18XX - where to start?

It’s my usual silliness in 18xx where I don’t pay attention to turn order and so I was last on the turn order and y’all took all the remaining companies.

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I’m interested to try 1846 and 1862. My understanding is that 1862 is better than 1889 but longer/more complex so I don’t know if it will go as well on 18xx.games.

I’m looking at January, just a break and knowing that there will be a lot of downtime as we approach the holidays.

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1862 is better. But it’s also weirder. And 1846 is pretty weird to start with.

I’m game for both or either. And January would be a good timeframe for me, as well.

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Pressing that Payout button felt very indulgent. Game is 1825

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Contemplating 18xx.games again. Looking to be active weekdays during the US “business hours”, e.g. 3:00:00 PM9:00:00 PM

Looking for interest here before looking at other alternatives that will, likely, require the use of Discord

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Depends. Which game?

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I’m open. Probably nothing in Alpha/Beta, because who has time for bugs?

Probably not '89 because I’ve played that enough. And probably not '30 because I don’t appreciate classics (or it’s too similar to '89, which I’ve played enough)

And probably not '17 or '22 because they might run a month or two too long.

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If I had to highlight some options, I’d say:

1848
1860
1862
1880
18GB
18Ireland
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I will put '62 at the bottom of the list for reasons.

We can even play '60 with 2 players

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I could be tugged into another 1846 but I don’t have capacity to tackle another rulebook right now.

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I’m good with a game of 1846.

I’d also be willing to run 2-player 1860 on the side, too because I’m eager to get that one played.

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Well, I had hoped to get an important project at work wrapped up this week, but it just hasn’t happened. But it’s getting close. I’ll probably open the games on Monday unless someone beats me to it

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Invite links:

1846 on 18xx.games (3-5 players, Optional rules: none)

1860 on 18xx.games (2-3 players, Optional rules: smaller map)

Joined on both

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@pillbox You were scoring well on the ORs after nationalisation hits. My companies are shit and they were gone, and yours kept running. It was CN that kept me above water.

Also I hope I have shown how to train shuffle properly and take advantage of the shares delta. By owning 9 CN shares and you only having 1, I made sure that my CN is full of trains and are running

1860IOW

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Unfortunately, a lot of the early game was lost on me; party because of how detached from game state/flow playing electronically, partly because timing meant that I took a lot of those turns on my phone, and mostly because I’m a noob.

But I feel like I learned quite a bit and starting playing a pretty tight game towards the end.

Definitely interested in another journey across the Isle of Wight

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Any post-game thoughts on 1846??

@pillbox will create a rematch for 1860 EDIT: 18xx.Games

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1846 Post-Game Thoughts

I never intended to keep B&O the entire game; my idea was to start it early, run it extra rich with the privates I had, then sell it down and keep a small position on it while starting a second railroad.

But I got nervous when it came time to jump into another company and couldn’t commit… and nobody else jumped in meaningfully to take over the B&O, so I had to shovel more money into it to keep it from bankrupting me.

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It’s a solid game. With all these games I’ve tried recently, I think I’d rank them:

  1. Great Zimbabwe
  2. Indonesia
  3. 1846
  4. 1889

So that’s a point for splotter. These all feel similar in terms of fluidity and freedom allowed in the system, while also having huge pits to fall into.

With the 18xx, I’m feeling like (after only 5 games) part of the game is scripted, and the freedom comes in the periphery. That might just be because every game has @lalunaverde driving the pace and the meta so we end up in a similar meta. And sure, there’s a lot of variation happening around the core theme… the Splotters feel more sandboxy and I like that.

And I like 1846 more than 1889. 1846 seems to have tension and a sort of arc throughout, while 1889 has big moments and on rails episodes in between.

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1846 spoilers:

unfortunately, that is the meta. You run 1 company for the entire game, maybe 2, but that’s situational. The game then becomes about ruining other players positions by actually buying into their company at early to mid-game, which reduces their long term prospects.

And yeah, the meta is also to buy trains, earn cash to buy more shares, which rush the game forward. At least in 1830, you can do tricks to bail out your first company And if you combo your major and minor companies together, hooray!

Some companies are also better than others. They improved it with the additional 2nd edition companies, which we have in our game, which improves C&O.

I do agree that TGZ and Indonesia are more dynamic than 1846. 1846 is a Tom Lehmann game after all. Do combos and then win.

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