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Crisis is an advanced business game. Tycoons rob and restructure combines in a social market economy. The major topics are dubious stock market machinations, companies controlling others, and major business crises. Railroading is simulated for subways in a downtown megalopolis.
Crisis simulates some of the most complex aspects of business in the real world: crises resulting from overextended stock markets and tycoons depleting companies and restructuring combines. So the game is extremely tough even for advanced players that appreciate deep strategy. A tiny mistake can cause chaos. Concerning the topics, you should not only like business but particularly enjoy devious manipulations. On the other hand, it is immaterial that the surface is chosen to be railroading, although good construction of flexible networks cannot be neglected in practice. 18xx-lovers will see Crisis to prefer business to railroading, variability to restriction, and invention to tradition.
On the surface the game consists of business and railways. The business part is represented by a stock market, companies, shares, and money. The stock market regulates prices of shares in the twelve companies. The railway part is simulated by tiles, trains, company tokens, and signals. Tiles form subway tracks, stations, and parks in a city. Trains run on routes along tracks. Signals influence directions of routes. A company's tokens are used to control stations, to go beyond other companies' stations, or to stop opposing routes at signals. The network of tracks in the city becomes more and more complex and flexible signals or company tokens frequently alter routes.
Crisis has evolved from 18xx railroad business games and therefore uses some of their traditional concepts but it can be played independently of its origin. Everyone familiar with 18xx games knows that the share business is their crucial part while railways are an enjoyable means of simulating causes for the stock market prices. Each entity, whether player or company, has its own property. In the end only a player's personal cash and share values count. He is confronted with the conflict of financing his controlled companies well or profiting from paying dividends mercilessly. The shareholder holding a majority in a company is its director and solely acts on its behalf. The ruthless manager depletes companies just before disposing of his shares in them. Like in every 18xx, shareholders become optimistic if dividends are paid and the stock price increases; they become pessimistic if it decreases because income is paid to a company's treasury. If demand for shares is high, then a market price is raised, if shares are sold, then it drops quickly. Trains become more and more expensive but can visit an increasing number of stations. Early trains are scrapped while permanent electric trains double their revenue. A first train of a new generation triggers a phase change that eliminates old trains and makes available also a new generation of tiles showing more track or higher station values. Throughout the game prices and incomes inflate considerably increasing moving capital and thus unpredictability.
Compared to 18xx games Crisis uses innovative and flexible concepts for the flow of turns, the construction of networks, and the movement of shares.
A traditional separation of operating rounds for company turns from stock rounds for player turns is replaced by the deceiptively unspectacular concept of rounds for both companies and players. However, since players take turns after their immediately controlled companies, the order of all turns dynamically depends on the companies' variable stock market prices, the players can always try to influence the order, and thus trade with shares timely. Besides the stock market with its own interdependencies intensifies dynamics of turns. Predicting and controlling their order requires careful strategic and tactical planning.
Construction of subway networks does not take place on a board or map but square tiles are laid within an imagined 6x6 chess board, called the city. The tiles' shape and their colourful appearance represent a downtown area of an American megalopolis. At first a 6x6 city seems small but with six generations of tile upgrades the dense, highly interactive competiton for space is very demanding. The virtual board allows variants of the game easily: A smaller city leads to a quicker game, a bigger one to a more peaceful construction. Why is there no historical map? It would only provide terrain restrictions. Without them construction starts fairly balanced and at the same time built networks vary greatly from game to game. Neither is a single player expelled early nor is a group of players bored upon seeing the same strategies every game. Needless to say, certain company tokens can be removed and signals change, adding a lot of excitement in the fight for the best routes.
In every stock market game players may buy and sell shares. Letting companies trade shares in foreign companies is already rather uncommon in games. Here Crisis starts: Principally players and companies may buy as many shares as they like, companies are even forced to purchase foreign shares, thereby complex company hierarchies are frequently built, restructured, or destroyed, and shares may be traded within each hierarchy controlled by a player. Trading conditions depend on seller and buyer, company types, prices, volume, and distribution of shares, directorship, possibly receivership, and time and order of actions so that strategies must fit a great variety of circumstances. The real fun begins when an under-endowed company goes into receivership: Not only the director (like in any other 18xx game) but all shareholders are responsible and have to support the company. Cute shareholders are not affected while others might suffer from harsh supports repetitively! The experienced player can try to predict this tough and complex way of financing and intentionally let pay the other shareholders. There are two additional types of share movements: donations can also include foreign shares and if a company remains in receivership because supports may not be exceeded voluntarily, then this changes some directors and moves further shares.
The mechanisms for financing a company are tough and unforgiving: Normal trades of trains or foreign shares between it and another company (or a player) require one to be the director of the other. Supports to it, however, are a nightmare. The most valuable cash or assets must be spent first. Even worse, support amounts are prescribed so that expenses remain insufficient or can be much higher than expected.
The various ways of trading shares and restructuring combines make the game so complex that easily a company is not financed efficiently but unexpectedly remains under-endowed. Then it goes into receivership and all shareholders are responsible and have to support it. Since also other companies own foreign shares, the interdependence between all players and companies is great.
A company getting insufficient support remains in receivership and its director loses his shares in it to the bank while all remaining shareholders may not sell their shares but remain responsible. A company in receivership does not operate but lives mainly from their repetitive supports until a healthy shareholder dares to end receivership by buying the director certificate from the bank and then financing the company.
Supports per se, supports higher or tougher than expected, repetitive supports, the prohibition to sell shares in companies in receivership, or shares lost as a director all increase the likelihood that more and more companies become under-endowed, go into, and remain in receivership, too. This iterative process is sometimes so powerful that a major business crisis emerges naturally. Then an investor is faced with a decision of winning by controlling the last dying company, by selling all shares first, or by stopping the crisis by temporarily sacrificing personal wealth.
Unlike all other 18xx that always simulate a boom and rarely have any significant chaos, Crisis simulates stock markets of the world very convincingly without even mentioning the following in the rules. Needless to say, prices depend on market psychology. Like in a real market economy there are times with either some prices raising and others dropping, a boom, or a recession. The market is chaotical and hence hardly predictable; tiny changes can result in either a boom, a recession, or even a major business crisis.
The game starts peacefully balanced for all players and companies. The market economy has social elements that severely restrict the effect of negotiations. Only superior competitive skill gives an advantage, which may easily be lost during the dark and eventful middle game. In it players and companies must constantly struggle to survive as well as the market economy permits it. Succeeding allows reaching the endgame with a good position. The then highly inflated incomes lead to an exciting game end.