[ENG] 1846 – Report from first 4-player game

Disclaimer:
We made it! This is the first post written from the start in English language, not a translation. And since English language is not my native, please take my apologies for every grammar and spelling mistakes I probably did. If you found that bugs, please send me an email about that. Thanks and have fun reading my report.

On Tuesday I played 1846 for the third time. Before that I played 3 players game, and 2 players game, and yesterday we played 4 players game. Hope, that next time I will play with 5 players, and can judge, which combination is best for that game (in my opinion ofc). So far I think, that 2 players variant is quite good, and with 3 players it’s not so exiting, because there are not so many posibilities to block another players companies. And in 4 players game, there was finally so many oportunities to block other companies. In 3 player game there are not so many chances to do that, because you control too many companies, and you can’t block another player, because doing that you will block your other company. So, how do we play? What were the crucial moments? And of course, what I did, that I won? 😀

As I said, we played with 4 players: Me (Michał), Marcin (Magole), Ania (Magole’s wife) and Tomek (he was playing 18xx for the very first time). We started of course with private companies, and in my turn I can chose mainly betweet Big 4 and Mail Contract. I chose Mail Contract, because I think that this company is the best private company in the 1846. Why? Because it fits with every company you will have, no matter in which place you will start. And Big 4 is not as good as Michigan Southern. At the first few OR’s Big 4 will have connections which give you only 40$ revenue, and because of that, you can build only one track section in every OR. That’s not a good deal in my opinion.
Next, I chose “blank” card, because I don’t want to invest too much money, but in my third turn, I finally decided to take Chicago and Western Indiana. I did it for two reasons: first, I want to have any private company which will give me money on every OR, and second – I thought that having reserved spot in Chicago will be important. I knew, that I wasn’t able to run Grand Trunk Railway (GTR), because someone took Michigan Southern. And I thought Illinois Central Railroad (ICR) won’t be also for me, because someone bought Big 4. So, my only options was to run one of the companies from the east.
After all private companies were selected we start first stock round, starting with Tomek. He already owns Michigan Southern, so it was sure that he will choose GTR. Next Ania, because of Big 4, which she owns, she bought ICR. Then Marcin lauched Erie Railroad (ER), and I chose New York Central Railroad (NYCR). I set the initial price for my NYCR higher than Marcin for his ER, because I forgot, that in first OR companies operate in reverse order… That means only one – Marcin will block my way to Cleveland, and I can’t do anything 🙁 And of course, he did it. But thankfully Tomek and Ania bought for their companies 2 train each, and then Marcin bought one train “2” to his company. So, when my turn started there was only one train “2” in the bank, so I bought it, and then I also bought train “3/5”. Thanks to that, since second OR I could upgrade tracks in Cleveland. All players in the next few stock rounds just only buy their own companies, and nobody was interested in my NYCR, even when that company generate really nice income. But, if they don’t want my shares, that’s only good for me, because my company can pay out dividend only for me and to its own treasure. That’s why I need to sell only one share from company to stock market and then buy train “4”. Why do I need third train in NYCR? I had a nice plan 🙂 I’ve got only 3 shares of NYCR so I risk so much, but you know – no risk, no fun 😉 In the following SR’s still nobody was interested in my company with 3 trains! I’ve been waiting for that 🙂 And, when I was thinking about it right now, I guess that was one of the crucial moments of the game.

I had enough money to buy another 2 shares of NYCR so since then, nobody can take that company from me, and in the same SR I started a new company Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (BOR). I had enought money to start only with price 40$ because I want to buy 50% of its shares in these SR. So I did, and Tomek bought another 40% of BOR shares and Marcin bought last 10%. All shares was sold, so I have 400$ in BOR treasury. Do I said that we were in phase 3? No? 😉 So, the cheapest train was for 450$ and I had dilemma what to do. Should I bought one of NYCR trains (“3/5” or “4”)? Or should I help with my private money to buy permament train for BOR? I thought, that NYCR without paying dividens for 2 times (or one time, and one time half dividend) can bought it’s own permament train, so I didn’t need cash from BOR. So I helped BOR with my private money, and it bought train “4/6” from the bank.
I was in quite good position. BOR has already permament train, so it could pay dividend every time, and thanks to that it’s share price will go higher and higher. That company was only for that reason, to be at nice price at the end of the game.
As I planned, NYCR was able to buy train from phase 4 – train “7/8” – using its own money. From now, I can really pay out good dividends, but I thought that if I will pay only half for next few OR’s, I will be able to buy another train “7/8” which I supposed to sell to BOR. That was so risky, because I didn’t get too much money from dividends, and Marcin has at this moment much more money than I. But as I sad before – no risk, no fun 😉 I bought second train “7/8” for NYCR and while I was gathering cash for that, I realized that with some new track my NYCR will be able to run two distinct east-west routes!
There were small amount of cash in the bank, and I was affraid that bank will be broken at the end of the second OR. But thankfully, when I bought that another “7/8” train a lot of cash goes back to bank, and we had opportunity to play another two OR’s. And that’s second crucial moment which allows me to won that game 🙂
With two “7/8” train NYCR made 890$ income in every OR, and since I’ve got 60% of it’s shares you know what it means 🙂 And of course paying full dividend by NYCR also advanced it’s share price on stock market by 5 spots in last 2 OR’s!

Ania Tomek Marcin Michał
Cash 936 1564 1919 1597
Dividends from last 2 OR’s 672 1594 1738 1820
Cash in shares 1580 3885 3675 3980
SUM 3188 7043 7332 7397

That was nicely spent 4,5 hours. Tomek, who played 18xx for the very first time, said that it was so nice, and he will play 18xx in the future. But, we lost one player 🙁 Ania said, that this kind of games are not for her. She’s loving heavy games like Food Chain Magnate or Arkwright, but 18xx are not in her type 🙁

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