When writing about the best release of 1830: Railways & Robber Barons, I’m thinking of the Avalon Hill edition from 1986. It’s now 39 years old — and no edition since has surpassed it.
We’ve described both later editions in detail here: 1830 — New and Old Editions.
The 2011 Mayfair Games edition introduced many add-ons, such as extra maps and scenarios, but it also came with several errors and usability issues (for example, the stock market values are printed in the middle of the lines).
The 2018 Lookout Games edition corrected those mistakes, but it still lacks any indication of phase changes, which can make the game confusing for new 18xx players.
Surprisingly, the oldest edition remains the best overall. Yes, the paper quality is lower, but that’s not a major concern — you rarely handle the cards directly in 18xx games, and there’s no real need to sleeve them.
For many years, we’ve supported all editions of the game with our storage trays. For the oldest release, fans had suggested two possible tray sets — but both turned out slightly too large, causing a small or medium lid lift. Recently, I decided to fix that once and for all, so I bought the game myself and designed a perfect-fitting tray set!
The new set includes:
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2 low trays for all track tiles and tokens
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2 card holders for the cards
The only small compromise is that all double small city track tiles must share one compartment, and the same goes for the special B/NY track tiles. It’s not a big issue, as we recommend placing those tiles next to the map during gameplay anyway. (We’ve also prepared a separate stickers with track tile set because of those changes.)
Another minor limitation: our token set is slightly too large to fit two companies into one compartment. In that case, 1–2 tokens can be placed separately on the brown tiles — again, not a problem, since those companies will likely already be operating when you need those tiles.
Check out the photos of the new setup! Link: Cube4me – 1830 Avalon Hill
And for all our previous customers: if you purchased one of the earlier “not perfect” sets, you can get a 50% discount on this updated version. Just contact us after your order, and we’ll create a refund.
