automobile

Updated 5/3/2010

AUT   HMWG   
   20     21     17
   9     12   
 

Ballroom B  Limerock Wheatland 
Terrace, Table #5

Debut Event

Links

  Mayfair Games

GM: Greg Schmittgens, KS

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.

 GM      Greg Schmittgens  [1st Year]   NA  
    aslcouple1@yahoo.com   NA

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