <P>

<B>3. Get your cards down early and quick</B><BR>

Especially in the first phase! It's preferable to tie with someone (get some money yourself, cut their money) than to hold on for another card to make a coup for first place, only to not get a chance to get them down as the scoring card comes up. It also forces them to defend while you do something else.<P>

<B>4. The rule of three</B><BR>

If you can get a collection of three cards in one stock invested early, people will ignore that stock for most of the game as its too much effort to chase - until it gets real big anyway by which time you'll have been able to pick up some for defense.<P>

<B>5. Diversity is good</B><BR>

You want to own one top tier line (green, red, yellow) with blank / clear track (the most common track card) or two middle tier lines (preferable as easier to defend) throughout the game so that you always have something to build on (rather than building on other people's tracks). It's good to diversify with the kinds of tracks you own (a good combination would be yellow (open/black track) and light blue (white/dashed track)) so that you never have a useless track card.<P>

<B>6. Invest on lines that are owned by the player on your left.</B><BR>

You'll get first play at the cards he wants as the other players leave them until your turn.<P>

<B>7. Never pick up cards for stock that is going nowhere.</B><BR>

It's better to be second in a big red line that someone else is building for you than first in a gold line of size 3 that you don't have time to build on.<P>

<B>8. Make every card pickup count</B><BR>

It's better to pick an average card from the draft than be stuck with a potentially useless card in your hand. Make each pick up count - 'the bird in the hand is worth two in the deck'. Conversely, the element of surprise should not be underestimated, particularly against card-counters. This strategy probably varies depending on one's opponents.<P>

<B>9. Go hard for UP</B><BR>

Once you have three or five cards invested, go hard for UP until you're up by 2 on your nearest competitor, usually even if it means foregoing a place in a stock line (assuming most popular variant of swap card in hand for UP in buildphase). You can always reclaim the line later, you can't reclaim UP. Once you have a lead of two, swap UP for UP to run down the stock. As UP have different backs than normal stock cards, holdings are public knowledge and you can always ask how many other players have.<BR>

<I>Here's where I jump in and disagree... I'm one of those folks who believes that the most important thing in UP stock is "not last".</I><P>

<B>10. What if the first scoring card is late?</B><BR>

If the first scoring card is delayed, get all your cards, even UP, invested. How often have two scoring cards come out before you get another chance to play? Countless. And its a game breaker if you're the one invested and others haven't, so go for the chance. Conversely, if the first dividend card comes out very early, keep in mind that there won't be another one for fifteen or so draws, giving you a good opportunity to draw a big hand and weed out the useless cards to trade for UP. But don't get caught before you can declare them all!<P>

<B>11. Best offense is a good defense</B><BR>

Hold a card in your hand of a stock you're leading in for defense, letting you play other investments / builds until someone forces your hand (so to speak) to invest it to maintain first place.<P>

<B>12. Pay attention</B><BR>

Naturally watch what other people are drawing and plan accordingly.<P>

<B>13. Don't bother trying to get half of all the cards of any one line</B><BR>

Some will be discarded for UP, some will be at the bottom of the deck and won't come out. A lead of 1 or two with a card in your hand is safe enough. The only exception to this would be the very small lines (6 or 7 shares), where people appreciate their value and may be reluctant to trade them for UP stock. <P>

<B>14. Cut off your opponents</B><BR>

Hem in opponents lines if possible (usually not, but sometimes). Build your lines so they can't be hemmed in.<P>

<B>15. More UP advice</B><BR>

Coming first or second in UP is ok ... after that you'll need to hit the UP leader's stock investments to catch up ground. Hope they're on your left. If not, don't get in that position in the first place! Never, ever, be caught without one declared UP stock after the first dividend card comes up. The loss of income is inexcusable.<BR>

<I>This time, I agreee with Pat - it's criminal to miss out on the UP cash, even if you don't get much of it.</I><P>

<B>16. Treading water</B><BR>

If you lead in two lines and could build either, take note of who is in second place for those lines: if it's different people, try to alternate building one, then the other on successive turns. This way you get a $2M gain, while they only get $0.5M each. Conversely, if you are behind and in second place on two important lines, and first place is owned by different people, you can effectively tread water and build on them alternately; you are giving them money but you are also giving yourself an approximately equal amount. This strategy works better the more lines you can devote to it. (But it chews up the draw deck, so don't pursue it for too long.)<P>

<B>17. Don't have more than 4 stock in your hand</B><BR>

You WILL get caught sooner than later.<P>

<B>18. First in UP, first in two other lines, a few selective seconds... </B><BR>

Ta-daa!<BR>

<I>Or not... how about: middle in UP, first in one line, lots of seconds & ties?</I>

<A NAME="two"></A>

<H3>Union Pacific for Two</H3>

by Winton Lemoine & David Arnott<P>

NOTE: it is assumed that you already know the basic rules to Union

Pacific.<P>

<B>Initial Set-Up</B><BR>

Before the game begins, give both players 1 (one) stock in each company; a total of 10. Each player shuffles their deck of 10 and places it face down in front of them.<P>

With the stock cards remaining, set-up the game as normal: deal each player 3 track cards, 4 random stock cards, and 1 UP stock. Place four stock cards out for drawing and shuffle the Scoring cards into the deck as per the regular rules.<P>

NOTE: use all four Scoring cards, as in a multiplayer game.<P>

<B>Drawing Track Cards</B><BR>

If, at the beginning of your turn, you hold 3 of the same type of track card you may replace one. Show the 3 track cards, discard 1, then draw 2. It is especially amusing to show your opponent 3 wild cards; but if you ever do this and actually discard one you'd better be sure about your lead.<P>

<B>Drawing Stock</B><BR>

When drawing stock you may draw one card from either:<BR>

<UL>

<LI>a. the 4 face-up cards</LI>

<LI>b. blind from the game deck</LI>

<LI>c. blind from your personal deck of 10</LI></UL>

a. Whenever a face-up card is drawn, slide the other stock cards 'down' so that the new face-up card is always placed on the far right; thus the 'oldest' stock is always the one on the far left.<P>

b & c. Whenever a stock is drawn blind from either the game deck or your personal deck of 10, place a marker on the oldest (leftmost) unmarked stock (just use a train from a company that isn't growing much).<P>

If all 4 face-up stock cards already have markers when a stock is drawn blind, the oldest stock is discarded and removed from the game. A replacement stock is then placed on the far right and marked so that all 4 stock cards will still have tokens on them.<P>

Any time a face-up stock is drawn, all markers are REMOVED, and marking starts over again from the oldest stock.<P>

NOTE: Face-up stock cards marked with tokens do not prevent them from being drawn as normal. <P>

<B>Trading For U.P. Stock</B><BR>

UP stock can only be gotten by trading, one-for-one, at the end of a turn in which a player drew stock. The single stock to be traded is placed face down on the bottom of the main stock deck.<P>

<B>Scoring: Rounds 1-3</B><BR>

Scoring rounds 1, 2, and 3 score as normal with the following exceptions:<P>

a. If a player has a 'monopoly', i.e. he is the only player with stock played in a company, he scores only the first place money; he does not collect both first and second.<P>

b. UP is scored for rounds 2 and 3 as if it were a three-player game (see below).<P>

<B>Scoring: Round 4</B><BR>

The final scoring round is essentially scored like a 3-player game, with the 'dummy' or 'the house' being the third player.<P>

For purposes of this round only, 'the house' is considered to be holding the 4 face-up stock cards, all face down stock - including the players' personal stacks - and all stock traded in for UP (which will be on the bottom of the deck already). 'The house' does not hold the cards in each player's hand, nor stock discarded from play due to 'marker removal' or from when 4-of-a-kind come face up.<P>

It is possible during this last round - even likely - that 'the house' will be first or second or tied for first or second in some companies. In other words, it is not uncommon during this last round for some of your first places to turn into seconds, and for some of your seconds to disappear!<P>

For this round only, it is also now possible - though unlikely - to score both first and second place in a company. In order for this to happen, one player must have stock on the table while the other player does not, AND 'the house' must not have any stock of this company either.<P>

Using Western & Wyoming (gray) as an example: If Winton has 4 of the 6 W&W stock played in his display and Dave holds the other 2 in his hand NOT PLAYED, then Winton has four shares, Dave has none, and since 'the house' has none, as well, Winton would score both first and second-place money. Cards discarded by markers and by 4-of-a-kind can also help create this situation.<P>

'The house' is also considered to be holding all remaining shares of UP, not just for this final round, but for rounds 2 and 3, as well. It is therefore possible during rounds 2-4 for one player to be first in UP stock and for the other to be third place or tied for second with 'the house.'<P>

As usual, most money wins!<P>

<B>Thoughts from the designers:</B><BR>

The biggest problem we found with UP for 2 was that the final scores were often lopsided. We tried and rejected several solutions including expanding the initial deck of 24 that contains the first scoring card, as well as 'deal out 8, but keep only 4' for your starting hand of stock. We tried changing the scoring for monopolies, and also including the 'dummy' player in more scoring rounds.<P>

The other big problem we discovered was that the 4 face-up stock cards usually became stagnant. Neither player wanted to give the other the advantage of seeing a new card, and on top of that, if was often a better play - especially in a two-player game - to draw blind anyway. With only one opponent, those four face-up stocks weren't as critical.<P>

The two fixes that accomplished the most were the Personal Deck of 10 (one of each stock) and using markers to eliminate stagnant stock.<P>

The personal deck was a way to deal with one player being unable to get even a single share in a company that the other player had locked up (even in a company as large as Miami Southern (yellow), from experience). The locked-up player will keep growing aggressively and can outscore the other by as much as $30 in a company as small as Marquette (light blue). Not fun. With the personal deck you are not guaranteed to find a stock right away, but you will eventually find it, even if it takes 10 draws! The other player will still hold first place in that company but will probably need other first places as well to win the game.<P>

An interesting side effect of drawing from the personal deck is that unless all 4 face-up stocks have markers, it can't trigger a scoring card. So sometimes drawing from your personal deck is a good way to slow the game down so you can catch up.<P>

"3 of the same" track cards can also be crippling. Being able to draw 2 can increase the chances of getting a helpful card. Consequently, you may find yourself playing track cards that will intentionally leave you with 3 of a kind, just so you can take advantage of this.<P>

Not allowing monopolies to collect both first and second place money in rounds 1-3, but including 'the house' in the final scoring, made it possible for the behind player to catch up considerably, potentially for the win. If Dave has 9 shares of El Paso & Rio Grande (green) on the table and Winton's played only two, then Dave will score only half the length of that company (rounded in his favor) for rounds 1, 2, and 3. But unless Winton picks up a few more shares (or some are removed from the game), 'the house' will be in second place and Dave will score the ENTIRE length of El Paso relative to Winton's third place score of nothing. This can be big money.<P>

Note: for simplicity's sake, if both players are in a company, we prefer to pay only the relative amount to the first-place shareholder, i.e. we deduct the second-place money from the first-place money. But you can certainly give both players their total payouts if you'd like.<P>

This final scoring round has also made trading for UP more strategic. This is a good thing, since in a two-player game, there really are no 'worthless' companies to trade away anymore. So now you are trying to trade strategically, attempting to give 'the house' a second place in a company so you can collect all of first.<P>

Also note, you don't need to play all shares to the table to snatch a first or second place. Say Winton has 4 of the 10 shares available of Denver Midland (black) on the table and Dave has only 2 in front of him. If Winton also has another share in his hand, he does NOT have to play it to guarantee first for the final scoring round, as 'the house' can only have, at most, three shares. In fact, Winton hopes that 'the house' does indeed have all three shares, since he is then scoring first to Dave's third.<P>

Now let's say Dave finds another share of Denver Midland and plays it to the table. If Winton then trades his share from his hand for UP, 'the house' has three shares again, tying Dave for second and giving Winton more money than if Dave had second all to himself. Plus, Winton got a share of UP.<P>

The risk here, of course, is that Winton only has 4 shares now and that Dave may be able to find one to tie and negate the company - or worse, the last two to steal first place!<P>

We hope you enjoy this variant as much as we do. We have tinkered with it for a long time - probably 35 to 40 games - before arriving at what we feel is a tense, fun two-player game that still resembles the original. It's become a two-player staple for us.<P>

In fact, Winton even prefers it to the original.<P>

Winton Lemoine<BR>

David Arnott<P>