The results of the December competition

I’m glad you responded to my article and I received so many submissions. Thank you very much.

Your collections are amazing. There are so many different games among your favorite titles. I like it!

Some people like operational titles more, others economic ones, but I haven’t noticed any similarity, your lists of favorite games are so diverse that there is no common denominator for them. The classic 1830 appears most often. It would seem that after so many games you known, some of them (the oldest ones) could fall out of this best-of list, because there are newer and more complicated games, but you still have a sentiment for the old ones and therefore you value them very much and you come back to them once-by-once. Anyway, I have the same feeling and this classic game is also on my list 🙂

I realized one thing, that I and my group of fellow players are taking some good titles out of circulation too quickly and we are putting them on the shelf. We don’t give some games a chance to shine, to get to know them better, to play them several times in a row.

Most of you also mentioned 1817 or 18USA (at least those people who have already learned several dozen titles). These are one of those games that, once you get to know them, will take up a lot of your life, but they are so complex that they deserve to be in any serious collection.

Below I am attaching letters from the winners.

Congratulations!

The draw looked like this:

Dave Berry list:

I have played 50 18xx titles, the full list of which is at the end of this message. I own about 33, with a couple more currently on order. Sometime I should probably trim my collection a bit, because I’m not playing all the titles I own, even with online play.

I have picked 9 of these titles as my favourites

1880: China has a superb re-invention of the way that stock rounds interact with operating rounds.
1862: East Anglia has companies that have to merge in order to run the different train types; a really clever idea enhanced further by a random set up.
18GB is a game I designed myself to further explore the design space where players can sell the directors’ certificates.
1860: Isle of Wight takes the ideas of the 1825 branch and makes them shine.
1849: Sicily is a very tight game that is very enjoyable; dual-gauge track adds extra options.
18Ireland is a challenge in avoiding being stuck with worthless minor companies when other players can vote against your preferred mergers.
1830 is the classic that has stood the test of time, even if the end game can be a bit long.
1848 Australia adds interesting twists and is very enjoyable.
1861 Russia is another tried and tested classic, from the 1837 branch – I may eventually prefer 1867 but I’ve only played that once so far.

There are many other games that got close to being mentioned, including 1817, 1824, 1870, 1882, 1889 and 18Ardennes, but I had to stop somewhere.

This is the full list of titles that I have played, with the ones mentioned above in bold. The titles in italics are those that I don’t own and don’t have on order.

1812, 1817, 1822, 1824, 1825, 1826, 1828, 1829, 1830, 1835, 1837, 1844, 1846, 1847, 1848, 1848LT, 1849, 1854, 1856, 1858, 1860, 1861, 1862(EA), 1867, 1870, 1880, 1882, 1889, 18AL, 18Ardennes, 18Chesapeake, 18CZ, 18DO, 18EU, 18FL, 18GB, 18Ireland, 18Lilliput, 18Mex, 18Neb, 18NewEngland, 18NY, 18PA, 18Rhl, 18Scan, 18US, 18USA, 18West, 2038, Steam Over Holland.

A photo that shows most of my 18xx collection: