1830 (game)

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1830
Game data
author Francis G. Tresham
publishing company Avalon Hill
Mayfair Games
Lookout Games
999 Games
Publishing year 1986, 2011
Art Railway game
Teammates 3 to 6
Duration 5 hours and more
Age 14 years and older

1830 (subtitled Railroads & Robber Barons ) is a strategy game by Francis G. Tresham , which was published in 1986 by Avalon Hill . After 1829 , which deals with railway construction in England, it is the second in a whole series of railway economy games from the 18XX series . In 1830 one reenacts the development of the railroad in the eastern United States. The game was later adapted for the PC.

In 2011 Mayfair Games brought out the game with a new look. The game board is printed on both sides with different cards from the eastern United States. In addition to the revised basic rules, the game also contains some variants with associated material. In the same year Lookout Games brought out the game in German (subtitlesbahnleger und Speculanten ) and 999 Games brought out the game in Dutch.

1830 is a pure strategy game. The only random factor in the game is the drawing of the seating order at the beginning of the game, whereby good players try to adapt their game strategy to the psychology of their front and rear men.

Rules of the game

The aim of the game is to generate more capital than the other players by means of railway companies.

Operation and stock rounds

The game is divided into operational rounds, in which the railroad companies trade, and stock rounds, in which players buy and sell shares directly on the stock exchange. The number of operational rounds after a share round depends on the type of locomotive that is currently in play. At the beginning of the game, an operation round and a stock round alternate each time. At the end of the game, a share round is played after every three operational rounds.

Order of the railways and the players

In an operational round, the stock corporations act in the order of their stock exchange price. The player sitting behind the last player to act in the previous share round is allowed to buy and sell shares first in the next share round (so-called priority deal). The following order results from the seating order of the other players. Owning the priority deal should not be underestimated, especially in a critical equity phase.

Railway companies

The railway companies that appear in the game are divided into private and public companies.

Private companies

The private companies are sold to the players by the bank at the beginning of the game, do not operate, but guarantee regular payouts per game round. Private companies are:

Surname Purchase price distribution
Schuylkill Valley 20th 5
Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad 40 10
Delaware and Hudson Railway 70 15th
Mohawk & Hudson 110 20th
Cambden & Amboy 160 25th
Baltimore & Ohio 220 30th

Various additional special rights are attached to the private companies.

Public companies

After the last private company has been sold, the shares in the joint stock companies are sold. Public companies are:

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
Canadian Pacific Railway
New York Central Railroad
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
Erie Railroad
New York, New Haven & Hartford
Boston and Maine Railroad

The player who is the first to own a majority of shares in a stock corporation becomes its president. He remains so until another player owns more shares in the company (either through his own purchase or through the sale of the previous president's shares). The president alone controls the fate of a society. He can build any tracks, buy locomotives and (rarely) sell them. He alone also decides whether the company will withhold or distribute their respective driving result. The co-owners are for better or for worse dependent on the decisions of the president.

Operation round

In a round of operations, a stock corporation relocates new tracks or replaces existing ones with improved tracks, builds new stations, drives in a run-in profit with the existing trains, either pays this out to the shareholders or keeps it in the company's assets and buys new trains.

Locomotive types

The trains are named for their range. The 2-train can z. B. travel two stations. In terms of development history, the range of trains increases with the course of the game. As soon as all trains of a range have been sold, the next more powerful trains are available. With the appearance of a new type of locomotive, the rules of the game change; it is virtually entering a new phase. The following locomotives appear in 1830

Locomotive type number price Occurrence means additional
2-train locomotive 6th 80
3 locomotive 5 180 from now on 2 operations -
green track parts are available after a share round
Private companies can be sold to public companies
4-train locomotive 4th 300 all 2-train locomotives are destroyed
Stock companies are only allowed to own 3 locomotives
5 locomotive 3 450 brown track parts are available
stock companies are only allowed to own 2 locomotives
from now on 3 operation rounds after a stock round
all private companies are closed
6 locomotive 2 + 1 630 all 3 locomotives will be destroyed
, diesel locomotives are now available
Diesel locomotive 6th 1100 (800) all 4-train locomotives are destroyed

If a stock corporation runs out of locomotives, it must buy a locomotive on its next train. If the company's capital is insufficient, the company's president must inject more money from his private assets. If the player's private assets are insufficient despite the sale of shares, the player is broke and the game ends immediately.

Stock market

The stock market is quite complex but is remarkably stable for a game. At the end of a round of operations, the price rises one space to the right if the stock corporation pays out and falls one space to the left if the stock corporation does not pay out. In a share round, the price of one share per share sold falls one space down. If the stock is sold out at the end of a stock round, the price of the stock rises one space.

Playing

The game ends if another player goes bust (immediately) or if the bank goes bankrupt (initial capital: $ 12,000) before the next round of shares.

Game strategy

1830 is a relatively complex and extremely hard-to-play economic simulation. In order to win, it is not absolutely necessary to be able to operate with a stock corporation right from the start. Towards the end of the game, however, it certainly helps a lot to rule a public company.

Due to the geographical location on the game board, there are certainly more playable and less playable stock companies. The B&O and Penn are easier to play than the Canadian and Erie. However, this can only be used as an indication. Basically you can win with any company.

A typical situation for the bankruptcy of a player is that the person in front of him, who is still president, 'loots' a stock corporation and then, since he can act in the share round beforehand, leaves the company, i.e. the company pulls the trigger. The new president then has to bear the costs of the restructuring.

A decisive phase in the game in 1830 is usually the change from the 4 to the 5 locomotive (the first type of locomotive that will not be destroyed) and above all the change from the 5 to the 6 locomotive and the diesel locomotive. Here essential decisions are made about the placement of the teammates.

The game is significantly defused by the inclusion of the optional third 6-train locomotive with regard to the bankruptcy of a player.

Criticism and Notes

1830 is certainly still a very successful, but just as complex game idea for hard-core players.

Even if 1830 is declared with three to six players, it can also be played with two players. The playing time is often 4 to 6 hours, but can also be significantly less for experienced players. The interaction between the stock market and railroad operations can have very brutal effects in this game (player bankruptcy). But it should come relatively close to the then presumably prevailing economic philosophy in the USA.

Trivia

1830 is said to have been the godfather for the development of the PC game Railroad Tycoon by Sid Meier.

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