Ferrocarriles Pampas

Last night I was finally able to play Ferrocarriles Pampas. I have put off bringing this game to the table for a number of reasons. First, and most importantly, a reading of the rules gave me the strong impression that it would only work with at least 4 players. Second, lukewarm reviews made me somewhat to use precious gaming time on it. Third, it was a long game with a somewhat hazy end game condition.

Ferrocarriles Pampas is a predecessor of Pampas Railroads and Wabash Cannonball. Many of the game elements are the same, but there are some significant changes. First, money used to purchase shares is paid to the bank, not to the railroad. Second, actions are selected based off a chit pulled at random from a bag. The actions are the same (construct track, offer share, pay dividends), and the game ends after the 8th dividend chip is drawn, but the randomness is very different than the other games in the series. Third, when a player draws the construct track chip, they do not necessarily get to build the track that they propose, instead, you enter into a very unique mechanic called Consortium Bidding. Finally, at the end of the game, in addition to earning cash for the value and income of your stocks, players received additional monies based on city cards that they were given at the start of the game. These are kept hidden and, at the end, are worth the value of the city times the number of different railroads going into that city times the number of track built into that city. It is likely that this final mechanic either spawned from the consortium bidding idea or it necessitated the bidding.

Consortium Bidding makes Ferrocarriles Pampas unique. It has been denigrated by Bohrer, and probably for good reason. I am not sure if it works, but it sure as heck is neat. Basically, players have the option of proposing two different track builds when the construct track action occurs. Then, players can choose one of the two options and bid to try to make it happen. In this way, players form alliances and share money to increase the value of different railroads. It is a unique mechanism in train games, and one that I have not experienced in any other game. It could potentially create rapidly shifting alliances or it could stimulate long term alliances as two or more players team up. What it almost certainly does do is force you to work with other players. I found that it was incredibly difficult to propose a build and actually have it occur if no one supported it with me.

Sadly, the mechanic overstays its welcome after the first 2 hours. Although it was novel at first, low cash supplies and the inherent knowledge that we would be entering into these bidding rounds over and over again made me wary of the concept. I cannot speak for anyone else, but it had definitely worn off it?s sheen by the 2nd hour of play.

Finally, as can sometimes be the case with Winsome games, the quality of the components really detracted from my enjoyment of the game. The fiddly bits were all over the place and a small knock to the board was cause for general havoc. Heck, the value and income markers were two inches long and a quarter of an inch wide!

Then, at the end, the city cards were hardly worth the effort. Dan took the time to figure out how much they were worth to him, approximately $10. I forgot to keep track of my card?s values, but they were not worth much more than $15, if that. I understand, at least at the theoretical level, why consortium bidding would be neat in combination with the city multipliers. I would help you build into a city because I benefit in the end. It just didn?t work out that way.

I ended up winning, but I would have rather played Pampas Railroads. Consortium Bidding is unique and interesting, but it does not seem fully developed. There is a nugget of a game in there somewhere, but despite what I am sure were intensive play-testing sessions, it never got there.

Yet if you wanted to play this game, make sure that you realize that it is not Pampas Railroads or Wabash Cannonball. Because cash does not go the railroad, the incentive is to win stocks as cheap as possible. Because dividend payouts are random, you can try to push your luck to win shares cheap when other players are out of money. But all of this is random and for a 3 hour game, this type of randomness should not be tolerated. I am glad I played it, but I highly doubt it will be played again anytime soon.