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Annotated Games: 4 players, version 0.1This game was played during testing of 1988. For testing purposes, the players pursued different strategies.
SetupPlayer assets
First game roundPhase 1, Regional companiesPlayer 1 bids for A-train and player 2 for Svedab. Player 3 buys BK Tåg for 50 Mkr and player 4 buys TÅGAB for 60 Mkr. Player 1 and 2 bid for Connex and player 3 passes, after which player 4 buys Malmbanan for 70 Mkr. Player 1 gets the priority deal and the buy-bid-turns are paused for an auction for Connex. Player 1 raises her bid to 85 Mkr and player 2 passes. A-train and Svedab only have one bid each so there are no more buy-bid turns. Player 1 keeps the priority deal and gets A-train for 90 Mkr and player 2 gets Svedab for 100 Mkr. Player assets
Second game roundPhase 2, Stock roundPlayer 1 starts Veolia with par value 100 Mkr and buys the president certificate (225 Mkr left). Player 2 starts Arriva with par value 67 Mkr (366 Mkr left). Player 3 buys the Banverket president certificate (416 Mkr left). Player 4 buys 1 Veolia certificate (370 Mkr left). Player 1 buys a second Veolia certificate (125 Mkr left). Player 2 buys a second Arriva certificate (299 Mkr left). Player 3 buys the SJ president certificate (282 Mkr left). Player 4 buys 1 Arriva certificate (303 Mkr left). Player 1 buys a third Veolia certificate for 100 Mkr (25 Mkr left). Player 2 buys a third Arriva certificate (232 Mkr left). Player 3 buys a Banverket certificate (215 Mkr left). Player 4 buys 1 Banverket certificate (236 Mkr left). Player 1 passes. Player 2 buys a fourth Arriva certificate (165 Mkr left) and Arriva floats. Player 3 buys a SJ certificate (148 Mkr left). Player 4 buys 1 SJ certificate (169 Mkr left). Player 1 passes again. Player 2 buys a Banverket certificate (98 Mkr left). Player 3 buys a Veolia certificate (48 Mkr left) and Veolia now floats. Player 4 buys 1 Veolia certificate (69 Mkr left). Player 1 passes again. Player 2 buys a SJ certificate (31 Mkr left). Player 3 passes. Player 4 buys 1 Arriva certificate (2 Mkr left). All players now pass and the priority deal goes to player 1. Player assets
Company assets
Phase 2, Operating roundFirst, the regional companies operate. Player 1 collects 30 Mkr from Connex and leaves 10 Mkr on A-Train. Player 2 leaves 10 Mkr on Svedab. Player 3 collects 25 Mkr from BK Tåg. Player 4 collects 35 Mkr from TÅGAB and upgrades the track between Narvik and Gällivare, gaining another 5 Mkr. This increases the Gällivare value to 30, the Banverket cost with 5 and the SJ revenue with 5. Next, the private companies operate. Since they have no trains and can't collect revenue yet, both Arriva and Veolia moves back on the stock market to 65 and 90 respectively. They decide not to do any lobbying, to buy two 2-trains each, and not to do any stock trade. Finally, SJ and Banverket operate and collect 25 Mkr each for the three line contracts with SJ. They pay dividends of 2 Mkr and retain 5 Mkr. In addition, they get 10 Mkr each for the 5 shares still in the Bank. Since no lobbying has been done yet, SJ (or rather its president, player 3), decides to close the Sveg-Mora track and Banverket (again, its president player 3) decides to pay 10 Mkr to close a 2nd track, the Mora-Filipstad one, and turn Mora into a 0-city. This lowers the Banverket cost by 10 Mkr and increases the SJ revenue by 5 Mkr. The last thing that happens in the operating round is the auctioning of the line contracts. Player 1 and 2, annoyed at how player 3 "abuses" her presidency in SJ and Banverket to close tracks, agree not to engage in any bid wars. Player 1/Arriva gets the Södra stambanan line contract for 40 Mkr and player 2/Veolia gets the Västra stambanan line contract for 40 Mkr. Changed cities and tracks
Player assets
Company assets
Third game roundPhase 2, Stock roundPlayer 1 has the priority deal and starts the stock round but passes. Player 2 sells 1 SJ share for 71 Mkr (share price falls down to 69) and buys 1 Veolia share for 100 Mkr. Player 3 buys 1 Arriva share for 65 Mkr. Player 4 passes and ends up with the priority deal. Player assets
Company assets
Phase 2, Operating roundFrom the regional companies, player 1 collects 30 Mkr from Connex and leaves another 10 Mkr on A-Train. With that, a work tile is placed on Arlandabanan. Player 2 leaves another 10 Mkr on Svedab and places a work tile on the Öresundsbron. Player 3 collects 25 Mkr from BK Tåg. Player 4 collects 30 Mkr from TÅGAB and upgrades the track between Gällivare and Boden, gaining another 5 Mkr. This increases the Boden value to 30, the Banverket cost with 5 and the SJ revenue with 5. The private companies now have lines and trains. Veolia runs Stockholm-Katrineholm-Hallsberg-Skövde-Göteborg (60+20+40+20+50). The line fee is 40 Mkr and the revenue of 150 Mkr is paid as dividends, increasing the share value to 100. Arriva runs Stockholm-Norrköping-Linköping-Nässjö-Hässleholm-Malmö (+1 for 1 train, 60+20+40+20+20+50). The line fee is 40 Mkr and the revenue of 170 Mkr is paid as dividends, increasing the share value to 67. Both companies pay 40 Mkr for lobbying. SJ has 15 Mkr in Treasury and a revenue of 15 Mkr + 0 Mkr from Västkustbanan. They pay 30 Mkr as dividends and get 18 Mkr for 6 shares in the Bank. The share value increases to 70. Banverket has 85 Mkr in Treasury (of which 80 Mkr are the contract fees) and a cost of 65 Mkr. They also receive 20 Mkr for SJ's line contract. They pay 40 Mkr as dividends and get 20 Mkr for 5 shares in the Bank. The share value increases to 75. After discussions with the private companies, Banverket decides to accept both lobbying amounts (40+40 Mkr for 4 tracks) and pay 60 Mkr to complete Mälarbanan (Karlstad-Hallsberg-Västerås-Stockholm) and start working on Hallandsåsen. This opens up Mälarbanan for auction next round and increases several city values, among them Stockholm to the benefit of A-Train once Arlandabanan is completed. The three new tracks and four city upgrades along Mälarbanan increases Banverket's cost with 15 Mkr and SJ's revenue with 20 Mkr. The auction of Mälarbanan gets no bidders (since none of the companies wanted to buy the last 2-trains yet) so SJ takes the line contract. Changed cities and tracks
Player assets
Company assets
Fourth game roundPhase 2, Stock roundPlayer 4 has the priority deal and decides to start a Northern line to capitalize on its free Malmbanan tracks. She starts Vy with par value 71 and buys the president certificate for 142 Mkr. Player 1 joins and buys 1 share for 71 Mkr, as does player 2 (after all, they don't want player 4 to sell Veolia and Arriva shares to float Vy). Player 3 thinks a Northern line is in her interest as well considering her Banverket and SJ shares and buys 1 share for 71 Mkr. Player 4 is out of cash and passes but player 1 buys another Vy certificate for 71 Mkr and floats the company. Player assets
Company assets
Phase 2, Operating roundFrom the regional companies, player 1 collects 40 Mkr from Connex and leaves 10 Mkr on A-Train. Player 2 leaves 10 Mkr on Svedab. With that, both Arlandabanan and Öresundsbron can be expected to be completed next operating round. Player 3 collects 25 Mkr from BK Tåg. Player 4 collects 25 Mkr from TÅGAB and upgrades the track between Boden and Luleå, gaining another 5 Mkr. This increases the Luleå value to 20, the Banverket cost with 5 and the SJ revenue with 5. Veolia runs Stockholm-Katrineholm-Hallsberg-Skövde-Göteborg (80+20+50+20+50). The line fee of 40 Mkr is paid from Contacts and the revenue of 220 Mkr is paid as dividends, increasing the share value to 112. Veolia pays 40 Mkr for lobbying. Vy has no trains yet but pays 50 Mkr for lobbying (of which the Bank pays the half). The company also buys the last 2-train and the first 3-train, triggering the start of a new phase. Arriva runs Stockholm-Norrköping-Linköping-Nässjö-Hässleholm-Malmö (+1 for 1 train, 80+20+40+20+20+50). The line fee of 40 Mkr is paid from Contacts and the revenue of 230 Mkr is paid as dividends, increasing the share value to 71. Arriva refrains from paying for lobbying. SJ has 18 Mkr in Treasury and a revenue of 40 Mkr + 0 Mkr from Västkustbanan and 15 Mkr from Mälarbanan. They pay 70 Mkr as dividends and get 42 Mkr for 6 shares in the Bank. This leaves 45 Mkr in the Treasury. The share value increases to 75. Banverket has 100 Mkr in Treasury (of which 80 Mkr are the contract fees) and a cost of 85 Mkr. They also receive 50 Mkr for SJ's line contracts. They pay 60 Mkr as dividends and get 30 Mkr for 5 shares in the Bank. The share value increases to 80. Banverket decides to accept Vy's lobbying amounts (50 Mkr for 2 tracks) and pays 10 Mkr to develop Luleå-Umeå (cost +10 Mkr) and start working on Kvarkenbron. Banverket also pays 30 Mkr to finish the work at Hallandsåsen (cost -5 Mkr). This leaves 45 Mkr in the Treasury. SJ's revenue increases by 10 Mkr thanks to Luleå and Umeå. Last but certainly not least, all contracts need to be auctioned anew. Five lines ur up for auction. Arriva and Veolia return Södra stambanan and Västra stambanan (and get their previous bids of 40 Mkr back), SJ returns Västkustbanan and Mälarbanan and Botniabanan has been completed. Botniabanan is auctioned first. Veolia has the highest share value and bids the minimum bid of 25 Mkr. Vy raises the bid to 30 Mkr, after which Arriva and Veolia pass. Mälarbanan is next and Veolia again bids the minimum bid, which is 35 Mkr. Vy passes but Arriva raises to 40 Mkr and wins the auction. Next to be auctioned is Södra stambanan. Veolia bids 40 Mkr, Vy 45 Mkr and Arriva 50 Mkr, which wins the auction. This is followed by Västkustbanan, wich has a minimum bid 30 Mkr after the completion of the Hallandsås Tunnel. Veolia bids the minimum bid and Vy raises to 35 Mkr. Arriva can't really take on a third line and passes, after which Veolia raises to 40 Mkr and wins. Finally it's time to auction Västra stambanan. Veolia bids 50 Mkr instead of the minimum bid 40 Mkr to deter the competitors and win the auction. Thus, SJ finds itself without line contracts. Changed cities and tracks
Player assets
Company assets
The test was interrupted here to assess how balanced the different strategies were. The players' combined cash and shares were as follow:
Overall the balance between the strategies was deeemed good but there was an imbalance in the train capacity. Since 19xx count capacity in tracks instead of cities, a 2-train effectively reaches 3 cities. It meant that Arriva and Veolia (with their special abilities) only needed two 2-trains to cover their lines. This gave them too much cash in relation to their investments and delayed the first 3-train purchase and the start of phase 3. Reducing the number of trains of all types by 1 only solved the latter problem. Instead, I decided to test downgrading all trains one step. A new test was started to test this. |
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