Hello all,

I picked up this neat game a couple of weeks ago and have read the rules (2nd edition, with the copyright date of 1996), and the errata, and I have also played about 3 hours solo. I still have some questions though:

1) Has anyone found a way to denote ownership of the bandit counters on the map? I mean, they're all red, and they all look the same...I was thinking of maybe putting a coloured euro-style block on top of the counter matching the colour of the player.

2) A mine can be partially burned, yes? Can it be repaired after being burned? How? I was thinking of using the same rule as for partially burned smelters: 2 Au to restore each burn hit.

3) I was playing solo with 2 imaginary players, and ran into this scenario. When I flipped the quarterly card, it was a bandit unit. In the auction phase, player 1 won the card. Player 2 did not have any cards except for his starting hacienda. In the tactical round segment, player 1 started moving around burning and looting player 2's hacienda (when player 2 saw the bandit coming, he ran into a city block because he doesn't have police protection on his hacienda if it shows it as not being in the city block, right?) and mine. My question is this: since he has no protection, could the bandits conceivably make 45 or so attempts to kidnap the hacendado, since the he doesn't have any troop cards to protect him? I understand that if the hacendado has run into a city block, the bandits would have to possibly deal with the police, but that aside, is there anything the poor hacendado player can do? I was thinking of adding my own rule, similar to the 'buried goods' rule (11.53) that once an attempt has been made on the hacendado, he can go into hiding if he wasn't found on the first try. On any subsequent turn, or next quarter, he can reveal himself and act normally. If this rule isn't in effect, pretty much 1 bandit can go around kidnapping any hacendado if the other players don't have a combat counter to deal with them, right?

4) Taxation (rule 10.8) - do the taxes gathered by Orange counters come from the opposing player's card, or does it come from the treasury. I would have thought the former, but in the errata, it says that if there is no money at the location, it can still be taxed by Orange counters if it made money that turn - although it still doesn't say if it comes from opposing player's money or the treasury.

That's it! I think this is a really neat game, and I'm almost ready to have it hit the table with my friends!

Thanks for your time.