City Key Rules

[Tikhonov]

Hello everyone,

I would like to discuss the City Keys here, as I am not entirely happy with the current implementation. It's about the following three points:

1. If you cover the Kyoto route with the Osaka route the previously received Kyoto city key then no longer counts for the End Bonus card. I have read the original German manual and the English version and have not found any indication that this must be counted in this way. Logically, it doesn't make any sense, does it? I reached Kyoto before the route was extended and therefore received the City Key, why shouldn't it count?

2. If I receive two City Keys with an Advantage Token that I got via Factory 10b, they don't count towards the End Bonus card either. Similar to 1., I have not read any explicit rules on this in the manuals. Why should this be implemented this way?

3. This is what I find most interesting: After the expansion of the route towards Osaka, the fields Osaka #8 and Baotou #17 are connected, so to speak, in terms of bonuses. Based on the illustration on the board, I find it intuitive that you get two golden track steps and a city key on both spaces. This is even explicitly stated in the German manual (not in the English version though, but it is also not explicitly mentioned there that it has to be done differently):

Mit dem Osaka-Streckenausbau kannst du das [goldene] Gleis sowohl über Feld 8 der Strecke Osaka als auch über Feld 17 der Strecke Beijing erhalten. Die beiden Gleisschritte und den Schlüssel kannst du so 2 Mal erhalten.
Achtung: Bist du mit dem Gleis bereits auf oder über Feld 17 der Strecke Beijing gezogen, wenn du den Osaka-Streckenausbau hinlegst, erhältst du den Schlüssel rückwirkend.

Translation:

With the Osaka route extension, you can obtain the [golden] track both via field 8 of the Osaka route and via field 17 of the Beijing route. You can thus obtain the two track steps and the key twice.
Please note: If you have already moved the track to or over space 17 of the Beijing route when you lay the Osaka route extension, you will receive the key retroactively.

But the current implementation gives you only one city key even if you reach both field with your tracks.

I can somehow understand the implementation of point 2, as the Advantage Tokens are removed from the game and thus the City Keys in some way. Then, I find point 1 difficult and am looking forward to your opinion. But point 3 should definitely be fixed in my opinion. I lost important points (and the 2nd place) yesterday in an arena match because of it and that still annoys me a lot!

[FrankTom]

Hello

1: I don't know but I think it can be related with changing your board.
2: I can tell you for sure that the 2 keys obtained with the Advantage Token count for the End Bonus Card and are correctly implemented.
3: I agree with you.

[Tikhonov]

Are you sure? They did not count when I got them via factory 10b. And in the "How to play" of URR the current implementation regarding my points 1 and 2 is confirmed:

City Keys

Scoring is based on the keys visibly reached on the boards. A key covered up as possible in Asian Railroads or used and then discarded via factory 10b would not count.

So, this seems to be an own interpretation/philosophy for scoring the city keys. Anyway, I hope that the developer will fix point 3 (there are already reports in the bug report system)

[FrankTom]

I checked and in the games I played the advantage token counted but it was obtained on the board and not by factory 10b.

[Patrick of the Isles]

My memory from when this was first implemented is that the person designing the BGA implementation checked with the publisher and the clarification was that only things that are visible count, so the covered up or discarded keys do not count for the bonus card. It would be ideal for the publisher to post that publicly on the BGG forums if they have not done so already. The English rule book was somewhat confusingly-written and had many typos unfortunately.

The person designing the BGA implementation seemed to move on to other projects after this one was initially rolled out and only infrequently checks back in on this one, so bugs get resolved rather slowly, but I agree with you that #3 should be changed given the text you quote from the German rulebook.