Rail Baron in Half the Time:
The "Early Declare" Variant
by Steve Okonski

When Rail Baron was published in 1977, few people questioned the length of the game (about an hour per player). These days, the influx of new, shorter, faster-paced games has some time-pressed people sometimes leaving their copy of Rail Baron on the shelf. If this includes you, try the simple variant described below. It preserves all the elements and flavor of the original game, but plays in about half the time.

GOALS

I had several design goals for this variant:

• reduce the part of the game that some people find sluggish: the time between when all the railroads sell out and when someone manages to accumulate the cash needed to go for the win
• reduce the luck of the start of the game, in which the first player to afford the Pennsylvania railroad gets a big advantage
• increase play strategy
• avoid adding random factors or changing the basic flavor of the game
• keep the modifications simple so they are easy to learn.

THE EARLY DECLARE VARIANT

Here's what I came up with. Play the game by normal rules, with the following four changes:

• Reduce the price of all railroads and engine upgrades to half. (Pennsylvania RR becomes $15,000, Express engine becomes $2,000, etc.)
• After all unowned railroads have been sold, any player can "Early Declare" and run home if he has less than $200,000. However, a player may not Early Declare when he is in the region that contains his home city.
• When an Early Declared player is caught via the rover play, if he has less cash than the rover fee ($50,000), he is immediately bankrupt and must give his cash AND railroads to the player that rovered him.
• When an Early Declared player returns home safely, as a reward he collects the payoff for that trip. The game continues until the round is completed so that all players get an equal number of turns. After arriving home, the Early Declared player is immune to rover plays. At the end of that round, the game ends, and the winner is the person with the most cash.

FAQ

Q. Can I win via a normal declare too?
A. Yes, if you have over $200,000, you can declare normally. If you arrive home safely, the game ends immediately and you win, even if you don't have the most cash. All original declaration and rover rules apply without modification when you declare with over $200,000.

Q. Can I Early Declare if I have $200,000 cash or more?
A. No.

Q. Can I Early Declare in my home city?
A. No, because you are not allowed to Early Declare from within the region that contains your home city.

Q. I was riding a railroad owned by a player who was rovered and bankrupted. What happens?
A. You are established on the line per original rules, and pay subsequent railroad fees to the new owner.

Q. Must I reveal exactly how much cash I have when I Early Declare?
A. No, unless you have $150,000 or more. Otherwise you must state you have less than $150,000.

DISCUSSION AND STRATEGY

Since the Early Declare makes the player with the most cash the winner, cash is king, and should not be spent too easily. To counter the effect of players holding cash and not buying railroads, the price of railroads is halved to make them more attractive. This price change has the added benefit of reducing the amount of cash that goes back to the bank, and this contributes to shortening the game. It also makes powerful railroads like the AT&SF and SP affordable upon first arrival, thereby providing a way to compete with the person who is lucky enough to arrive first and claim the PA.

Since players can declare before they have to announce how much cash they have, it becomes more important to try to track roughly how much cash each player has. You don't want to declare, run home and trigger the end of the game only to discover someone else has more cash. The burden of risking the declare is appropriately placed upon the player who believes he has accumulated the most cash. Awarding a payoff for the trip home is a bonus, albeit small, for the player who takes the risk.

As the railroads grow close to selling out, if one player is clearly the cash leader, the others should avoid buying railroads. If the cash leader wants to be able to declare and run home, he will have to spend his money acquiring the remaining railroads. Declaring with less than $50,000 is allowed, but very risky: if you get rovered, you're out of the game. All these items add some new strategic elements.

But the real time savings comes from cutting out the $200,000 declaration requirement. With this variant, the interesting "railroad purchase" phase of the game is immediately followed by the suspenseful "is he going to declare yet?" phase. If you enjoy Rail Baron, but don't have 3 or 4 hours to devote, give this variant a try, and finish in about half the time.