In most of the 18xx games that I have played terrain is not usually an issue. There will be a number of mountain hexes that will require some payment of funds and the occasional open ground tile that has a price associated with it (I'm guessing some type of terrain that needs more grading, cuts, fills and/or bridges). For example, the original 1830 board has 11 hexes with mountains and 8 hexes with water obstacles that require payment to lay the initial tile on the hex out of a total of 75 hexes where tiles can be placed. That's about 25% of the board with features that require the corporation to pay for the initial tile placement. After a tile has been placed upgrades to green and russet tiles are free.
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| On the original version mountains are represented by the triangles and the water ways by the dark blue. |
The ratio of tiles requiring a payment as opposed to those that are free is going to reverse for an 18xx game set in Colorado. Without really pulling out a map I'm guessing that 75% would require payment and 25% would be free. The question then becomes how do you handle the mountain passes or should I just ignore their presence. There is certainly going to be a certain number of hexes that are completely impassible, which created a "pass" rush, as the major players competed for the best passes to get across the mountains. I think I could safely ignore some of the lower passes like Raton and Monument Hill and those would just be represented as a charge to place the tile. And maybe that's all that really needs to be done. Maybe a note on the map to indicate elevation and that would be it.
It does mean that the railroads are going to be more strapped for cash than in other 18xx games which makes the concept of the refurbished trains all that more appealing.
I think Monument Hill might be fine, but I wonder about Raton. You can cross that range at Raton Pass, or you can go east to just north of Capulin Volcano or west to the Rio Grande valley (which is wide enough for a couple of lines, I think) and Cumbres Pass. Depending on hex scale, perhaps that makes four adjacent hexes passable, which would argue for no special treatment on those southern routes. But with smaller hexes, there would be impassable hexes between routes.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a reasonable argument for some few passes being useful for standard gauge rail, more passes being useful only for narrow gauge (or perhaps much more expensive for standard gauge), and some hexes being impassable.
In principle, though, I would think that if you're willing to spend the kind of money that was required for the Moffat Tunnel route, you could get through the mountains in quite a few different places. That route made sense because it connected relatively directly between Denver and places where money could easily be made, but there are other routes that would have been possible, just not very sensible.
Raton Pass is a tough one, but I think you are right, if passes are specifically represented you would probably need to include Raton amongst them. You can't really go west from Raton Pass itself though. You need to turn west at the Purgatory River, that's really the first spot that you could think about reaching Cumbres Pass from that direction. Although if you extend the map into New Mexico far enough you could open up other options south of Raton Pass.
ReplyDeleteHex scale is an issue for sure and its really where the first difficulties start to come into play. The 18xx series doesn't have a "scale" as such. The track tiles are basically 1.5" flat side to flat side (a little less than that actually so facilitate laying tiles on the board). The only thing I can think to do here is make a tile overlay and keep blowing up a Colorado map until it looks like you would get a map that would be fun to play on, but right now I have no idea how big a game board that would make. Obviously the bigger the board the more options there would be, as it shrinks the options reduce. Although there aren't as many options for crossing the divide with something like the Moffat Tunnel as you might think. Despite what John Bohrer thought when he designed Tracks to Telluride while you can certainly get a train over almost any pass (let me emphasis the almost there, there are passes in CO that you can't even get a 4WD vehicle over), the cost of the engineering involved can make it prohibitively expensive to even try. You can figure that a 7% grade is about the maximum that a rod steam locomotive can get over and that only for short distances or with short trains.
So yes, you are correct, there are places that it could be done, but should it be done and is it worth including? If you looked at a map of Colorado with the railroads on it, you would find that Northwestern Colorado has not quite zero railroads and the one that does cross that stretch comes down from Wyoming rather than trying to cut through the Colorado Rockies.
The map is definitely going to take some thought especially to create that interplay of passes with standard gauge and narrow gauge. There were a number of passes that started as narrow gauge and were eventually widen to standard because it made sense from an economic standpoint, but it usually involved rerouting the mainline to create an easier grade, which wasn't always possible.
There is certainly plenty to think about.