Acosta Proves Quality of Shares Over Qunatity Is Key To Victory!

Wabash Cannonball, formerly Chicago Express, returned to WBC again this year as a vendor sponsored event from Rio Grande, after coming back last year. Total entrants were up by more than 50% from last year and there were a number of participants who came to the demo to learn and play in the tournament.

Wabash is a money investment game where players invest in one of 5 railroads and build them and develop locations to earn the most money. It has 4 end game conditions. It normally ends at the end of a round when 3 (or more) companies are either sold out of stock or are out of expansion links. It very rarely ends when Detroit is fully developed. It can also end when all the development cubes run out, but that rarely happens.

Heat 1 had three tables, two with 3 players, and one with 4 players. Philip Shea edged Shiv Chopra and Freya Alexandra in a very close 3 player game where the scores were $74, $72 and $70, respectively. Marc Nelson won the second 3 player table by a much more comfortable margin with $104 to $88 and $80 for his opponents, Pierre LeBouef and Hunter Johnson. The 4 player table saw Rachel LaDue with $74 out-duel her sister, Kristen LaDue, for the win over 2 other players.

Heat 2 had two tables of 3 players each. Kristen LaDue ended with $101 to join her sister as a Heat winner in another close game over 2 other very experienced players, Patrick Shea at $96 and Marc Nelson at $92. At the other table, Freya Alexander ran away with the win with $110 on the power of having the most shares; over Chris Gnech who had $86 and Steve Cameron a distant third.

Heat 3 had three tables of 3 players, and one of those tables was possibly the strangest game ever seen. More on that later.

First, the two normal tables. One had Phillip Shea narrowly beating Rick Miller by $83 to $81 with Dan Elkins in third with $60. The other table was a high scoring one where Shiv Chopra beat Joshua Acosta $129 to $119. Jonathan Towne came in third with $80.

That third table had Mitzi Hubble, Jessica Shea, and Steve Cameron playing a game that was is likely the answer to “What is the most bizarre game of Wabash Cannonball ever played?” for a few reasons. First off, every railroad except the C&O made it to Chicago; yet only 2 companies were out of railroad links to build, game didn’t end that way. Secondly, the Wabash ended up being worth $12 per share, which is crazy, since the second share didn’t sell; and only 2 companies (PA, NYC) were out of stock, so that didn’t end the game either. Detroit was not quite fully developed, which is shockingly normal, but it was close. The game ended when all the development cubes got used, which nobody at the event had ever seen before.

However, the weirdness didn’t end there. Of course, the most valuable railroad was at $42, because what else would one expect? However, that railroad being the C&O, which was the only one that didn’t get to Chicago is very strange. It did get to Wheeling & Pittsburgh, though. Steve won with $205, over Mitzi with $182, and Jessica with $163.

Before I cover the Semifinal and Final, I would like to especially thank my assistant GM’s Philip Shea and Marc Nelson, who helped me with a difficult situation in the first Heat, and also for continuing to come back and play after they both qualified for the Semifinal in the first Heat.

Two Heat winners had conflicts with other events. Shiv Chopra, who ended up winning Puerto Rico, and Kristin LaDue who went deep in the continuous knockout rounds of Lost Cities but was our photographer for the Final. We had 2 Semifinal tables of 4 players each.

The first table to finish took only 4 turns and ended via all but the C&O being out of stock, The PA cut off the NYC at Cleveland, and the B&O, PA, and Wabash all reached Chicago. It was won by Freya Alexander with $62, and Patrick Shea took second with $52. Those two moved on to the Final. Steve Cameron took third with $44, and Kristin LaDue took fourth with $40. All players ended up with 4 shares of stock, with the PA & NYC were the stellar performers with values above $20, and better value was had by the two players who moved on.

The second table was different. Only one railroad made it to Chicago, but it was the C&O, which also had sold all 6 of its shares. The B&O and PA were also fully sold out, which was the game end condition. Only the B&O had built all its links, while the Wabash never built at all. The four main railroads in the game (meaning not the Wabash) all ended with values between $22 and $33 with the PA being the highest. Philip Shea’s shrewd value investing gave him the win with $85. Joshua Acosta edged Mitzi Hubble out for the last seat at the Final by a single dollar, $70, to $69. Mitzi made more money on the last payout, so if she had one more dollar, she would’ve moved on. Our defending champion. Marc Nelson, had his reign ended here, finishing fourth with $60.

At the Final we had Philip Shea, Freya Alexander, Joshua Acosta, and Patrick Shea. The initial shares auction saw Philip getting the PA and the NYC for $15 each, while Patrick got the B&O for $14, and Freya took control of the C&O for $11. Joshua got nothing but had the most money.

Final Round 1

Final Round 2

Again we saw 3 capitalization actions to kick it off, with Philip again declining to put a share up. Freya and Joshua put up the NYC, and B&O, respectively, and each won the bidding for those shares. Then we again had 5 railroads expanding in turn, with the B&O expanding thrice, and getting within reach of Chicago in one build by reaching Fort Wayne. In comparison, the NYC had only reached Albany! The B&O was clearly the best railroad at this point, with an income of $16.

Final Round 3:

Philip once again went first, and this time he capitalized the B&O to try and get in on the income before it reached Chicago. However, Freya won the share for $16 and promptly expanded it into Chicago for the special Chicago dividend. B&O paid $8 per share to everyone but Philip, who was really in a bind now. The initial share of the Wabash went for $15 to Patrick, as it was certain that it would reach Chicago. Joshua responded by making sure Patrick didn’t get all of the Wabash special Chicago dividends for himself by capitalizing the other Wabash share, and Freya bought it for $14. Patrick then responded by capitalizing a share of PA, which he won at a price of $20. Philip expanded his NYC again, and then Freya expanded and built the Wabash into Chicago, netting Patrick & Freya $4 in special Chicago dividends. Joshua & Patrick then expanded the PA reaching Pittsburgh and Wheeling to increase revenues dramatically. PA & Wabash are out of stick at this point, and the B&O only has 1 share left to offer, so the game can end next round.

Philip went first yet again, in what would be the last round of the game. He capitalized the C&O and won the auction at $10. Freya capitalized the B&O and won the auction at $6. This was the 3rd company to have all its stock owned so the game will end at the end of the round. Joshua capitalized the C&O, and Philip bought it for $4. The round, and game, then finished with 5 consecutive expansions. Joshua and Patrick teamed up to get the PA to Chicago, while Freya expanded the Wabash, and Philip expanded the C&O. The PA paid $6 of special Chicago dividends to its stockholders.

At the end of the game everyone had a different number of shares: Freya with 5 shares, Philip 4, Patrick 3, and Joshua 2. However, while Joshua had the fewest shares, both of his stocks paid a special Chicago dividend, and he had spent by far the least on stock.

Final scores were Joshua 63, Patrick 58, Freya 57, Philip 54 and Final railroad income values were B&O 24, PA 19, NYC 10, C&O 9, Wabash 8.

No development actions were taken at the Final and a few players were heard to say that they don’t believe in development. More interestingly, there was the fact that every turn was 3 capitalization actions, followed by 5 expansion actions.

I would like to thank Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande Games for sponsoring this event again.