Railway Board (Guide)

Early Railway Content and Onwards

This guide is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.

What needs work: Missing information on July

Railway Board Meetings Summary
Locked Limited-Length Activity
Setup				Progress				End
1 A				4+ A				1 A
Progress Details			Convince each Board Member to your side. This is per issue.
Items Inputs/Outputs Boosting Queen Mate Epaulette Mate Board Member's Favour: The Bishop of Southwark Board Member's Favour: The Bishop of St Fiacre's Credit with the Headmistress Portable Fingerking Moot Outputs Moon-Pearl Magnificent Diamond Consignment of Scintillack Snuff Bottle of Broken Giant 1844 Fourth City Airag Advance!
Raw EPA						8.21

The Board of Directors are a bunch of personalities that can assist you in various ways, but also make development of the Railway difficult for you. Before any major action in the Railway, you need to hold a board meeting and have approval from all current board members.

Most importantly, opportunities for board meetings are limited to two a week while you are building the Railway, and one a week once you have finished.

Getting stuck in a meeting because of a stiff Persuasive challenge from a disagreeable board member can be unpleasant. Thus, the following guide is meant to help keep your meetings, and the trains, running as smooth as possible.

How Board Meetings Work

A board meeting can be called by selecting a proposal on Convene a Board Meeting of the Great Hellbound Railway. Once inside, the only way to leave is to successfully pass a vote and then adjourn (end the meeting), or to give up in the middle of a vote and then adjourn. Menaces such as Scandal don't take full effect until you return to London.

Every decision by the board must be approved unanimously: you must convince every single member, individually (with a few exceptions). This requires passing at least one Persuasive check per member. Once you have convinced everyone, the proposal will pass.

Many proposals, such as paying dividends or adding room for baggage, take effect immediately. The one (rather enormous) exception is that proposals to build track or stations unlock relevant options in The Next Stretch of Track, where you must then invest resources to get things actually built.

Many proposals will increase In Corporate Debt when passed, and are locked off if your Corporate Debt is too high. Therefore, it is advisable to pay off said Debt between meetings so that you can do as much per meeting as possible. (How to do so is discussed below.)

After votes, you can then choose between a list of the remaining proposals you can hold votes about. If you select one, you will go into another voting phase all over again. There will also be an option to end the meeting and go back to London. (Any remaining proposals will, of course, not be proposed.)

You generally then have to wait until your personal Time, the Healer allows you to reconvene. However, if your Railway is still under construction, you may get Help from the Board Secretary to convene a second meeting in the same week.

Opposition from Board Members

Each board member is looking out for certain interests, and earning their vote is harder when your proposal works against those interests. Board members may also be "persuaded" by different tactics. The table below summarizes the tactics and persuasion techniques for each board member.

Mechanically, earning the vote of most Board members requires a Persuasive check with a base difficulty of 100. This difficulty is increased by each Interest of your proposal multiplied by the relevant board member's Interest, with each board member responding to different Interests. In most cases, the difficulty may also be reduced by raising one of three persuasion qualities. This Persuasive check can be repeated without penalty.

Most board members have one interest they care deeply about (raising the difficulty by 40), two to five issues they care moderately about (raising difficulty by 20), and one persuasion technique they respond to. Some board members also have interests that will decrease the difficulty.

For example, convincing The Efficient Commissioner to Vote Virginia off the board would require a difficulty check of 100 + (10 x 20) + (10 x 20) = 500.

Board Members Issues

Alternate Table of Factors that Affect Board Members

Member	Base	Weak																		Notes
	100	50	-	-	-	-	20	-	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	40	-	20	-
	100	40	40	-	20	-	20	20	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	-	20	-	-
	400	50	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	100	∞	-	-	-	-	20	-	20	-	-	-	-	20	-	-	-	20	40
	100	50	20	-	-	20	40	20	-	-	-	-	20	-	-	20	-	-	-
	100	50	20	-	20	-	-	40	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	20	-	-	-
	100	50	-	20	-	-	20	-	-	-	20	-	-	20	-	-	20	40	-
	100	40	-	40	-	-	-20	-	20	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20	-	20
	100	40	20	20	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20	40	-	20
	100	40	-	-	-20	-	20	-	40	-	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	20	20
	100	40	20	-	-	-	20	-	-	-	40	-	-	20	-	20	-	-	-
	100	40	-20	-	-	40	20	-	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20
	100		-	-	-	-	-	-	20	20	-	-	40	-	-	-	-	-	20
	100	40	-	-	-	-	-	40	20	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20	-	-
	100	40	-	-	10	-	20	-	-	-	10	-	-	-	-	10	10	10	-
	100	40	-	-	-	20	20	40	-20	-	-	-	40	-	-	-	20	-	-
	100	50	-	-	-	-	20	-	-	20	20	-	20	-	-	-	20	40	-
	100	40	-	-	-	20	20	20	20	-	-	40	-	-	-	-	-	20	-
	200	??	-	-	-	-	-10	-	-	-	-	-	10	-	-	-	-	-	-
	100	40	-20	-	-	-	20	-	-	20	-	-	40	-	-	-	-	20	-
	0		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	50	-	-	-	-	-
	100	40	-	60	20	-	20	-	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	-	20	-	-
	100	40	-	20	20	-	-20	60	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20
	100	40	20	-	20	-	20	-	-	-	-	-	-20	-	20	20	20	-	-
	100	40	20	20	20	-	-	-20	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20	-	-	20
	100		-	-	40	-20	-	-	-	-	20	20	-	-	-	-	-	20	-

The pages for persuading each Board Member also have a table that shows the difficulty ratings for the challenges.

Influencing the Board

The main methods to influence the board are Corruption of the Board, Obfuscation of the Board, and Respectability Factor.

• Corruption affects: Virginia, the Bishop of Saint Fiacre's, the Gracious Widow, the Hell-Scarred Gondolier, the Drummer, the Wry Functionary.
• Obfuscation affects: the Efficient Commissioner, the Bishop of Southwark, Furnace Ancona, the Tentacled Entrepreneur, the Wandering Gondolier, July, September.
• Respectability affects: His Amused Lordship, Feducci, the Dean of Xenotheology, the Viscountess of the Viric Jungle, January, Cornelius, the Delightful Reverend, the Dauntless Temperance Campaigner.
• The Remaining potential board members are: Jovial Contrarian, Sinning Jenny, April, Rubbery Yes-Man, the Implacable Detective.

Action	Result	Constraints
Corruption of the Board
Hint at one or two things you know	+6	If you are a Midnighter and don't already have any Corruption.
Support Virginia's motion regarding a route to Moulin	+3	One-off benefit only on the route from Burrow-Infra-Mump to Moulin, and only if you support Virginia's proposal.
Treat your fellow board members to a sumptuous repast	+3	Repeatable. Costs 1 x Pot of Venison Marrow, 1 x Bottle of Broken Giant 1844, 1 x Solacefruit. Cannot be chosen if the Dauntless Temperance Campaigner is a member of the board.
Obfuscation of the Board
Begin the meeting with a few words	+6	If you are a Crooked-Cross and don't already have any Obfuscation.
Support July's motion regarding a route to Moulin	+3	One-off benefit only on the route from Burrow-Infra-Mump to Moulin, and only if you support July's proposal.
Confuse truth and fiction	+4	Repeatable. Mithridacy 2 test (100% at Mithridacy 7+). Test difficulty is increased by current Obfuscation/2. +3 CP Scandal on failure.
Respectability Factor
Support His Amused Lordship's motion regarding a route to Moulin	+3	One-off benefit only on the route from Burrow-Infra-Mump to Moulin, and only if you support His Amused Lordship's proposal.
Rely on your personal respectability and authority	+3	Repeatable. A Player of Chess 2 test. Test difficulty is increased by current Respectability Factor x2, and reduced by Respectable/3. +3 CP Scandal on failure.

It is optimal to have all your Board members share the same influential vulnerability, so you do not spend multiple actions building up each type separately.

The Midnighter's checkless Corruption option is equivalent to two sumptuous repasts, which saves a significant amount of resources. On the other hand, the Crooked-Cross's checkless Obfuscation option is mostly just more action-efficient than having (modified) Mithridacy 7.

There is no checkless Respectability option, but acquiring Respectable Items is much easier than acquiring gear that has advanced skills, so as long as you have a moderate amount of A Player of Chess, that will usually not be a problem.

All influence factors are reset once a vote has concluded.

Board Proposals

Expanding the Railroad

Collapsed by default to avoid spoilers.

Balmoral

Issue	Interests (difficulty modifier)	Effects	Notes
Plan the next route straight up the side of a mountain		Realize you need Hellworms.	No vote needed.
Plan to hire Hellworms and drill through rock that way	Board against Own Financial Interests (5) Board against the Church (7)	In Corporate Debt +15 CP Allows the construction of track to Balmoral
Suggest a detour through Parabola	Board against the Bazaar (10) Board for the Fingerkings (10) With Discovered: the Need for Hellworms Board Against Infernal Interests (5)	In Corporate Debt +10 CP Allows the construction of track to Balmoral Grants Train Access for Warfare	Requires Access to a Parabolan Base-Camp
Propose a plan for the next Station building and for the train engines to go there		Approved Station Plans	Requires Tracks laid to next station Track Laid

Burrow-Infra-Mump

Issue	Interests (difficulty modifier)	Effects	Notes
Plan the next route through Wasteland		In Corporate Debt +5 CP Allows the construction of track to Burrow-Infra-Mump
Vote a new set of concessions to the Union	Board against Own Financial Interests (8) Board against the Bazaar (8) Board against the Status Quo (8)	In Corporate Debt +5 CP Removes Burrow-Infra-Mump work stoppage.	Requires Leader of the Tracklayers Furnace Ancona or Furnace Ancona, Unopposed
Vote on Cornelius' plan to build a Tracklaying Beast	Board against Own Financial Interests (8) Board against the Status Quo (8) Cornelius will vote with you.	In Corporate Debt +5 CP -1 x Mammoth Ribcage Removes Burrow-Infra-Mump work stoppage.	Requires Leader of the Tracklayers Cornelius Costs 1 x Mammoth Ribcage
Vote on new illumination for the stations	Board against the Liberation of Night (12) Board against Own Financial Interests (6)	In Corporate Debt +5 CP Ealing Gardens: Darkness -4 CP Jericho Locks: Darkness -4 CP Magistracy of the Evenlode: Darkness -4 CP Balmoral: Darkness -4 CP Station VIII: Darkness -4 CP Advancing the Liberation of Night: -20 CP Removes Burrow-Infra-Mump work stoppage.	Requires Leader of the Tracklayers A Lackey of Mr Fires
Vote a package of measures intended to get work to resume	Board against Labour (10) Board against Own Financial Interests (4)	In Corporate Debt + CP Tracklayers' Displeasure + 5CP Removes Burrow-Infra-Mump work stoppage.	Requires Leader of the Tracklayers A Lackey of Yours, Formerly Aligned with Mr Fires or January
Propose a plan for the next Station building and for the train engines to go there		Approved Station Plans	Requires Tracks laid to next station Track Laid

The Hurlers

Issue	Interests (difficulty modifier)	Effects	Notes
Plan for an icy route to the Hurlers		Allows the construction of track to The Hurlers	Requires The Efficient Commissioner's Tale 1000

Marigold Station

Issue	Interests (difficulty modifier)	Effects	Notes
Plan your last route, and set aside land for a tracklayers' city near Ealing Gardens	Board Against Rubbery Interests (10)	Allows the construction of track to Marigold Station Hinterland City - Earling Gardens	Requires Leader of the Tracklayers Leader of the Tracklayers A Lackey of Mr Fires A Lackey of Yours, Formerly Aligned with Mr Fires
Plan your last route, and set aside land for a tracklayers' city near the Magistracy of the Evenlode	Board against Criminals (7) Cornelius will vote with you.	Allows the construction of track to Marigold Station Hinterland City - Magistracy of the Evenlode	Requires Leader of the Tracklayers Leader of the Tracklayers Cornelius
Plan your last route, and set aside land for a tracklayers' city near Balmoral	Board against the Shuttered Palace (10) Board against the Constables (7) Furnace Ancona will vote with you.	Allows the construction of track to Marigold Station Hinterland City - Balmoral	Requires Leader of the Tracklayers Leader of the Tracklayers Furnace Ancona Furnace Ancona, Unopposed
Plan your last route, and set aside land for a tracklayers' city near Station VIII	Board against Labour (10) Board against Revolutionary Interests (10) Board against the Liberation of Night (10)	Allows the construction of track to Marigold Station Hinterland City - Station VIII	Requires Leader of the Tracklayers Leader of the Tracklayers A Lackey of Mr Fires A Lackey of Yours, Formerly Aligned with Mr Fires
Plan your last route, and set aside land for a tracklayers' city near Burrow-infra-Mump	Board Against Infernal Interests (7) The Drummer will vote with you. The Delightful Reverend will vote with you.	Allows the construction of track to Marigold Station Hinterland City - Burrow	Requires Board Member: The Drummer or Board Member: The Delightful Reverend
Plan your last route, and set aside land for a tracklayers' city between Moulin and Hurlers	Board against the Status Quo (10) January will vote with you. April will vote with you.	Allows the construction of track to Marigold Station Hinterland City - Cold of Hurlers	Requires Leader of the Tracklayers Leader of the Tracklayers January
Plan your last route, and set aside land for a tracklayers' city at the outskirts of Hell	Board against the Church (10) Board Member: Virginia will vote with you.	Allows the construction of track to Marigold Station Hinterland City - Marigold	Requires Board Member: Virginia
Propose a plan for the next Station building and for the train engines to go there		Approved Station Plans	Requires Tracks laid to next station Track Laid

Statues of Specific Board Members

A player-created Guide is available for this content: Statues at the GHR Stations (Guide)

Statues can be erected at the Upper River locations to honour specific board members. The statues attract followers/admirers of those board members associated with the various factions of London. Mechanics-wise, this lets you trade Favours for resources.

A statue at Ealing Gardens may honour any of the former mayors or the resident big-name, the Tentacled Entrepreneur. This unlocks a card which has one option that is specific to the faction that the board member is associated with.

A statue at Jericho Locks honours board members of a theological leaning. This also unlocks a card that allows trading in Church favours for various rewards, the exact composition of which depends on whose statue you put up.

At The Magistracy of the Evenlode, a statue can be erected in honour of the Gracious Widow. She is the only board member that can have a statue here.

You can, of course, eschew honouring any board members and put up statues of your player character instead. Why should they get the glory when you are putting in the most work into the Railway?

Unique Benefits from Board Members

There are some incentives to having certain members aboard, which may have some impact outside of board meetings too.

His Amused Lordship

In Meetings

• When His Amused Lordship joins the Board, he provides a reduction of Debt (though the Tentacled Entrepreneur is better at this). You can vote him off the board and then reappoint him to get the reduction again.
• His Amused Lordship must be a member of the Board if you want to change the Charter of the Great Hellbound Railway to a wealth-based one.

Jovial Contrarian

In Meetings

• The Jovial Contrarian has no particular opposition to any issue. Instead, the more board members have already agreed, the harder it will be to bring him on side. This means that all you really need to do is get his vote first. This can be problematic for votes where one or more board members vote for it automatically; however, such votes are rare.

Sinning Jenny

In Meetings

• Jenny agrees immediately to improving the train's defences. This is useful, but can complicate getting the fickle Contrarian's vote.
• Jenny allows you to Propose paying a dividend to the poor of the Hinterlands, which can be a decent way to reduce Seeing Banditry in the Upper River.

Virginia

In Meetings

• Virginia must be a member of the Board if you want to change the Charter of the Great Hellbound Railway to one aligned with Infernal interests.

Furnace Ancona

In Meetings

• If you have convinced Furnace on a vote, you can supply her with a Queen Mate and she will get the other board members to agree to your proposal. This is helpful if you have a huge board for whatever reason.

The Dean of Xenotheology

In Meetings

• The Dean must be a member of the Board if you want to change the Charter of the Great Hellbound Railway to a scientific one.

Outside Meetings

• When founding the church at Burrow-Infra-Mump, you can request the patronage of the Dean of Xenotheology if she is a member of the Board, after which you must convene a Board meeting to make her Patron.
• If you have a spur line to the The City of the Tracklayers, the Dean of Xenotheology unlocks an option on the Genii Locorum card.

The Bishop of Saint Fiacre's

Outside Meetings

• When founding the church at Burrow-Infra-Mump, you can request the patronage of the Bishop of St Fiacre's if he is a member of the Board, after which you must convene a Board meeting to make him Patron.

The Bishop of Southwark

In Meetings

• The Bishop of Southwark must be a member of the Board if you want to change the Charter of the Great Hellbound Railway to a Church-oriented one.

Tentacled Entrepreneur

In Meetings

• When the Tentacled Entrepreneur joins the Board, he provides a considerable reduction in Debt, enough to bring down two dividends votes' worth of Debt to 0. You can vote the Entrepreneur off the board and then reappoint him to get the reduction again.

Outside Meetings

• The Tentacled Entrepreneur unlocks an option on the Rubbery Observances card at Ealing Gardens which checks Persuasive rather than Shadowy.
• The Tentacled Entrepreneur unlocks an option on A Word From Your Creditors wherein you can spend 6 Favours: Rubbery Men to decrease Debt by 3 CP.

the Gracious Widow

In Meetings

• The Gracious Widow joining the Board provides a considerable reduction in Debt, enough to bring down two dividends votes' worth of Debt to 0. You can vote her off and reappoint her to get the reduction again. She also raises Banditry, which makes certain checks easier or harder and unlocks some options.
• The Widow must be on the Board to propose a special consideration to... certain charitable groups. This is a source of Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise.

Outside Meetings

• With Involved in a Railway Venture 60 (a station at Jericho Locks), the Widow enables an option under the Engage in Some Minor Smuggling card.
• The Gracious Widow unlocks an option on A Word From Your Creditors wherein you can spend 6 Favours: Criminals to decrease Corporate Debt by 3 CP.

September

In Meetings

• September must be a member of the Board if you want to invite January.

Cornelius

In Meetings

• Like with Furnace,Cornelius has an option to help persuade all other board members. This uses an Epaulette Mate, which is slightly harder to obtain than Furnace's Queen Mate.

The Viscountess of the Viric Jungle

In Meetings

• The Viscountess agrees immediately to many options regarding Parabolan warfare. As previously, this can complicate getting the Contrarian's vote.

Leverage on Specific Board Members

Some board members have leverage options that can be played to affect only them, and to secure their agreement outright. These options use up the resources they cost.

The Bishop of Saint Fiacre's

You can earn a favour with the Bishop by resolving A Jurisdictional Dispute in the Upper River to his benefit. This can be spent to gain support on any one vote. You can only carry one favour at a time, so this isn't extremely powerful. But it can be used to bypass the Bishop's normally staunch opposition to removing Board members. Without this, you might have to spend a lot on bribes more than once for each member-dropping agenda.

The Bishop of Southwark

Like the Bishop of Saint Fiacre's, if you resolve A Jurisdictional Dispute to his benefit you will gain his support on one vote of your choosing. There are currently no repeatable votes that oppose Church interests - other than voting Church-affiliated members off the board - making this less immediately appealing than a favour of Saint Fiacre's. (The Bishop of Southwark still has a significant opposition to changing the board's makeup, but that can be handled with obfuscation.)

Jovial Contrarian

While the Contrarian's vote is not difficult to obtain anyway, he can also be convinced (guaranteed, despite the small Mithridacy challenge) by deploying a Portable Fingerking Moot. The Moot is a HALLOWMAS companion which was available for free with festival participation in 2020, but required FATE in subsequent years.

Sinning Jenny

Players who have purchased The Empress' Shadow (FATE) may earn Credit with the Headmistress in Jenny's Finishing School. Excess Credit may be spent to earn Jenny's vote, bypassing the regular Persuasion action.

April

Uniquely, no means of persuasion work on April. This means that if she disagrees with a proposal, the only thing you can do is throw yourself facefirst against the 33% check over and over again. You should only bring her on if you are going to make most of your proposals things she would agree to already, or else for story/roleplay reasons.

Trimming the Board

There must be at least four members on the Board, not including your player character. To make meetings go more smoothly keeping the board small is optimal. Below are some notes on the benefits and drawbacks of removing each listed member, should you wish to.

In most cases, voting out a board member merely causes you to lose access to their actions (above).

The Efficient Commissioner

Since she opposes most agendas rather often, the Commissioner is likely to be at the top of any player's list of names to cross off. Removing her requires 5 Board Status, meaning that you have to hold at least 5 board meetings before you can remove her.

While you are in the process of building the railway, repeatedly bringing her back on board and subsequently voting her out again is a possible way to grind Connected: The Masters of the Bazaar (up to 4).

His Amused Lordship

He is handy to have around at the beginning of the Railway, but when the train upgrades become available ( Involved in a Railway Venture 50 and above), he can begin to become difficult to convince. With a high enough Respectable, however, he's easily swayed.

The Bishop of Saint Fiacre's

Having the Bishop on the board makes removing any other member more difficult, at least before you have leverage on him. However, voting to remove him can be a problem in itself since it adds Board against the Interests of Society which raises opposition from many board members.

Sinning Jenny

If you lack the FATE story that is associated with her (The Empress' Shadow), there are no means of influencing her. Her special benefit, as mentioned above, also causes problems. However, she has an easy Persuasive 100 check on most issues (notably the payout of dividends if you have a Worker charter), and is a good choice for weekly routine votes.

Virginia

At this time of writing, she is required to be on the Board to get the railway running. After that, however, she can be removed if desired. She'll be particular difficult to convince when trying to upgrade Train Defences.

Tentacled Entrepreneur

The Entrepreneur does not appreciate upgrading the trains. Consider not bringing him in until after the trains have been fully upgraded.

the Gracious Widow

The Widow puts up stiff opposition to upgrading either the train defences or luxuries from the get-go, and it only gets worse. Again, consider not bringing her in until after the trains have been fully upgraded.

Furnace Ancona

It's not so much that it is difficult to vote to remove her, or that she's unexpectedly difficult to manage. The trouble is that if you succeed in removing her, Tracklayers' Displeasure will increase by +10 CP. Displeasure doesn't stop the Tracklayers from laying track, but it does make getting their opinions or changing their leadership significantly harder. So if you're thinking about adding Furnace, make sure you're not going to remove her, at least not anytime soon.

Large Boards

Many board members come with unique text for almost every proposal, both when you succeed and when you fail. Often this is a rich source of characterization that you would otherwise not be able to access. If you enjoy getting to know your characters, and are willing to spend a large amount of time locked in a room with all of them every week, you could always just ignore this guide and add whoever you want.

If you do so, it is very helpful to have Furnace Ancona and/or Cornelius on your board, along with a store of Queen Mates or Epaulette Mates, respectively. Each one unlocks an option that allows you to ram a decision through without having to convince everyone separately, allowing you to bypass routine votes.

To do so, you must get their vote first, then Play Furnace Ancona against the rest (which costs a Queen Mate) or Play Cornelius against the rest (which costs an Epaulette Mate).

If you have both members and need to choose between them, note that - all other things being equal - Queen Mates are slightly more accessible than Epaulette Mates. Either can be acquired in the Chessboard of Parabola in 5ish actions if you have high enough A Player of Chess. But An Illustrated Novelist also allows you to get a Queen Mate at Jericho Locks by spending 4× Favours: The Great Game without requiring Parabola or advanced skills.

Optimizing for Echoes: Boomeranging the Tentacled Entrepreneur

Crafting your board for optimal use of Vote a dividend to the shareholders creates one of the most efficient sources for Echoes in the game - up to 8.2 EPA when set up perfectly.

The requirements are:

• Not having a Worker Ownership Charter, if possible
• Train Luxuries at their maximum level
• Moral flexibility, particularly in regards to the Tentacled Entrepreneur's feelings; alternatively a dislike for the Rubbery Men

Here is the basic outline:

• Invite the Tentacled Entrepreneur to the Board so as to drop your Corporate Debt by 15 CP (and skim 10 x Hinterland Scrip off the top too)
• Begin a board meeting with Vote the Tentacled Entrepreneur off the Board
• Vote a dividend to the shareholders twice, accruing 15 CP of In Corporate Debt in total. (If you're still upgrading your Train's baggage or defenses then consider doing that first before embarking on this scheme; dividending twice and then upgrading once is still acceptable, but slower.)
• Do whatever else you need to do
• (Optionally, Propose you deploy your train in the Parabolan War)
• Adjourn the meeting
• Wait until you can convene a meeting again, possibly with Help from the Board Secretary
• Return to the beginning

Doing the same with the Gracious Widow is possible, but is less worth it. This is because you will eventually have to deal with the consequences of your actions in raising your Upper River Banditry too high, and there is no profitable way to efficiently deal with the consequences of high banditry. His Amused Lordship can also be boomeranged, but he only reduces Debt by 10 CP, making him strictly worse than the Tentacled Entrepreneur.

Difficulty modifier analysis

In order to minimize wasted actions in failing to convince Board Members and/or spending actions guaranteeing their cooperation, let's review what challenges our profit-making proposals bring us.

Firstly, the actual dividends come with these challenges:

• 5 x Board against Own Financial Interests - becomes 8 x on the second vote if you started with no Corporate Debt.
• 5 x Board against the Bazaar
• 10 x Board against Labour if you don't have a Worker Ownership Charter.

Booting the Entrepreneur then adds these:

• 10 x Board against the Status Quo
• 5 x Board Against Rubbery Interests

For us to efficiently deal with those five Difficulty modifiers, we are going to want Board members who do not offer opposition on those issues so that we can just 100% them and not have to spend Confident Smiles or use up actions on Respectability/Corruption/Obfuscation, and we want only four of them for a minimum-sized Board.

Preferred auxiliaries

Members who do not give us any difficulties at all on the five aforementioned issues include:

• Jovial Contrarian - Bears special mention here since although his Persuasive check on dividends might not reach 100%, he will always be glad to vote out the Tentacled Entrepreneur with a free 100% check if you get his vote first as you usually would. If you are fortunate enough to have a Portable Fingerking Moot from HALLOWMAS then the Contrarian actually becomes a top-tier Board Member since you will get an auto-pass from him with that item. Sadly the Moot is likely to be FATE-locked most Hallowmases.
• September - Needs to be Balmoral's Castellan. He puts up no objections to any part of this money-laundering scheme, presumably because he's perfectly happy to fleece the Brits, capitalists, and British capitalists for all they're worth.
• the Gracious Widow - Although she normally has financial concerns, voting for dividends imposes 5 x Board against the Bazaar, which combined with her anti-Bazaar stance of -20 actually cancels out, allowing for an easy 100% check.
• The Drummer - Who is unlocked through taking a specific ending branch when establishing your Church in the Wild, doesn't care about these frivolous mortal shenanigans, and will thus rubberstamp everything here. However, you might prefer one of the other endings to the Church in the Wild storyline, and pursuing those instead will permanently lock him off.

Acceptable accomplices

As you can see, there are unfortunately not a lot of options for guaranteeing your success here, so we must work with the other, less optimal Board Members. In many cases, Persuasive checks are pegged to 200, meaning that you need 334 Persuasive to 100% auto-pass them. (A Persuasive this high is difficult to accomplish without a relevant Treasure and/or Mood; just do the best you can.)

• July FATE - She requires 12 x Memory of a Tale to buy, which is to say twelve Exceptional Stories. Beyond the sheer cost, her raw Persuasive check is 200 instead of 100 like other Board Members, meaning that you would need 334 Persuasive to 100% her checks anyway. At least it doesn't get worse?
• The Hell-Scarred Gondolier - He might be perfectly fine with the dividends half of this scheme... but his inexplicable preference for the status quo impedes his willingness to remove the Tentacled Entrepreneur.
• His Amused Lordship - HAL is entirely happy to give the Tentacled Entrepreneur the boot, which works here. But he gets squirrelly when it comes to voting for dividends due to his financial concerns, and this actually gets worse than 334 the second time round.
• The Dauntless Temperance Campaigner - Although she costs 1000 x Moon-Pearl to bring on, she is actually quite amenable to our goal here, being similar to HAL in that she is fine removing the Entrepreneur from the premises but also a bit flaky when it's time to vote for dividends. However unlike HAL, DTC's concerns are with the Bazaar, but that concern does not grow with the second vote for dividends, leaving her Persuasive check at "merely" 200. Which results in needing the usual 334 Persuasive to 100%.
• Feducci - Essentially the DTC with a Dangerous check instead, of which you will need 334 to 100% for the dividends.
• The Viscountess of the Viric Jungle - Although she might seem like a good deal given that she only has a modifier of 10 for Financial and Status Quo, that still makes her HAL-shaped. Despite stating that she is not fond of the Tentacled Entrepreneur, she will actually oppose votes for his removal with a check that requires 334 Persuasive to 100%, and then hit you with it again for the dividends on both counts. This being said, if you want to use your train for Parabolan Warfare, she's an instant pass for that, so maybe you'll make that tradeoff. (Unless you already have the Jovial Contrarian on your board, in which case her automatically siding with you for that issue will make JC's Persuasive check harder, making her not worth it.)

Interlude: Parabolan Train deployment

Proposing deploying your Train in your campaign imposes 10 x Board against the Bazaar, and depending upon your choice of campaign 10 x Board against the Status Quo, 2 x or 7 x Board for the Fingerkings, and/or 5 x Board against the Shuttered Palace. Combining these concerns with our Dividends strategy here limits our board choices even further.

In short, aside from The Viscountess of the Viric Jungle (who auto-votes for you) none of the "Acceptable Accomplices" are likely to play nicely with you for this sort of proposal. Therefore you have two choices for board composition:

• All four preferred board members: Jovial Contrarian, September, the Gracious Widow, The Drummer
• Jovial Contrarian with Portable Fingerking Moot for an easy auto-pass, The Viscountess of the Viric Jungle who autovotes for you, and your choice of two from the remaining preferred board members.

To avoid

Some options may seem attractive at a glance, but should not be taken:

• Furnace Ancona and Cornelius - Although their "boardnukes" might seem attractive, their Labour ties make them unreasonably difficult to convince for dividends, and Queen Mates and Epaulette Mates cost more actions to acquire than you'd save by using them.
• Rubbery Yes-Man FATE - He'll happily agree to everything... other than booting the Tentacled Entrepreneur, which he hates, to the tune of a Persuasive 250 check.
• The Implacable Detective - Although she's perfectly happy to send the Entrepreneur off to Board Jail, on the financial side she's a version of HAL that you can never influence with your Respectability Factor. After the 334 Persuasive to 100% the first time, you would need 434 Persuasive to 100% the second dividend. Does she know about our money laundering scheme here? Is this a sting operation?
• The Wandering Gondolier - Pro-Labour and Pro-Rubbery by preference for the status quo makes him not a good choice overall. This being said, you could always just tell him to go to hell.
• The Bishop of Southwark - Wandering Gondolier Mk. II, except he's already been to Hell and it did not improve his disposition in the slightest.
• The Delightful Reverend - Southwark strikes back, except instead of being Pro-Labour he's Pro-Financial, which is only slightly better for dividend voting (+5/+8 for Financial vs +10 for Labour).
• April - If you wanted profit, why on earth would you want a Labour and Anarchist sympathizer who is impossible to influence by any means whatsoever?
• January - For all the Liberation and Revolution she gets up to, when she's on the Board she is not (openly) January the revolutionary. She is playing the role of a Respectable ex-Dean of Benthic, and so she argues for the Status Quo and Financial Interests, obstructing both the boomerang and the dividends.