Some thoughts on 18MEX
My first game of 18MEX was held at OTK, PJ last Saturday (30th August) with Norman, Jefri and me. The game ended with Norman in first place, me in second and Jefri coming in dead last.
18MEX is an 18xx game with an extremely terrain heavy map. Almost 98% of the map is covered in terrain with cost ranging from $20 to $120. One thing I realized about 18MEX is that in order for your minor to operate, you must have a corporation nearby to provide support to the minor as the terrain cost to lay tracks makes it impossible for the minor to operate by itself.
Also, the private company that grants 1 free share of Chihuahua Railways is quite powerful as CR comes with 4 stations and starts at a very lucrative position. This private company should never go cheap. Another private to look out for is the one that grants the player a president share of NdM. The NdM merger corp is quite powerful as it's train limit is 1 more than the other corporations. This coupled with the ability to have 4 stations + 2 more if there was a merger makes NdM a late game monster.
Other powerful starting corps include Mexican Railways, FCP, and Texas Mexican Railways.
In 18MEX, Mexico City is key. Token it early or risked being blocked out of it in late game.
The stock round makes for interesting but kinda long plays. This is especially true in the final stock round. In our game last saturday, Norman and I were trashing Jefri's stocks to make a quick buck. The ability to sell then buy in the same turn allows us to get rid of non-performing stocks (Jefri's) and buying stocks in high EPS corporations. Jefri's Mexican Central ended the game in the yellow zone.
Another feature of 18MEX is the fierce train rush after the first 4 train is bought as the purchase one train per turn cap limit is lifted. Consider this, there are three 4-trains (rusts 2 trains), two 5-trains (permanent), two 6-trains (permanent, first 6-train will rusts 3 trains; second 6-train will obselete the 4-trains), and only seven 4D trains. There are 8 corporations in the game, each can have up to 2 trains on grey except for NdM with a 3 train limit. Which means, there are not enough trains to go around. Some corporations will go without any trains, and most corporations will only end up with 1 train. The NdM usually gets the lion share (3 permanent trains) as it has the most money.
When playing 18MEX, beware of Hot Sun tactics (bound to happen in the game, considering the high cost of laying tracks and the limited number of permanents coupled with the deadly pair of 6-trains which kills off the 3's and 4-trains).
Till next time, Ding Dong and happy Train-ing...