More playtesting of Bindle Rails #3: Eastern Canada.  What a rough night....

• Game #1.  Started from Montreal, made it to Three Rivers and was building toward the Northwest towards ore and coal, the best commodities.  Turn #2, #3 and #4 I had Inefficiency Events!  Worse yet, I drew a '6' for #2 and #3, meaning I could do absolutely nothing to advance technology to build in the hillier terrain!  The fourth turn I was able to draw one card, but could not build anything with it.  It also had only $2 on it so I moved my Company Value to $4.  That turn, I drew a 'Loss' card which dropped my Company Value to $0 for an automatic loss.  Egads.
• Game #2:  I figured I'd start in Chicago and work my way through or across Michigan.  I drew metals and ores north of Timmins, so I started building that way, made it to Grand Rapids to get my initial passenger deliveries and turned north.  Over a couple more turns I made it across the UP and into Canada.  Further technology and I finally hit the fields I wanted.  The only problem was, I did not research my Engines that well and I forgot to take into account I had to run across 2 bridges (+2 BP) and pull from terrain that was 3 BP, 2 BP and 1 BP back to Chicago for a total of 8 BP on a Basic Engine which could only pull 9 BP.  Long story short, first shipment was worth a measely $11 or so by the time maintenance was taken out of it for a whopping 2 BP.  I decided to turn back toward Toronto to avoid the bridge crossings and had enough to make it there.  My second mistake ensued here... I had run out of black cubes to build and I had not done much research this game, so there was no way to free any of them up with the Surveying advance!  So, ran a couple more deliveries, drew only one Engine on eight cards on my final turn.  I ended up dumping everything into increasing my company value and stepping my engines up so I could earn more VP.  My coal and iron run to Toronto payed well, but it was much too late.  I had earned 22 VP total, some from deliveries, 6 VP from Engines and maybe 2 VP from a company value in the $20's.  No points for not building in the U.S. since I started in Chicago.
  

Toronto is the easiest town to build out from, Ottawa a close second - although, depending on where resources end up being placed, they sometimes have a long road to hoe to start making a profit.  Montreal is boxed in on the map and it is quite a feat to pull enough money to start a company out (at least $5... subtract out the Basic Engine at $4 and you are praying NOT to get a 'Loss' card.)  The bridge out of Montreal is a killer as well.  

My next trials will probably be Buffalo and Detroit, although a Sault St. Marie start point might be interesting.

In general, I like the balance in this expansion.  L&N felt scripted and IMR was light, albeit it was meant to be that way.  This game plays very fresh and although the rules are slightly more involved than the other expansions, they are easy enough to pick up on and work well together.  So far I'm 2-3 with a win from Toronto and Ottawa.

I will say that the game plays hard... Innefficiency events in this version are absolute killers.... Loss events are rough... and losing market value on a valuable commodity when you've just spent six turns getting there just plain hurts.  I have not had a crucial resource depleted yet, which is somewhat suprising but good. 

On the flip side, pulling some good cards (Innovation always feels great when it comes up) is especially sweet.  One other nice thing is that the markets for the most part correct on their own.  If you haven't made a deilvery on a resource the entire game, odds are good it will be worth a fair amount of money when you build to it.  If it's in an easy to reach place with a big locomotive before the last turn, you may be on the way to winning.

The only tweaking that may need to be done is with the grain and lumber markets, but I'm not sure if I want to tinker with these much.  They have the potential to be worth more than coal (or oversold ore) for at least one or two deliveries a game, so I may leave them in place.  Passenger traffic feels about right in terms of giving a start up company just enough money to get started and it doesn't really turn into a money earner at all - unless a player is fortunate enough to start up another resource and can come back to it later.  

My only complaint has to do with the limitations of the components I sent out with the original Bindle Rails.  I wish I had done the cards slightly differently in that the Events probably could have been split into their own deck.  The Goal and Manager cards have been a waste for usage outside the first game.  The 20 white and black cubes are okay, but I wish I would have included more of them.

Other than that, the mechanics are solid and it is time to formalize the rules, draw up examples and present it to everyone who might want a crack at it.  I will probably generate a few other maps to go with this specific ruleset.  I tried tweaking L&N with its Private Companies to this version of the rules, and it felt stilted, and IMR does not have enough variety on the board to warrant changing how the resources are doled out.  Next maps will probably be based in the Pacific Northwest, California and perhaps Colorado.  I'd like to do something with England or South Africa as well, but I'd like to know more about their railroad history before even touching them.  Just making a map without doing the proper amount of research is too much like cheating.