Early Experience: Wabash Cannonball Expansion - Erie Railroad

Wabash Cannonball Expansion - Erie Railroad belies its effect on the game with its small size. The Erie RR is nitroglycerin in a cocktail shaker. It makes the already rather delicately knife-edged game of Wabash Cannonball even more tetchy with the penalties for mis-steps ever larger and the path ever narrower and risk-fraught.

The Erie expansion consists of a single new Erie company with a single share, 14 cubes (1 income marker, and 13 track) and a slip of paper containing the few special rules governing when and how the Erie becomes available for play. More specifically it has enough cubes to reach both Detroit and Chicago.

The Erie RR becomes available for Capitalisation when any of four specially nominated cities have track built in them by another company. The Erie’s home station is roughly in the middle of the northern edge of the board. It has no special rules except that:

• It can build into New York City at a cost of $6 for an income boost of $8
• The N-companies-out-of-shares game-end condition is increased from 3 companies to 4 companies

Functionally the Erie RR is simple enough except in the implications:

• The Erie can only be Capitalised by explicit choice. Why a player would Capitalise the Erie is a difficult question:
  • Because the acting player can win it and profit
  • To tempt another player into a posture that can then be wielded against them (push a short game against a player positioned for a long game and visa versa)
  • To drive an early/faster game-end
  • To tempt another player into sundering their extant alliances
• The player that wins the Erie:
  • Is almost certainly no longer a functioning member of any prior alliances as their incentives now orbit the Erie RR due to their high cash investment in the Erie RR
  • (Likely) explicitly postured for a long game but with greatly reduced ability to influence game length
• The Erie RR is more valuable to owners of NYC RR and Pennsylvania RR shares
  • The Erie is most likely to share cities with the NYC RR and second most likely to share cities with the Pennsylvania RR.
• Once the Erie RR opens the Development actions becomes much more interesting to all players
  • Once the Erie RR player runs out of Expansion actions, or runs out of cash, very likely their most attractive action is Development
  • If the Erie RR player can benefit multiple of their companies with Development (thus the interest in the NYC RR and the Pennsylvania RR), then so much the better.
  • Due to the steady depletion of Development actions by the Erie RR player, the Development action becomes more attractive for the other players. Their shares are less diluted with the removal of the Erie RR player’s maniacal focus on the Erie RR and Development is thus more likely to lead to a direct/tangible cash income increase for them.
  • Increased use of Development as versus the standard routine of Capitalise/Expand affords control of additional control game length and control of who is the start player for the next round.
    • It becomes easier for low player count games to end due to track cube exhaustion
    • It becomes easier (albeit likely still rare) for middle-player count games (ie 4 players) to end due to Development cube exhaustion.
    • Exact control of game length is more diffuse while the Erie RR player’s maniacal focus encourages all the players to posture more heavily toward a specific game length
• Detecting when it is no longer viable to invest in the Erie RR versus when it is too soon (not enough cash or game-control) is delicate and fraught with failure
  • The Erie RR will likely need somewhere between $20 and $30 (possibly more) in order to fully afford its own expansion opportunities
  • Due to the single share all capitalisation must occur from the initial share sale. Forest development is an unviable capitalisation source.
  • Whether or not the Erie RR will get those opportunities is uncertain
  • As only one player can Expand the Erie RR, company income growth is necessarily slow as compared to collusive Expansion alliances among other players
  • However due to lack of dilution, income growth is fast(er)
    • With a large caveat for Chicago Dividends
    • Those same Chicago-bound alliances encourage the Erie RR player to sabotage the other RRs by running them short of cubes
      • The opportunity cost of not spending that Expansion on the Erie RR is high

The Erie RR is highly attractive due to the massive potential profits. Should it get to both Detroit and Chicago it can easily pay $25/share! However as noted above this great profit potential comes with risks for all the players, not just the Erie RR-investing player. That balance of risk and reward forces the players to begin positioning themselves in relation to the Erie RR from the initial auction of a Pennsylvania RR share at the start of the game and every portion of the game after that becomes a question that also needs to be evaluated in relation to the Erie, whether or not it is in the game yet.

I recommend Wabash Cannonball Expansion - Erie Railroad only to experienced Wabash Cannonball players. Unless the players comprehend not only the base game’s arithmetic and alliance system, but also how to posture against game length and how to adroitly wield game-length control against the other players then the Erie will simply walk all over them and render the game results an opaque who-goofed crapshoot. With skillful players however it becomes a delightful game of balancing on razorblades and juggling waterballoons of nitroglycerin. It is quite the designer tour-de-force. Amazingly subtle and pervasive. It is rare that so little turns so much of a game on its ear without also breaking it. Everything is the same and yet different. Bravo!