1853
This was the 3rd game in the 18XX series of games, of which their are now several.
The object is to construct railway lines by laying tiles on the board, buy trains to run on these lines, either regular or narrow gauge, collect revenue from towns visited, buy shares in the railway companies and hopefully run profitable networks that will win you the game.
The emphasis in this game is less on the shares side and more on rail building, which is just what the players wanted after 1829, but then along came 1830 and showed just how much fun a share-game can be. As a result, 1853 wasn't as popular as it should have been
The game opens with the players making Contract Bids.
These signify a players intention to link cities by railway.
Cities are noted and secretly put in an envelope with a sum of money to the value of the cities. The player gets this 'Bond' back when the cities on their bid have successfully been joined.
Once these are dealt with, Stocks in the main companies begins. Shares are issued and paid for depending on their Contract Bid. Once 60% of stock in a company is bought, (or 50% with 5 or 6 players)that railroad is floated and can begin to operate.
In the Operating Round(OR) a company places a tile on the board. Only yellow tiles are initially available, with green and brown tiles becoming available with later phases in the game to upgrade existing tiles on the board. Then, trains run between stations. A '2' train for example can only run to two stations. Revenue is earned from the value of stations along the route.
This can be paid out to stock holders as a Dividend, which puts the price of shares up, or kept by the company to finance larger trains or track laying, in which case the share price goes down, but only if there are shares in the bank pool.
Companies can then buy more trains if they wish. Directors also have a choice of buying Metre gauge trains, which are cheaper than regular gauge, but also require metre gauge track laying for them to run on.
The game continues in this fashion, with stock rounds and operating rounds until the bank runs out of money, or when a Company reaches a Share Value of £400, when the richest player wins.
To quote the rule book 'If a share value reaches the end of the Stock Market board, the game stops at that point with the payment of the appropriate dividend, loud cheers and a lively rendering of a suitably patriotic piece of music'. Unquote :o)
SUMMARY:
This has only been played a couple of times, but has been thoroughly enjoyed by all. Reccomended.
Review by Brian
