JC, here are a few comments and rules questions that came up:

1) Nowhere in the rules are the special 4 pound links mentioned.  We assumed that this was just another connection that could be made between the twin cities.  We assumed that it counted as a link when moving a good.  We assumed it counted towards the overtime costs.  However, the rules are unclear for these two links as they are not even mentioned.

2) What do you do with the four goods in the non-urbanized towns.  Do they just sit there?  When can they be delivered?  Whenever the town tile is placed, or must it be urbanized first?  We played that once there was a town there, the good could be shipped.

3) Is there any significance between the light green and the dark green hexes?  I assumed it was for flavor and maybe this area represented the Old City?  If there is a functional reason for the color distinction, we missed it completely.  If there is not a reason for it, I would just make the coloring uniform so as to reduce possible confusion

4) The rules I received from you are the “harderâ€? original rules.  Those are the ones we played by… Is that ruleset the one which you would intend people to play with?

5) The rules mention that there is no Locomotive action when playing with three players.  What happens in a game when a player bankrupts (as Green did in our game)?  Once reduced to three, is the Locomotive still an option?  We ruled that it would still be an option for the players to choose from.

6) When counting up built sections of track, do you score one section for your counter on each of the 4 pound spots?  This was also left unclear by the rules.

Comments:

1) The game is brutal.  And I love it for that reason.  We did have one player go bankrupt, but that was due to a little bit of bad planning and an unexpected play that cut Green off from some deliveries he was expecting to make.  We started out with a lot of shares on the first turn in order to build, though I think we each took out at least one more than we had to.

2) Form factor:  I was able to print out the board fine.  But, in the grand scheme of things, I find the size and format of the board to be cumbersome as you have laid it out.  If I had printed up the entire map as you had given it to me, I would not have had a gaming table large enough for it that would still allow for the player’s game pieces/money/etc.  But, I understand that A) this is just a prototype so any decisions on final layout would not have been discussed yet and B) if you work in a place that provides you the ability to create nice looking boards of this size, it would be easiest to keep it all on one map.  The colors are also a bit drab.  I know that you and I have already talked about printing issues on my end.  Despite that, even when trying to read the information on my computer screen, there isn’t enough contrast for me between the brown background and black text to make it easily read.  There are some positives/improvements though.  I like putting the colors of the cities as the background of the columns in the goods growth chart. 

3) Was our game typical in that we didn’t venture out into the corners until very late in the game.  Given the way the cubes come onto the board, purple never really needed to get out of the center of the board.  One player suggested that the game would flow different if there were only two cubes on the goods growth track to start the game, the lack of cubes would force people to look to the outside sooner.

4) Scoring in our game seemed low – especially given the fact that there are both +50 and _+100_ spaces on the scoring track!  Where do our scores fit into others testing the game?

5) In a nitpicky kind of way, you mention that the standard rules of AoS apply.  The board shows a -$10 for 50+ points, which at least in my 1st Ed. AoS does not exist.  The maximal income reduction is only $8.  This should likely get some mention in the rules as it does differ from the original rules.

That’s it from our end… Do you have any other specific questions about our initial game?