The Birth of Too Big To Fail?
The game covers the history of the US car industry during
its birth and growth, from the 1890s to 1929. The aim of the
game is to make the most money, which means making and selling
cars.
Players are competing in the U.S. auto industry in the early
20th century, purchasing factories that turn out low-, medium-
and high-valued vehicles, starting with the 1893 Duryea and moving
up the time-line from there.
Each player knows a portion of the market demand each round
and must make his purchasing and manufacturing decisions based
on that. You can fund distributors across the country, but if
you don't supply them with vehicles to sell, they go bankrupt,
taking your investment with them. Alternatively, you can drop
the prices on your cars to try to outsell other players. Or even
temporarily improve sales rates at the cost of research. Special
action phases are available with the actions provided by the
players acting as Henry Ford, Billy Durant, Alfred P. Sloan,
and others.
As newer models make their way onto the market, they sell
first compared with older models. What's more, older factories
result in inefficiency costs as time passes, encouraging you
to keep pace with technology.
To get money, you need to build cars with your factories,
but if you build more than the demand, you lose not only the
money spent to make them, but you gain inefficiency costs that
hurt you for the rest of the game. Whoever manages their car
factories the best over this four round game will win.
There will be two heats to advance up to 25 players (assuming
a field of at least 50 players) to the semi-finals. As stated
in the GM guide, tie-breakers will be used "to trim the
field or identify alternates to fill out the field" to 25
players in the semi-final. The second tie-breaker for advancement
to the semi-final (after ,"Most Wins") will be the
highest score in a single game, followed by the standard tie-breakers
for heats.
Since this is a new game (with limited distribution in
its initial publication run), all prospective players are urged
to bring their copy. |