I had a little extra time today to try a different map out for the Open Rail system... this time I ported over the ever popular 18AL map from 18xx over to Open Rails pretty much as is.  It took about two hours all told to redraw it in Hexdraw, center things up in Inkscape, create new shares, export to images, import said images to OpenOffice, create a document for said images to export to PDF so that I could finally load up Foxit to print the PDF's out!  Would it be worth it?

I think so.

I went ahead and did a solitaire game that finished up in 25 or so minutes.  It played well enough.  It's not as engaging as Bindle Rails is for me although there are some interesting decisions that are still in there.  I think its more of a puzzle than anything else, but still a good time waster.  I'll have to consider other ways to get rails going on the map.  But for now, quickness is kind!

The more interesting trial was the two-player test.  I played both sides and the game ended up with player #2 winning by only $15 to the tune of $587 to $572.  During the course of the game there was one company dump, a few forced train purchases and a last minute dump by #2 that killed green stock from getting to the top - which was enough to win the game thanks to extra stocks in the portfolio.  Start to finish the game took an hour which is 1/2 to 1/3 of the time it took for the main Open Rails game to play.  

The map played much more fluidly than the Maryland/Delaware one I had created on my own.  The one omission I made was to remove TAG from the company roster as I wanted to keep the number of companies small for a two or three player game (and particularly for the one player game).  There were many ways for companies to build (and get stuck) and I could see this being a tight contest for two experienced players.  I'm hoping to squeeze in a three player game on Friday or Saturday.

Overall, playtesting went well.  I have a few changes to do to the mats and boards.  I removed the third operating rounds from turns 5 and 6 which shortened the game considerably and removed some of the "calculator" rounds at the end.  I also have to fix the map so that certain impassable ways from the original map are fixed up.  I also need to port the rules of the new version over to this map as there are some changes in share limits and the entire solitaire game needs explained at some point in the rules (as well as credit 18AL's creator).  I'm hoping after a few more private playtests than I can up a version up on BGG (and here) so that the system is out within a week or two.

The one part I am rethinking a little is the train rush.  It is pretty good in the beginning, has some implications in the middle, but is absent at the end as things are just too expensive.  I'm not sure how to change this or if I really want to.  It's not as fluid as I would like it to be.  I'll have to sleep on it.  It's still more fast paced than its older, bigger brother though.

It definitely feels more polished and compact than the original Open Rails, although I must admit I prefer the original for a more immersive experience.  The one hour game time for a two player game is very reasonable and most of the aspects of 18XX (and other games) held together in the short time frame without dragging on forever.  In general, I am quite pleased with it.

Poor camera phone quality snapshots are below. 

(Solitaire game - minimal building, lots of shares, relatively good score of $278.)

(Two player simulation.  Lots of places on the map for competition to erupt.  Yellow was the clincher, but Green took a $48 dive at the end that swayed the game.)