264 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
264 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
# Station Master — Card Reference
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> **⚠ SUPERSEDED.** This described an invented 52-card placeholder. The real catalogue arrived on
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> 2026-07-30 in `docs/Deck cards2.xlsx`, `Trains3.pdf` and `Mainline Cards.pdf`, and is transcribed
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> in `src/engine/content.ts`. See [`implications.md`](implications.md) for the full comparison.
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>
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> Kept for the reasoning it records — the economy analysis in §7 was how we knew what questions to
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> ask the design. **Do not use its numbers.**
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The per-card catalogue: what is printed on every card. This is the specification the rules engine
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instantiates from and that any print-and-play layout renders. It says *what each card says*, not how
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it looks.
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Derived from [`rules-v0.2.md`](rules-v0.2.md) §12 and the Gap 10 decisions in
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[`open-questions.md`](open-questions.md#gap-10--card-face-specifications).
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*All values provisional — calibration targets to retune after play.*
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---
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## 1. The Home Office deck — 52 cards
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| Category | Cards | §12.1 |
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| --- | ---: | --- |
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| [Timetabled Trains](#3-train-cards) | 12 | one each, 1–12 |
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| [Extra Trains](#3-train-cards) | 4 | X9–X12 |
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| [Office upgrades](#4-office-cards) | 9 | Depot ×4, Station ×3, Terminal ×2 |
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| [Freight Facilities](#2-freight-facility-cards) | 10 | 5 types × 2 |
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| [Modifier Facilities](#5-modifier-cards) | 5 | one each |
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| [Plain track](#6-track-cards) | 12 | turnout ×6, straight ×3, run-around ×3 |
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| **Total** | **52** | |
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---
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## 2. Freight Facility cards
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Ten cards, **five types in identical pairs**. Every freight facility card carries: a track with the
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Operational Rail wheel icon, an industry track of the stated length, Laborer icons, the
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`MEN | AT | WORK` three-box turn track, and its green Outbound and/or red Inbound boxes.
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| Facility | Car type | Direction | Laborers | Outbound | Inbound | Industry track | Copies |
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| --- | --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
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| Mine Tipple | Hopper | Outbound only | 3 | 3 | — | 4 | 2 |
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| Produce Shed | Reefer | Outbound only | 2 | 2 | — | 3 | 2 |
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| Grocer's Warehouse | Boxcar | Both | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
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| Oil Refinery | Tank car | Both | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
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| Power Plant | Hopper | Inbound only | 3 | — | 3 | 4 | 2 |
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Directions follow the commodity: coal originates at a Mine Tipple and is consumed at a Power Plant;
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produce ships out; a warehouse and a refinery do both. This gives §9 all three of its cases —
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outbound-only, inbound-only, and both.
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**"Freight House"** (§9.3, Appendix A) is not a card. It is the collective term for a freight facility
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that loads *and* unloads — the Grocer's Warehouse and the Oil Refinery. §9.3's "Passenger Facilities
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and Freight Houses permit cars to move each direction" therefore names exactly those two.
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### Throughput — why these Laborer counts
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A complete freight load takes **four Laborer-actions** (§9.3): Green → MEN → AT → WORK → onto the
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car. Laborers are usable once each per Stage.
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**`MEN | AT | WORK` is a pipeline, not a queue.** §9.1 allows one Load on each of its three boxes, so
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up to three loads are in flight at once and each Laborer advances one of them per Stage. This is the
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key to reading the numbers: **Laborer count is throughput, not latency.**
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```
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single load, 2 Laborers → completes in 2 Stages
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single load, 3 Laborers → completes in 2 Stages (no faster!)
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pipeline full, 3 Laborers → one load completes EVERY Stage
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```
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The extra Laborer buys nothing on one load and triples output on a full pipeline.
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**And the pipeline can only be fed one load per Stage**, because stocking the green box costs a whole
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Local Operations action (§6.3). So a 3-Laborer facility is exactly balanced against the feed rate —
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it completes loads as fast as a player can possibly supply them. The 2-Laborer facilities are the
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deliberately slower industries, unable to quite keep up with a dedicated player.
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That is why Laborer counts track Outbound capacity: Mine Tipple 3/3, Power Plant 3/3, Produce Shed
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2/2, Grocer's Warehouse 2/2. The numbers are derived from the action budget, not chosen freely.
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The Oil Refinery is the exception at 3 Laborers against 2+2 capacity, and deliberately so: it serves
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two flows through one three-box pipeline, so its pipeline stays fuller than a one-way facility's and
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the third Laborer is earning its keep.
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Even so, Laborers are rarely what limits a player — spotting the empty car and hauling the loaded one
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away both cost switching actions from the same budget. See §7.
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---
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## 3. Train cards
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Sixteen cards. Each carries its number, a direction from the card image, the consist specification,
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and the required order: **engine at the front, revenue cars, caboose last where required**.
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Odd numbers run westbound, even eastbound. Pairs are sister trains under the optional rule (Appendix
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B). Seniority runs passenger-first — low numbers are the varnish, high numbers the drags and locals.
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| Trains | Class | Consist | Direction |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| 1 / 2 | Limited | 4 coaches, no caboose | W / E |
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| 3 / 4 | Mail-Express | 3 coaches, no caboose | W / E |
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| 5 / 6 | Manifest Freight | 3 boxcars or reefers + caboose | W / E |
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| 7 / 8 | Coal Drag | 3 hoppers + caboose | W / E |
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| 9 / 10 | Oil Train | 3 tank cars + caboose | W / E |
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| 11 / 12 | Way Freight | 3 cars of any type + caboose | W / E |
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| X9, X10, X11, X12 | Extra | Any 3 cars + caboose, player's choice | Head-on — player chooses |
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A Crew Tray holds at most **four** Rolling Stock and a caboose counts toward that four (§A.4), which
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is why no caboose train carries more than three revenue cars.
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Only trains 1–4 carry coaches, so passenger work at any Office depends on those four trains' visits.
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---
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## 4. Office cards
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Nine upgrade cards in the deck (Depot ×4, Station ×3, Terminal ×2 — the pyramid Gap 3b requires).
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Whistle Posts are a fixed supply outside the deck (§12.2).
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| Office | Control Point | Passenger Facility | A/D tracks | Porters | Green slots | Red slots | In deck |
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| --- | :---: | :---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
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| Whistle Post | no | no | 1 | — | — | — | supply |
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| Depot | yes | yes | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
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| Station | yes | yes | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
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| Terminal | yes | yes | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
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**Slot capacity deliberately exceeds Porter count.** Only trains 1–4 carry coaches, so an Office needs
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somewhere to bank boarding passengers between visits and room to absorb a whole trainload of
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arrivals. Slot counts mirror the A/D track progression.
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**All four tiers carry identical track geometry** (§11.3): a through track plus a plain junction stub
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above and below. Upgrades are drop-in and must never disturb a connection.
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---
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## 5. Modifier cards
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Five cards, one each. A Modifier is **not track**. It is placed adjacent to a Facility, on any of the
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nine nearby spots, and if adjacent to two Facilities its effect may be used on only one per Stage
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(§9).
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| Card | Effect | Applies to |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| Team Track | +1 car on the industry track | Freight |
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| Loading Dock | +1 green Outbound capacity | Freight |
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| Storage Shed | +1 red Inbound capacity | Freight |
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| Extra Platform | +1 green **and** +1 red slot | Passenger |
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| Section Gang | +1 Laborer **or** +1 Porter | Either |
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Capacity modifiers matter more than they sound: banking room, not worker count, is what limits
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output. Section Gang is the only way to speed a facility up, and is deliberately the sole
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worker-adding card.
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---
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## 6. Track cards
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Twelve plain track cards. Every one carries the Operational Rail wheel icon **except turnouts**, which
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a train may pass through but not stop on (§A.1).
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| Geometry | Count | Notes |
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| --- | ---: | --- |
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| Turnout | 6 | Enter from A → B or C; enter from B or C → A only. Not Operational Rail. |
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| Straight | 3 | Operational Rail |
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| Run-around | 3 | Operational Rail. Required for the facing-point move of §A.5. |
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Turnout-heavy because turnouts are how Secondary Track branches onward once the Office card's own
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junction stubs are built out (§11.3).
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---
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## 7. Economy summary
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**Local Operations actions are the main currency.** One per Stage, twelve per Day, and each is
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exclusive — switch, *or* draw, *or* work the Freight Agent (§6).
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| Revenue source | Local Ops cost |
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| --- | --- |
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| Freight load **out** | 1 to stock the green box, plus amortized switching |
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| Freight **unload** | **none up front** — 1 later, only once the red box fills |
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| Passenger boarding | 1 to stock a loaded coach |
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| Passenger de-training | **none up front** — 1 later to clear the slot |
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> **⚠ Corrected against simulation.** An earlier version of this section claimed every Revenue point
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> costs about one action, giving a ceiling of 12/Day. **That is wrong**, and the error is
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> instructive: the two *inbound* operations need no Local Ops action at all at the moment they
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> score. A loaded car arrives on a train, per-Stage Laborers walk it off, and the point is earned
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> using only free per-Stage resources. The action is spent later, and only when a box actually
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> fills.
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>
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> That earlier correction was itself measured against a **scoring bug** — unloads were paying a full
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> Revenue point after one Laborer action instead of four. With the pipeline corrected, simulation
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> gives **~0.9 Revenue/player/Day and a 0% win rate** against these targets.
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>
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> **Treat the 5–6/Day figure as unfounded.** It was derived from the mistaken model above and has not
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> been re-derived. The measured cost of one freight point is four Laborer actions plus a stocking
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> action plus the switching to spot a car. See `open-questions.md` Gap 12.
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### The development ramp
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Players open with a Whistle Post — not a Passenger Facility — and no freight facilities at all. The
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timetable also starts empty, so no trains run until someone draws and plays a train card.
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```
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Day 1 ~0 no facilities, no trains yet
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Day 2 ~2 first facility placed, first train running
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Day 3 ~5 developed
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Day 4+ ~6 steady state
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cumulative: 3 Days ≈ 7 5 Days ≈ 19 10 Days ≈ 49
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```
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The §3 victory targets (10 / 20 / 45) are set just under these cumulative figures, so a game is
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winnable by a player running well and missed by one who is not. The Competitive collective floor of
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`3 × players × Days` is about half of expected output and is comfortably met by a functioning
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Division.
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---
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## 8. Fixed supplies (outside the deck)
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| Component | Count |
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| --- | --- |
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| Mainline cards (tarot, 2 regions each) | N + 1 for N players |
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| Division Point cards | 2 (East, West) |
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| Whistle Post cards | N + spares |
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| Limits cards | 2N + spares |
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| Crew Trays and engines | player count + 3 |
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| Number Boards | 12, numbered 1–12 |
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| Red Flag cards | 1 per player *(optional rule only; removed from game when played)* |
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| Fedora | 1 |
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| Pocket Watch | 1 |
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| D12 | 1 |
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### Rolling Stock — 62 pieces
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| Type | Loaded | Empty |
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| --- | ---: | ---: |
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| Coaches (blue) | 8 | 8 |
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| Boxcars (brown) | 6 | 6 |
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| Hoppers (brown) | 6 | 6 |
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| Reefers (brown) | 4 | 4 |
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| Tank cars (brown) | 4 | 4 |
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| Cabooses (red) | 6 | — |
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| **Total** | | **62** |
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**Supply check against facility demand.** Worst case is every copy of every facility in play at once
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with all boxes full:
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| Car | Facility demand | Supply | Headroom |
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| --- | ---: | ---: | --- |
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| Hopper | Mine Tipple 3×2 + Power Plant 3×2 = 12 | 12 | exactly met |
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| Tank | Oil Refinery (2+2)×2 = 8 | 8 | exactly met |
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| Boxcar | Grocer's (2+2)×2 = 8 | 12 | 4 spare |
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| Reefer | Produce Shed 2×2 = 4 | 8 | 4 spare |
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| Coach | Terminal 4+4, per Office | 16 | scales with Office count |
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Hoppers and tank cars are exactly met in the theoretical worst case, which cannot occur in practice —
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only 10 freight facility cards exist across a 52-card deck shared by all players, and the §2.2
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Classification Yard recycle returns stock to the Division Yard whenever it empties. Both are worth
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watching in playtesting.
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