The dilemma. The potato blight has struck and Wexmill is hungry. The grain merchants who ship by your line say hold the grain back until prices peak, and they offer you a share. Your accountant agrees.
From the gameThe painting on this decision card in Ferrovia.
What would you do?
Play itDecision 1 of 1
Dilemma
Grain merchants say hold the famine grain
The potato blight has struck and Wexmill is hungry. The grain merchants who ship by your line say hold the grain back until prices peak, and they offer you a share. Your accountant agrees.
If the roll succeedsBread falls to a fair price in Wexmill. The merchants call you a traitor to your class.If it failsThe merchants pull their trade and Fenwick, their banker, turns cold. Wexmill eats, at least.
What happenedGrain sits in your sheds while Wexmill starves. The profit is real, and so is the anger.
What happenedThe trains run as usual. Some grain reaches Wexmill, too little and too dear.
No right answer.
In the game the roll is d20 plus your adviser’s skill. Here the bonus is a flat +2.
The options and what happens
Carry relief grain to Wexmill free of charge (£800).Bold · decided by a d20 roll against 13
Succeeds: Bread falls to a fair price in Wexmill. The merchants call you a traitor to your class.
Fails: The merchants pull their trade and Fenwick, their banker, turns cold. Wexmill eats, at least.
Hold the grain with the merchants (+£500).Certain outcome
Grain sits in your sheds while Wexmill starves. The profit is real, and so is the anger.
Carry what is offered, at the usual rate.Certain outcome
The trains run as usual. Some grain reaches Wexmill, too little and too dear.
About this card
This is one of 8 hand-written dilemmas set in Ferrovia (1846, the height of the railway mania), one of three ages in Be a CEO, a business strategy game where you run a trading house. Each dilemma has one bold option, decided by dice, and safer options with certain outcomes. The text above is the card exactly as it appears in the game, with the amounts it showed on the first day of a new game.
Questions
What are the options in “Grain merchants say hold the famine grain”?
There are three: “Carry relief grain to Wexmill free of charge (£800)”; “Hold the grain with the merchants (+£500)”; “Carry what is offered, at the usual rate”. The first is the bold option: the game rolls a d20 plus your adviser’s skill against 13. The other two have certain outcomes.
What happens if the bold choice fails?
The merchants pull their trade and Fenwick, their banker, turns cold. Wexmill eats, at least.
What happens if the bold choice succeeds?
Bread falls to a fair price in Wexmill. The merchants call you a traitor to your class.
More Ferrovia dilemmas
Third class in open trucksEvery line carries third-class passengers in open trucks, in rain and smoke and sparks.
Written by the Mantar Tech team from the game’s own data and text. Be a CEO is in closed alpha, so numbers and cards can change. About the art: much of it was made with AI tools and then selected and edited by hand.
