1889 is one of the first 18xx games I have met. I played my PnP version in March 2017. And you know what? I was surprised a lot by the fact it was only three years ago. I have a feeling that at least twice as much time has passed since then. But it’s probably because these three years were so severe and so much happened during this time. Since then I have met over thirty other games. Most of them are very good, but we come back to 1889 every now and then and we always enjoy playing it. I have already had over 20 games in my account (only in this title) and the coolest ones are those with three/four players. This game works best in this system and everything would probably be OK, but the pandemic has caused the whole world to stop, including our gameplay; last time we met in the beginning of March. We have had relatively few illnesses, but unfortunately we cannot meet as always, which is almost every Friday evening.
About a year ago, we tried to play online a little, but our games lasted immeasurably long, therefore we got discouraged then quickly gave up. Mainly because on the Internet there was no efficient system to play so that everything was transparent and relatively efficient. If only we could talk to each other, but…in your dreams! Therefore, when a completely new online gaming system appeared in April, at first I was a bit sceptical about it and I had to force myself to play online again.
We played this way for the first time in early May, two games at the same time! We played 1889, our favorite! And once again a week later. And I must tell you that I was really impressed with what Toby developed . The game flows smoothly and everything is transparent. This system is still being developed, small nuances are constantly being improved, e.g. I could buy a more expensive train during the rescue train purchase. But this error has already been corrected.
Now we can play online without any breaks, we can arrange an evening game, we can sit at the computers, talk on Skype and play. It’s not like regular meetings, but it’s still very good.
I have spoken to the author of the application and his plans are even more titles. The second game will be Chesapeake, then 1846. I guess you are pleased with these news, right? So am I, a lot!
There are also plans for corrections and improvements. Now, the route of each train must be indicated in the application, the author is thinking about adding the option of automatic route counting and that it will be possible to turn this option on or off, because there are players for whom the manual route counting is a very important part of the game.
Another cool thing is a clock, so that the game counts time for individual players, it could be a nice accelerator for those who have been wondering for too long 🙂
Personally, we could use graphically showing routes for individual companies, because now you cannot see where to block the opponent.
The author said that the system would be free, which is great, this is probably one of the coolest possibilities in which you can popularize knowledge about 18xx and encourage new players to try these titles.
Just try to play it yourself, remember that it is a free system and it has been constantly developed, someone has put a lot of work into it. Thanks a lot, Toby.
Our three games were amazing, but maybe I will describe them next time.
Go to 18xx.games
18Chesapeake! any rough date on that news?
The ‘alpha’ version is apparently ready.