Renaissance period of 18XX games – story by Oguzhan

Recently I got a lovely story from a Rails on Boards client, such e-mails are upbuilding for me, I’m happy that I could help to develop someone games 🙂

I got Oguzhan permit to publish his message on our blog. So here it is:

Hi Marcin,

I wanted to say thank you for the Wooden tokens. They arrived quickly and I played my first game of 1862 with my family tonight and the tokens were fantastic!

Great job!

I’m so happy that there is a renaissance period of 18XX games happening right now, especially with all the new titles that are being professionally published. I remember 10 years ago there were barely any 18XX games available. Even 1830 was considered a grail game and was very difficult to find, not to mention costly. I started the 18XX hobby in 2010 with my first game of 1870. I was looking for a stock market game at the time to play with my group, after getting tired of Risk and Monopoly. Googling for stock market games I found BGG.
Someone on the forum recommended 1870; I found a copy listed and purchased it. I still remember opening the box and seeing an ugly map and hideous flimsy yellow pieces. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it and I was hesitant introducing it to my gaming group. However, I started reading the rules and it seemed decent enough to try at least once.

I had my first game a week later and my entire game group was hooked! We haven’t stopped playing since! After 1870 I found a copy of 56 and slowly built up my collection over time. My friend Richard began manufacturing print and plays that are of quality and we started to expand beyond 70, 56 and 30.
11 years ago I would have been in heaven if there were this many 18XX titles available for purchase. I’m so happy that these games are becoming mainstream and more people are being exposed to them. No longer are they a niche
market, enjoyed by few. Everyone I have introduced the games to love the mechanics, it’s just one of those designs that are instant classics. I look forward to how the series will be built upon and expanded as more designers try their hand at creating unique 18XX games.

Anyway, thanks again for the tokens.

Have a wonderful weekend

Sincerely,

Oguzhan

 

1 thought on “Renaissance period of 18XX games – story by Oguzhan”

  1. “I remember 10 years ago there were barely any 18XX games available.”

    So this would have been in the 2010-2011 timeframe then?

    Lucky this guy wasn’t coming to the hobby in the early 1990s, when 1830, 1870 and 1856 were pretty much all there was, aside from expensive, hard-to-find imports like 1829, 1853 and 1835.

    But all of MY games were released in or before 2011. As were many games by Bill Dixon, Helmut Ohley, Lonny Orgler, Federico Vellani and others.

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