Anatomy of a Genre: Train Games, Part Three — Stock Holding

This is the (somewhat delayed) third article in my series dissecting train games. The first part covered connections train games and the second part covered pickup-and-delivery train games. This one covers railroad gaming’s final major mechanic: stock holding.


In my opinion, stock holding train games can be the most complex in the category. That’s because they’re sometimes full of numbers and can run for many hours. So, consider this the other end of the spectrum from the simple games that I covered when writing about connections. I should also be upfront and say that this is the sort of train game that I personally have the least relationship with, as connections and pickup-and-delivery games tend to be more my speed. (Nonetheless, I seem to have played almost a half-dozen of them!)

Stock Holding

1830

1830

The stock holding mechanic permits players to buy partial ownership in some entity. This allows multiple players to all share in the ownership of the entity — and perhaps to even buy and sell it over the course of the game.

The trick is, of course, to figure out how to value the entity that everyone’s buying into — because the act of buying cheaply into an entity and then having it grow in value is usually how one wins a stock holding game. However, dividends and the sale (or merger!) of entire companies can also raise monies.

It should go without saying that when you combine stock holding mechanics with train games, you get players investing in railroad lines.

Continue reading