Gorgeous weekend.... bike riding, walks in the park... sunshine.... a good weekend...

Maps and rules being worked on the next installment of Bindle Rails, set to Eastern Canada - mostly Ontario.  Many of the ideas from L&N #2 will carry over unscathed.  This game is more of a train gamer's game than the other versions.

You start the game with nothing.  It is up to you to build up enough company value to get started, purchase your first engine, and make a delivery between two points.  You have the option to move passengers, coal, grain, lumber and metals.  Grain are volitile and drop quickly when delivered.  Coal stays more constant, but isn't worth as much as metals - which stays higher and depreciates slowly.  Passengers are chump change, but they are easier to run and typically run through portions of the country that are flat and easy to build through. 

The latest changes involve developing resources that are placed semi-randomly on the map.  Resources are now on the main ladder instead of companies.  Locomotives are used to reach these resources and payouts are made based on the terrain the resource is found, the destination, and the most difficult terrain between them.  The power of the locomotive (say 20 BP (Build Points)) carrying grain ($7) between two flat areas (3 BP) would work out to 6 loads * $7 = $42.  This $42 could be immediately traded in for 8 VP or $4 in Company Value.  The value of grain would go down after you make a delivery on the chart, so maybe the delivery next time around would only be worth 6 loads * $4 = 24 for 4 VP or $2 in Company Value.  Locomotives are researched through the tech tree and you may own up to two of them.  Maintenance for each locomotive would also weigh in on the final delivery of the resources.  Resources may appear during the game and they may also disappear.

Another changes include a "Surveying" advance that allows you to place a white cube on the board anywhere you have built a route.  The BP for that space would be reduced by one.  This comes in handy if a resource has one hex of 2 BP between 1 BP and 3 BP.  Reducing the 1 BP would help make more money on certain loads.

Like former versions, you can lose the game all at once (I lost one game at the end on the last turn).  If your Company Value ever reaches $0 or you are unable to make a delivery, you are out of luck and lose the game.

VP are earned primarily by trading in resources, acquiring more powerful locomotives, connecting to cities (some far-flung ones are worth more) and staying within Canada.  VP are awarded for each $10 of Company Value you have and for each white cube you lay by Surveying. 

Most of the playtesting has involved getting all the balances down of VP, engine deilvery, translations of company value, etc.  A lot of playtesting, actually.  Still more needs to be done and I'd like to work a couple of other maps out with the current iteration of the system to see how well it scales.

For those of you who do like playing train games, there are ideas inspired by Silverton and Age of Steam.  Not wholly, not completely, but within the constraints of the existing Bindle Rails framework and pieces.  I think this version of the game is heavier than the other two, but only marginally.

More details soon!