After Action Report – Thursday Night Gaming @ Paradise Perks, December 12, 2013

I went to Paradise Perks for their Thursday night gaming event again this week.  There were 20 – 25 players at the event and four games were being played at any one time.

I was again only able to play one game at this event which is becoming a troubling trend for me.  I usually like to be able to play multiple games at any one event.

The game I played is a reissue of one of the games that I have wanted to try for years called Boxcars.  It is a reissue of the 1974 with updated rules and the addition of an England version of the game.  The original Boxcars was then published by Avalon Hills as Rail Baron.

In Boxcars the player are rail barons that are moving product from city to city in the country and collecting fees for doing this.  Each time they make a delivery, they have the option to purchase a railroad or upgrade their train.  If they upgrade their train the player may move along their track faster.  If they purchase a railroad they then can collect fees from the other players when they use the track during the rest of the game.  The first player to reach the money accumulation goal and get back to their home city wins the game.

At the start of their first turn the player must roll the dice and look up the city on a chart to determine where their home city is.  Then they roll the dice again to determine their fist destination city.  At the beginning of any turn where the player had reached his destination, they must determine their next destination using the same method.

After a player gets their destination and on any turn they did not reach their destination, the player rolls two dice and moves along track to their next destination.  They will need to pay fees of $1,000 to use bank owned track or $5,000 - $10,000 to any player that owns track that they use.  The player fee is determined based on where they are in the game.  If they player reached their destination, they are paid out and may make a purchase and the turn moves on to the nest player.

We played on the England side of the board.  The money goal for that side of the board is $100,000.  I started the game in Norwich and got a short run to the south.  When I reached the destination I immediately purchase a railroad with half o my money.  Every time after that delivery, I purchased a new railroad.  I was able to create a strong rail network with these railroads in the southern half of the board.  This was a good thing considering I did not get any destinations into Scotland during the entire game.

After the railroads were all purchased it turned into an endurance trail.  It was very hard to accumulate cash because many it could cost more in rent to get to a destination than the players would get in fees.  In addition three of us were not getting long runs which did not help the situation.  I finally got to the point where I could declare that I was going to my home city.  I was unfortunately caught by one of the other players and was forced to give him $50,000.  I was able to regain my loses a number of turns later, but not before that player declared and reached his home town.  I did have the most money after he did, which game me second place.

My stats for the event:

Game	No. of Plays	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	Avg.
Boxcars	1	-	1	-	-	-			2.00
Totals	1	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	2.00