Fiddled some more with L&N.  It was kind of like moving back home with your parents... not what you wanted to do, but there are probably a few good reasons to do it every now and then.  Sometimes, it's good to go home again.  :-)

I took out the game and started over... back to the original BR rules jiggered on a hex map.

After more false starts, things started coming together with some modest tweaks.

For example, the tech tree I was quick to remove...  why not flatten the tree?  I did not need many of the effects from the original game.  Public company stock maneuvers were not working so I wanted to get rid of them.  I juggled things around, scribbled on the back of my first go around on rules sheets and came to the conclusion that I could flatten the tech tree and change the benefits to only number of cards and the maximum BP of terrain you could build in.  I could use the Event round of the turn again (yay!)  This would also get rid of using Engines to move up/down the terrain steps which for some reason worked in Mexico (#1:IMF), but not here.  And I could still leave the 1 VP for each Tech earned.  All of these were wins in my book while keeping true to the original game and even simplifying things slightly.

The next thing to get tweaked was ditching the competitors as Public Companies.  This got rid of the whole lot of nothing going on with the stock ladder and actually let me get rid of the Competitor Round at the beginning of the turn.  Treating the competitors as Private Companies helped, but they needed tweaked futher.  I then forced them to come into existence based on what turn you were in.  This was more true to history.  It fixed my company valuation/fluctuation/availability problems.  The VP's for these companies are lower relatively speaking compared to BR because there are less places to go on this map.  They hook up to key places very quickly and it didn't make sense to give the VP boost just for buying the companies in addition to connecting to cities.  All in all, another win.

Speaking of the cities, the VPs were changed for these were changed.  Basically, the far-flung towns of New Orleans, St. Louis and Tallahassee were made 3 VP towns.  Most of KY/TN were made 1 VP.  The two remaining 2 VP towns are Birmingham (for historical reasons) and Atlanta (due to size).  I am considering bringing Engines back into the game to allow for stations to be built on the big cities (Nashville, Atlanta and Birmingham).  Engines double the value of these big cities to 4 VP - if you've built to each of the big cities.

As for the Event Card round, I will be able to do this again.  The L&N will be the Red Cube for draws.  All other colors will be ignored.

And the Stock Card.... it stays, although it is only for one company and the penalties for not keeping your stock price high are much, much steeper (cue evil pinkie).

Finally, I might sneak the coal mines back in for a reward of 1 VP each and allow them to be scattered in the mountains.  

What does all this do?

Well, there is finally some assymetry in how to win.   There is benefit to purchasing the Private Companies to quickly expand your route, although this is a very expensive way to win and requires investment in your company and ignoring route building for a while.  There is benefit to increasing your Technology because it gives you more cards which can lead to more cards and more money.  Finally, the map itself presents solid opportunities for scoring in the upper part of the map with the coal mines and stations if you've built to all the main cities the real life L&N built to.  However, the M&O and S&M make it possible to go to the Gulf quickly and hit New Orleans for 3 VP (6 VP with a Station!).  Finally, the old fashion Stock Market can give you up to 5 VP if you choose to run your own routes - but purchasing a route might be quicker and force your stock price down.  

This makes for some interesting strategies to try out, some easier than others...

• Aggressively invest in technology, buy the T&C, build in the NE and hit the coal mines.
• Aggressively save up enough money for the M&O, stab southward and build to New Orleans with the hopes of building a station there (or in Nashville).
• Aggressively invest in technology, pick up the NC&StL and pick up enough mines and/or stations since cash will be low.
• Buy both the NC&StL and T&C and hope that enough cash comes through to pick up some other towns.
• Build south on your ow, buy the S&M and make a turn to Florida and Mobile, circumventing the Smoky Mountains?

I may end up removing the stations or removing the coal mines, but I think the 6-turn limit (or even 8 turn limit) does enough to stop too much happening too quickly.  I may also do away with keeping Birmingham and Atlanta as 2 VP cities - or, I may get rid of Huntsville to make up for it since the northeast corner of the board is target rich. 

Finally, the phased in nature of the tech tree slowing down growth in the beginning mirrors the real life L&N as it started out slowly reaching to Nashville and then exploding southward. 

I think all of these things, combined with higher penalties and tighter costs will work well.  If I can get at it with a slightly easier set of rules (namely, removing complexity in the tech tree and competitor rounds), this game could be compelling.

The proof will be in the pudding with more playtesting this weekend.