Foreword:
Mike Hutton’s 1860 was our next 18xx which we were playing for first time. Many people are talking that it’s great 18xx game so we couldn’t wait more since Marcin did his own pnp version. And to be honest, his box cover is the best 18xx game cover I’ve ever seen. But, let’s go back to 1860. There are few new rules which we never seen in other 18xx titles we played so far. That’s why we were lost at the beginning. We didn’t know what we can expect from this rules, and how to use them to maximize our income. The first, and most important thing is that you can’t bankrupt. I think that it’s great rule for new players, since they don’t need to be scaried that somebody will dump bankrupt company on them and they won’t be able to buy train for that company. So they can feel safe in particularly way, and they can act like they only wanted.
To be honest I love that situation when I dump bancrupt company on somebody else, but the other rules makes me happy that I forgot, that there are no dumping bankrupt companies on others. There are few great rules that I loved in 18xx so let me list them one by one. Your company can build up to 2 yellow tracks (with some exceptions) and I love it, because it gives you opportunity to react on the map, and you can always find sollution for your company. I love that stock price is linked with amount of dividend. It means, that you have to pay big dividends if you want to raise fast on the stock market. This is much more realistic than like is in many others 18xx games, where every payout made the same raise. I know that mechanics previously from 1846 and 18Africa and I love it.
Generally in 18xx I love when you can payout only half of dividends. This mechanics is implemented in 1860 in specific way. You can’t payout half, but you can manage you route in way it will go through halts which are paying to company treasury. This halts doesn’t pay much, but still enough to gather cash for stations or terrain costs.
So as you can see there are a lot of good things in this game, and I didn’t mentioned all of them.
Who was playing?
3 players: Me, Marcin (Magole) and Michał from Olkusz
How do we started?
There is auction round, but privates which you can buy didn’t have special powers. Four of them provide you 10% of shares and last two are president’s certificates. So Michał from Olkusz won first auction and he chose 20% of IOW, then I won and I chose 20% of C&N. In the next auctions I took 10% of FYN, and Marcin bought last 3 privates (with 10% of C&N, IOW and BHI&R). We rarely saw Marcin with so many private companies. It gave him 55 in each OR, because he didn’t want to exchange them fast into shares. Michał opened his IOW and bought 60% of its shares. Since I bought private with FYN I was able to buy only 50% of my company shares. And what is funny I forgot rule that I can have even 100% of shares. Thankfully later in the game guys remebered it to me 🙂
I’ve opened route to Newport and Michał from Olkusz managed route to Ryde Stj. Marcin had no money to open his own company, so he choose to buy certificates of our companies. After few OR I tried to link my route with route of IOW and Marcin sold our shares and started his own company IWNJ. Next rounds were so crazy and I can’t remember in which order we did our actions. But what I remeber that Michał opened second company – BHI&R, I started FYN and Marcin NGStL. Then when the guys saw, that IWNJ and BHI&R won’t be able to earn enough money to buy permament trains, they sold all their shares to stock market and they opened last companies – Michał opened VYSC and Marcin S&C. That was clever move, and I have to study how to use this mechanics, because so far I really don’t know. And I still had only 50% of FYN but since Marcin must sell 10% of my C&N I bought it and I was one and only owner 🙂 In this moment I thought that I can’t win this game because I had control over 2 companies where FYN wasn’t so good, and Marcin and Michał had 2 companies but hundreds cash from selling their third companies. But then occured another crazy moment on this night. As I mentioned before Marcin sold his IWNJ and since it was insolvent and under receivership it also gained enough money to buy permament train. But share price were near bankrupt zone and becasue we were still in ORs then nobody could buy it, and it bankrupt. It meant, that next SR will be predacious… And for bloody hell it was! And it was amazing and crazy at the same moment.
First you should know, that Michał from Olkusz was first, then Marcin and I was last in the SR order. So Michał from Olkusz opened IWNJ, but we knew with Marcin, that we had to buy its shares just to prevent Michał from buying everything. So at the end of this process Michał had 40% and I and Marcin 30% each. But do you remember turn order? You also should know, that last time when Marcin and Michał were playing, Michał tear company from Marcin’s hands and Marcin remembered it…
So Marcin told me that he will sell his shares in IWNJ one by one which I should buy. So we did it, and that’s how I became IWNJ president. I had 50%, Michał 40% and Marcin last 10%. It was like rollercoaster. From hell to heaven, and from this moment I realised that I can win that game! When Michał saw that I became president of IWNJ he decided to sell his 40% of its shares which I bought. That’s how I controlled 90% of IWNJ at the end of the game. Michał used money he get to reopen BHI&R which bankrupt in this SR and Marcin was trying to do something witch VYSC. He sold NGStL, and till the end nobody want this company anymore. The next ORs weren’t so important and after 4 hours and 20 minutes we ended with my win 🙂
Some crucial moments:
– Marcin and Michał from Olkusz sold their companies and get big amount of money which helped them to open a new companies
– Marcin wants to steal company from Michał from Olkusz, but he couldn’t, so he helped me to do it
Conclusion:
That was 4 hours of fun and joy. Even when we didn’t know how to act wisely this game gives us so much pleasure. There are lot of mechanics that are so great and now I realise, that we need many, many plays to understand them all and to find out how they works together. The first player who will understand fully how to bankrupt companies and open them once again will be a winner in our next play.
Pros:
– Share price can advance up to 4 places
– Companies can build up to 2 yellow tiles
– You can posses up to 100% of company shares
– There is no way for a player to bankrupt
– You can sold all company shares, even president’s certificate
– There are halts on the map which provide money for company
– Companies without trains can lease one from the bank and gain money for their own trains
– One of the company trains can go through blocked city
– Great artworks in Marcin’s pnp version 😉
Cons:
– You can’t dump bankrupt on somebody else (in way like we know from other 18xx games)
– Some rules are still not so clear for us
Time of play:
4 hours 20 minutes
Results:
| Michał (Elemele) | Michał from Olkusz | Marcin (Magole) | |
| Cash | 4409 | 3730 | 4034 |
| IOW | – | 2790 | 310 |
| C&N | 2900 | – | – |
| FYN | 910 | – | 910 |
| VYSC | – | 474 | 790 |
| S&C | – | 158 | 1422 |
| BHI&R | – | 1200 | 300 |
| IWNJ | 1152 | – | 128 |
| Privates | – | +200 | – |
| SUM | 9371 | 8552 | 7894 |
My BGG rating: 9.5
