A Session in Iraq

During summer holidays, i have plenty of time to play with my friends at my favorite game Age of Steam, even to imagine new expansions . But today, we want to come back in Iraq, to adjust the bonus rule of black cubes (oil).
Brice (purple), Guillaume (yellow) and I (black) flew to Bagdad. I roll three dice to place 4 cubes in the first oilfield in the North, 2 in the middle and 6 in the South... We will play with the veteran variant and we will throw only two dice in the production phase to supply goods !!
Brice builds in the South with the first build action, Guillaume, in the West, and I build in the North. I deliver two cubes for 4 incomes in the first turun and nobody tries to stop my development in the North. I choose the Engineer action in the second turn, but that was a big mistake, because i do not deliver any cubes at this turn. In the same time Guillaume links Bagdad that has 3 colors (yellow, red and blue). There are very interesting purple cubes, but they stay in Koweit that is a purple city. I think Guillaume has noticed that point because he urbanizes in purple in the West of iraq. In turn 3 and 4, Brice stays alone in the South with potentially 6 black cubes, but he has not enought locomotive to deliver them in USA. He builds a very clever network and in turn 5 begins to transport his first black cube in USA. As my network is the North, i realize it could be very difficult to stop the black deliveries of my friend. Guillaume builds near Koweit to ennoy his brother Brice and i do the same. 



The new action US Army was not choosen till turn 7. I urbanized in Black near Brice's oilfield to reduce his income when he deliveres black cubes and i choose the enginneer action in turn 7 to link Bagdad with the middle oilfield and with my network. I deliver my two last black cubes. Guillaume and Brice fights for the purple cubes in Koweit . But Brice and his nifty network is unbeatable in the south...


In the last three turn, interesting cubes are very rare and we fight for the US army action that allow a cube to pass throught a city of its own color (only one time!). I have too many shares to win but i can hope a second place with my 7 black cubes. Brice has transported 6 black cubes but he is too far way on the income track (near 45 in the last turn before tax reduction!). Guillaume has only 1 cube that he stole me in Bagdad in the turn 9. He said "that cube allow me to be second" I realize he was right...
In the rules, each black cubes transported outside Iraq gets 3 VPs. 



Players                       Guillaume yellow)    Alban(black)  Brice(purple)
(Income - Shares)          75                        48               93
Track                           23                        32               24
Black Cubes*3                 3                        21               18
Sub total (without b.c.)   98                        80              117
Total (with b.c)             101                      101             135

To win the game, i solve this stupid equation to know how much one black cube should increase your income:
X is the bonus for each black cube:
117 + 6X < 80 + 7X
X>37.... If we attribute 38 VPs for each black cubes, i will win the game !!!! ;-)))
But my players disagree, i don't know why..... We think that 3 points are enought, but we notice that it is very difficult to transport black cubes outside Irak. That is that i wanted. It is also difficult to focus his network only on black cubes. US Army is a very powerfull action in the last turns.


I hope many gamers will enjoy with playing this expansion that is not so innovative than New york city subway in the reverse side but still a very interesting challenge with the new action US Army, and black cubes.