Very quick thoughts on the latest playtest.

A very smooth run of the game.  Scores were close to the tune of 62 to 60 with decisions made at the end on the last hand by both players that tilted the game either way up until the end.  Hard choices along the way on both sides. 

Quick rules thoughts:

• The final dividend round was interesting in that I hadn't thought about how to handle the extra cards at the end.  I opted not to reshuffle the discarded cards and again elected to think on the fly again.  I decided to leave the exposed cards in view from the community draw pile and whoever decided to "go out" first ended the game. I also had to decide what to do with the final hand in that there were cards still laying around and I wanted those carried over as well. 
  
  I think what I will do in the future is kill the cards from the hand from the end of the 4th dividend and let the players start with their 8 cards from prior as their hand.  I don't think it would have changed the final results much but keeping too much held over from the second to the last hand would skew the final hand.
  
  That said, it was neat to have that card drafting at the very end.  A couple cards proved pivotal in the end that were carried over from the very beginning.  I wish there was a way to do this from the very start.  I'm sure there's a way, but I don't want it this game to be a card drafting game like others that are out now - although I now see the allure of playing those games.   The mechanic of saving 2 cards as you go worked out very well in keeping scores from going too low too early on as well.  That said, starting at 10 VP felt fair.
  
  
• A few card effect clean ups need to be done.  Most of the card effects worked as expected.  A few one-of-every-suit plays were made and the different contracts available contributed to route building.  The Strike! cards at certain points are just plain nasty.  Plopping Rivers and Mountains works well.  They kill stops but sometimes allow players to capitalize on their rich resource wealth should they play the right cards. 
  
  
• Switching to regional colors removed some of the "go-fish" feeling from before.  I thought the deck would be too loose after reducing the number of regions but it worked out well.  I may elect to add a few wild cards back into the mix, although, again, with playing three-of-each-suit, this might not be necessary.
  
  
• The mathematics on the scoring are almost dead on for what I want to do.  The purchase price for railroads in terms of adding/substracting for completing/not completing worked as I had wanted.  Made for interesting purchase decisions later on in the game.
  
  
• I will probably kill the final 5D train and make it a 4D train.  4D's didn't even come out although, again, that too might be enough in a close game to win.
  
  
• The other thing to think about is drawing that dividend card.  I thought about killing any bonus midway, which I applied retroactively.  It still felt cheap.  I thought about allowing players to earn the VP based on the card value, but the possibility of earning anywhere of 2-10 VP for doing nothing seemed wrong to me considering that players are almost always going to draw two cards at all times to advance their hands.  I think what I will try next is allow the dividend triggering player a chance to perform a free move with his hand at that point.  That should provide enough incentive for players to get rid of bad cards (via drafting) or using them immediately without being penalized too heavily.
  
  
• Game time, again, was almost 1 hour bang on the dot.
  
  
• I'm still trying to figure out a way to drop the size of the deck a little.  A thought was to allow some cards to have multiple effects for whatever dividend they were in, but this seems only appropriate in a solitaire mode and makes holding cards that much more difficult.  Don't know.  The game feels balanced and tweaking the deck at this point feels like it would be a bad idea.
  
  
• Speaking of holding cards, I think I want to make some cards where the effects/numbers/etc. are on the bottom of the card as well.
  
  
• I managed to squeak out a first version of rules which will have to be altered and modified and cleaned up, but the general feel of the game is out there.

Again, all in all, a great playtest.  I liked the weight and feel of the game.  I'm not sure how it will play as a partnership or 3 player game, but as 2 this feels about as complicated as I want it to be.  I'm sure it's no Union vs. Pacific, but it was never really meant to be.  It plays quick, feels very tactical, has some end game strategy and a littlehand management and limited resource management as well.  I think with some simply art and a little more work, it'll be ready to try out in the wild.  Very satisfying. 

It's amazing how some things just naturally seem to come together and others just take too much work.

More playtesting this week from the road.  If I'm really bored, I could corner-punch the cards but I really don't want to kill my thumbs.

Thanks much.