18XX - where to start?

Grand Trunk Games recently acquired the rights to do a new edition of 1889. I think they are in early stages of production and it has not gone up for Kickstarter/preorder yet.

The good news for 18xx print-and-play is that there’s no random chance or luck of the draw, so you don’t need to be consistent when making PnP components.

That said, it’ll be a LOT of cutting if you don’t already have a set of tiles you can borrow from. You’ll need to print charters (basically player mats for each of the 7 corporations), shares (each of the 7 corps will have 9 cards representing 10 shares - the director’s certification is worth 2), 7 private railroads cards (1 for each private), 27 train cards, and then the tile roster which is ~64 hexagonal tiles.

And then you’ll probably do a multi-page print of the board (map of Shikoku, Japan) and the stock market (grid of numbers with a few colored cells).

I have not yet done a PnP of an 18xx game for two three reasons:

  • My dad’s been flirting with buying a laser cutter for a bit and I’m waiting to be able to use that to do all my cutting
  • I already own several!
  • You can play online! The recently released 18xx.games is a huge improvement over the previous tools, which were already pretty good (they just weren’t comprehensive and required a spreadsheet to track a lot of the financials

EDIT: went and looked at the 1889 files I downloaded (Carthanigian’s redraw I think) and forgot to mention the 27 train cards in the previous section… but also it appears the map and the stock market are on the same print in this version.

You’ll also need 7 different colors of tokens in varying quantities per color… Depending on what cube-laden euro-games you have available, you could probably proxy in some of those until you’re committed enough to place an order at Rails on Boards Shopping Centre – RailsOnBoards

Also: You need poker chips. If you’re really desperate, you could print off paper money in the amounts needed or just track everything on paper/spreadsheets. For learning, I would absolutely recommend poker chips or paper money; for speed of play, poker chips or spreadsheet.

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Sounds like it’s going to be expensive just to get it printed.

We have poker chips :grin:

Heavy Cardboard and Board Game Barrage say 1889 is a good jumping off point so I’ll keep an eye out for the Kickstarter

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I adore Age of Steam, one of those games that just hooked me from the first play.

I know nothing about 18xx.

Is AoS a cube rail game? Or something else entirely?

I was tempted by Irish Gauge, it was really well priced but I’m not sure mean is my thing (often because I’m on the wrong end it).

Cube Rail games are typically games where building routes on a map are represented by player-color cubes. Chicago Express is often used as a prime example. AoS and its ilk (Railways of the World, Steam) could be seen as a hybrid 18xx/cube rails. Cube Rails are usually not about moving goods to destinations like AoS, but more about building the network.

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Well, I’ve downloaded the rules and joined #1473. I apologise in advance if I take a while.

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I’ve joined 18xx.game as Name1ess, and I’m currently reading thru the rules.

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So for the immediate future, the next thing we’ll have to worry about is the privates auction.

If you think you think you have a handle on it, fantastic! If not we can talk through it a bit

Sorry I had to create a new game because I started the game before I noticed that the fourth person in the game wasn’t Name1ess. Same name, number 1574.

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I’m joined up for #1574

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As am I. (I was wondering why my only option was “Leave”.)

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Looks like the game got started and I was holding us up.

@Name1ess to bid on a private

Oh I don’t know if everybody is ready, I just thought I would open the game anyway. No pressure, take your time until you’re ready to go and ask if you have any questions!

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Yup. Ask questions! I’d much rather teach 18xx and lose than to win an 18xx against newbies.


If Name1ess buys “Takamatsu E-Railroad” for ¥20, then

  1. I will receive “Mitsubishi Ferry” for my bid amount of ¥35
  2. Then mr.ister will be next to bid and can either:
    • Buy “Ehime Railway” for its face value, ¥40 or
    • Place a bid on one of:
      • Sumotomo Mines Railway
      • Dougo Railway
      • South Iyo Railway
      • Uno-Takamatsu Ferry

Alternately, Name1ess can place a bid on “Mitsubishi Ferry” alongside mine, having to outbid me by at least ¥5

Additionally, Name1ess can place a bid on any of the other privates at starting value + ¥5

And, finally, Name1ess could pass

  • (technically an option at the moment but I cannot say why you would do so unless you, perhaps, were trying to get an idea of what everybody else wanted to do)

If the above section doesn’t make sense to you, let me know! This is the privates auction that occurs at the start of the first stock round only.


Additional notes:

  • This is called a “Waterfall Auction.”
    • Only the first, cheapest private is available to buy outright - all other privates must be bid on
    • Whenever somebody buys the cheapest option, a.k.a. “pulling the ripcord/plug”, you assess the following logic:
      1. Let P be the lowest “Value” private remaining (not the lowest bid amount. It is specifically the lowest marked Value)
      2. If there are no bids on P, return to bidding in turns. P becomes the new “ripcord”/“plug”
      3. If there is exactly 1 bid on P, the bidding player pays the bid amount and takes ownership of P
      4. If there are more than 1 bid on P, the players already with bids conduct an auction. Players that have not previously placed a bid on P cannot participate. The player with the lowest bid begins and has the option to pass (and permanently be removed from the current auction) or outbid the highest bid by at least ¥5. The next player in turn order then has the same option. This “mini auction” continues until there is only 1 player remaining. That player pays the bid amount and takes ownership of P.
      5. Go to Step 1
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Lots of explanation welcome. (I downloaded the rules, but they don’t seem to have actual searchable text. Would love to have a section reference.)

To be a bit less pathetic and helpless - is this §11 Purchasing Private Companies? That seems to be about a non-bidding unstoppable purchase. Aha, found something – §5.7, right?

Meh, I’ll start a new post:

This is called a “Waterfall Auction.”

  • Only the first, cheapest private is available to buy outright - all other privates must be bid on
  • Whenever somebody buys the cheapest option, a.k.a. “pulling the ripcord/plug”, you assess the following logic:
    1. Let P be the lowest “Value” private remaining (not the lowest bid amount. It is specifically the lowest marked Value)
    2. If there are no bids on P, return to bidding in turns. P becomes the new “ripcord”/“plug”
    3. If there is exactly 1 bid on P, the bidding player pays the bid amount and takes ownership of P
    4. If there are more than 1 bid on P, the players already with bids conduct an auction. Players that have not previously placed a bid on P cannot participate. The player with the lowest bid begins and has the option to pass (and permanently be removed from the current auction) or outbid the highest bid by at least ¥5. The next player in turn order then has the same option. This “mini auction” continues until there is only 1 player remaining. That player pays the bid amount and takes ownership of P.
    5. Go to Step 1
  • The cheapest private may not be bid on; it is only available to buy outright. Later in the auction if the ripcord gets pulled and we end up with a new “cheapest private”, the rule still applies: it cannot be bid on, only bought outright
  • If all players pass consecutively, then we do a “privates operating round” where any privates purchased already pay their owners and then we return to the privates auction; if at that time, Takamatsu E-Railroad is still available, it’s marked Value is decreased by ¥5 and the auction continues. This discount does not apply to any other “ripcords” that may come up, only Takamatsu.
  • Any private that is not the lowest Value may be bid on; bids must exceed (by at least ¥5) the highest bid already on it or, if no bids have been made, the marked Value.
  • (rarely needed to worry about) If you are the highest bid on a private, that money is “tied up” and you may not over-extend yourself with an additional bid that would put you beyond your available cash-on-hand.
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Let’s talk about privates (it’s a family show!)


Private Companies, a.k.a. “Privates” provide a couple of things that steer the game:

Revenue!

Private companies pay their marked “Revenue” value to the owning entity at the start of an Operating Round.

Super Powers!

Private companies have special abilities printed on the card. These vary wildly in 1889.

  • “Block Hex”-type - some privates, such as Takamatsu E-Railroad, prevent anybody from placing a tile in a specific hex while it is held by a player
  • “Free Player Placement”-type - some privates, such as Mitsubishi Ferry, allow the player who holds it to place a tile for free at any time. This does not count as a build for a company
  • “Free Company Placement”-type - some privates, such as Ehime Railway, allow a owning company to place a tile for free (sometimes at the time of purchase, sometimes at any time during that company’s operating turn).
  • “Exchange for a share”-type - some privates, such as Dougo Railway, allows a player to trade the private company 1-for-1 for a share in a public/share company.
  • “Batman”-type - some privates, such as South Iyo Railway, have no super powers at all! They merely have money (usually more than others)

The Rub

Ultimately, Privates don’t matter! That’s why beginner games typically remove the privates auction and just randomly distribute the privates.

There have probably been games of 1830 and 1889 that the winner was determined in the private auction round; there have definitely been games of 1846 that have. Don’t worry about it.

For experts, the privates they get and the price they get them for heavily influence how they play the rest of the game. That won’t be the case here as the only people who have played before are 1 game-veterans (I think that’s what mr.ister said).

Ultimately, if you have the highest paying set of privates, you want the early game to last a long time; that means you want trains to get bought slowly.

If you have the lowest paying set of privates, you want trains to get bought as quickly as possible to prevent that extra income from letting your opponents run away with the lead.

If you are in the middle: don’t worry about it - let the people with the most and least to lose fight it out.

Companies buy in privates

One of the key events in an 18xx game is sucking cash out of public/share companies you control by having them buy your privates in exchange for their cash (again, I reiterate: this is a family show site!).

The amount a company can pay you for a private heavily depends on the game; in 1889, it’s between 0.5 to 2.0 times the marked Value. (I think, I’ll clarify) (confirmed)

Privates Close!

Most private companies will close at some point during the game.

Either when their ability is used or during a phase change caused by a train being purchased. The key here: get the most of it while you can.

  • Early game: use the trickle of money it provides to fund investments in public companies.
  • Mid-game: buy them in to get cash out of a company and into your private coffers.
  • Late game: make sure you’re not holding a private that’s about to close down because of a phase change.

owning entity: private companies held by a public company pay the public company at the start of the operating round

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Correct.

(I am a fancy potato… and other things that are at least 10 characters)

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Sorry for the delay, I took my eye off the ball and hadn’t realized we had started. Anyway after going round in circles for a bit I’ve come back to my first impulse and bought Takamatsu.

I didn’t mean to put pressure on you by starting the game. RogerBW, Name1ess, are you ready to go, or do you need some more time to get ready?

Also, thank you, @pillbox, for the excellent primer!

Go for it. I dive in and see what happens, and I’ll lose, but that’s how I learn.

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