I studied the rules of 1873 Harzbahn. Here’s a summary I created. It’s based on the July 5th 2011 version of the rules available at the Geek.

Start Auction Round

• first bid for first purchase right
• high bidder goes first, rest in the reverse order of passing
• high bid is Start Premium
• first bidder must buy mine/concession, with face value + Start Premium
• the rest pass or buy with Premium
• once everybody passes, Premium is reduced by 10
• ends when everything is sold, or players pass after Premium is reduced to 0
• unpurchased mines are now closed and certificates returned to bank

Trading Rounds / Auction Rounds

• players may auction available concessions and purchase options

Trading Rounds / Stock Rounds

• in the first Stock Round, the order is as determined in Start Auction Round
• on later rounds, turn order is determined by cash in hand after previous Stock Round (most cash goes first)

Selling shares

• shares from companies that haven’t operated pay one step less than their market price
• price goes down one step per share sold, except:
  • when company has not operated yet
  • stock value never drops below 50
  • MHE shares don’t lose value after MHE has bought a 5T
• token always goes on the bottom of the stack
• directorship remains with the owner of the concession until the company has bought the first compulsory train or becomes insolvent
• no limits on how many shares are in the bank pool, but generally can’t sell director’s share unless someone else has 20%

Buying shares

• when buying from IPO, money goes to bank if company hasn’t operated yet and to the company, if the company has already operated

Forming companies

• railway companies can be formed by a player who owns the concession and can buy at least one share
• first choose initial stock value: 120, 150, 190, 240 or 300 Marks
• shares are placed in IPO space
• owner of concession must buy one, may buy two shares
• companies float from the third original share sold
• two shares left are placed in the bank pool
• owner of the concession builds home stations by placing free station tokens to all marked station circles
• public mining companies can be formed from the second stock round
• player must own one mine, at least one mine must be available and at least one public mining co is available
• two mines are merged, one can be owned by other player if the player agrees
• closed mines can’t be used
• mining co forming process:
  • choose unformed public mining co
  • choose the initial mines
  • initial stock value is the average of face values of the merging mines, rounded down to valid stock value
  • mine certs are placed on the charter, as are the assets of the mines
  • machine markers remain with the respective mines and cannot be moved
  • former owners of the mines get 50% shares of the mining co
  • current player is the first director
• Harzer Werke AG is special
  • can be formed on the first SR by the owner of #12, if #12 is one of the initial mines
  • only Vor-Harzer mines are allowed
  • if #12 owner doesn’t form HW on the first stock round, any Vor-Harzer mine can form it on the second round

Exercising purchase options

• owner of a purchase option can buy 20-40% of a company with a single purchase action
• company is then released from receivership, acting player is the new director
• purchase options that are not exercised are forfeit without compensation

MHE shares

• no player is ever the director of MHE
• once the MHE acquires a 5T, share value can’t be changed by selling shares

Machines and Rolling Stock

• railway companies can buy trains and switchers
• mines can buy machines and switchers
• units can be purchased as machines or trains
• switchers are unlimited, mining companies can own one per mine
• railways can own unlimited switchers, but can’t use them to generate revenue
• machines cannot be traded, railway companies can trade trains

Operating Rounds

• independent mines first in asc order of face values, then public companies in desc order of stock value, then MHE

Operation of Private Mining Cos

• build track
  • if not connected to state railway, company can make one tile lay or upgrade
  • if pvt mining co pays construction costs, the owner is reimbursed from bank
  • track building can’t block concession routes
• production
  • fixed revenue if unconnected
  • revenue depends on machines and switchers if connected
  • deduct maintenance costs depending on game phase
  • maintenance costs are paid from treasury if necessary and mine is closed if bankrupt
  • profit is paid 50% to owner and 50% to treasury
• purchase and scrap machines
  • machines can be upgraded to bigger machines; old one is scrapped automatically
  • machines cannot be voluntarily removed
  • multiple upgrades are possible in one round
  • switchers can be bought from bank and from other companies
  • if maintenance is due, either buying or selling co must pay maintenance
  • independent mine can own one switcher, so old switchers are scrapped
• closing
  • owner can close the mine
  • owner gets the mine co treasury
  • mine retains 1-machine, scraps everything else

Operation of Public Mining Companies

• no track builds or upgrades
• production
  • sum of revenues of mines owned
  • can move switchers freely between mines
  • deduct maintenance costs
  • profit is withheld or paid out (50% or full payout)
  • bank rounds in favour of the player
  • stock value
    • up to three jumps, depending on distributed value vs the current stock value
    • token always goes on the bottom of the stack
• purchase mines
  • can buy one mine per OR from a player or a closed mine from bank
  • price from player is between 1 Mark and twice the face value
  • price from bank is always face value
• purchase and scrap machines
  • machines upgrade previous machines
  • public mining co may own at most one switcher per mine owned
• issue new shares
  • 50% company can issue three new shares; all shares are now 20%
  • 20% company can issue five new shares; shares are now 10%
  • to issue new shares, 20% co owner must own at least 40% of shares
  • new shares go to initial offering and when they are paid, they pay to company
• Harzer Werke is special
  • HW gets additional revenue of 50 Marks every OR
  • HW can only buy Vor-Harzer mines

Operation of Railway Companies

• build track
  • placing or upgrading track is only permitted if all new track is accessible for the building company
  • lay or upgrade two tiles, if both are
    • yellow or
    • green with two unconnected track sections
  • hills 50 Marks, mountain 100 Marks, high mountains 150 Marks
  • if company builds the concession route of another company, bank reimburses construction costs to the director of the building company
  • the concession route must be built on the first OR of an operating company as a single building action
  • all costs must be paid, even if the tiles were earlier built by another company
  • in companys first OR, no other track can be built
  • if concession was already complete, company can build other track on first OR
• stations
  • one station per OR
  • stations are placed active face up
  • station on empty circle: 100 Marks to bank
  • station replacing inactive station: 50 Marks to the company whose token is replaced
  • no permission required to replace inactive station
  • new station must be accessible
  • continuous route from active station, without any state track or blocked villages
• running trains
  • route must contain one station, active or inactive
  • routes may not end in blocked towns or villages
  • routes must end if they enter a town hex
  • state railway can never be a part of a route
  • a n-train runs n routes, which must form a connected network
  • concession route must be serviced with a standard train (not a diesel)
  • no routes serviced by standard trains can have any track in common
  • diesel services concession route and all other valid routes that are connected to the concession route
  • diesel routes must always start and end at own station tokens
  • as many routes as possible must be serviced, all routes must be serviced as far as possible, maximizing revenue is not required
  • all serviced stations are active, all other tokens become inactive
  • tokens on concession routes never become inactive
• calculating revenue
  • values of all stations of the company that are run to by a standard train
  • each station is counted only once, no matter how many trains run to it
  • each stop counts as 10 Marks, if at least one standard train runs to it
  • completely blocked villages (on concession route): 0 Marks
  • stations and stops run to by a diesel: 10 Marks
  • open mines run to by standard trains: mine’s multiplier x the size of the largest train running to the mine
  • mines are counted once, and mines in blocked hexes are not counted
  • plants pay the specified value, size of the train does not matter
  • plants in blocked hexes are not counted
  • deduct the maintenance costs of trains and switchers
  • profit is distributed as with the public mining companies
• buying and scrapping trains
  • in the first OR a standard train must be bought
  • NWE can’t buy a 1 as a compulsory train
  • if can’t buy compulsory train, company becomes insolvent and goes into receivership
  • director doesn’t have to buy an used train to avoid insolvency
  • when compulsory train is bought, concession is removed from the game; if somebody else has more shares than the owner of concession, they become the director
  • QLB has a built-in compulsory train
  • there are no limits to owning trains
  • only one diesel can be owned at any time
  • max price of train, switcher or Diesel from another company is twice the face value
  • last standard train of a company cannot be scrapped or sold
• issue new shares
  • if all shares are held by players and director has 40%, director can issue new shares
• QLB
  • no concession and only one home station
  • built-in compulsory train services Quedlinburg hex only, which counts as the obligatory servicing of the concession route
  • Quedlinburg can be counted twice
  • diesel owned by QLB must run to Quedlinburg
• Operating MHE
  • pays 100 x train size as dividends, adjusts share value
  • in the last OR of every set, MHE replaces old train by a new standard train (can be same size as the old train)
  • when MHE buys a 5T, it stops buying trains and share value becomes fixed

Insolvency and Receivership

• companies become insolvent if
  • can’t buy a compulsory train
  • revenue is lower than maintenance and treasury doesn’t contain enough money
• shares are returned to the bank without compensation
• IPO shares are moved to pool and company gets paid for them
• if this doesn’t create enough money, then company stock is changed from 50% to 20% and company gets paid for the new shares
• if this doesn’t create enough money, company is converted to 10%
• if there’s still not enough money, bank pays the missing costs; share value may rise
• if the insolvency was triggered by compulsory train, company now buys a train from bank
• in other cases, companies buy a train or machines, scrap obsolete machines and trains

Receivership

• profit is withheld, no drop in stock value
• if maintenance can’t be paid, company is recapitalised
• to release a company from receivership, a purchase option must be auctioned
• exercising a purchase option releases a company from receivership

Game End

• share value reaches 1000, game ends after current OR
• start of phase 5, two sets of 3 ORs are played
• cash + shares + face values of independent mines