Game: 1826

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nwhyman — 2007-08-14T01:53:15+00:00

1826 Track Upgrade Aid

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nwhyman — 2007-08-14T01:52:42+00:00

1826 Small City Upgrade Aid

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nwhyman — 2007-08-14T01:51:58+00:00

1826 City Upgrade Aid

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Werbaer — 2006-06-02T10:40:50+00:00

Cooperations. 9 normal, 1 Belge (special rules), 2 government (mergers)

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Werbaer — 2006-06-02T10:33:35+00:00

1826 stock market

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Werbaer — 2006-06-02T10:32:35+00:00

1826 money

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Werbaer — 2006-06-02T10:31:40+00:00

tile upgrade examples. Rightmost is Paris, which gets very valuable

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Werbaer — 2006-06-02T10:31:17+00:00

box cover (Chris Lawson edition)

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Werbaer — 2006-05-31T11:50:09+00:00

Stock. Most companies start as minors, with only the prefered stock available, and convert later

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Werbaer — 2006-05-31T11:36:43+00:00

cooperation sheet, with some player aid tables

Thread: Tao of Gaming Review

Bankler — 2005-12-11T17:50:19+00:00

[This review assumes you are familiar with 18xx. See my review under 1830 for basics. This was written in 2001 -- Brian]

The latest 18xx (for me at least) is David Hecht's 1826. It's only available as a kit. The net-view asserts that 1826 focuses on operations, and less on stock manipulations. This is somewhat true, because of the McGuffins that drive the game.

1826 is set in Belgium and Northern France (Paris and Brussels are focal points, and London is a 'red area', a connection off the edge of the Map). 1826 companies use incremental funding, where they get capital when shares are bought. Companies can also buy and sell their own shares, and can withold, pay dividends, or split the money. Like 1841, companies only advance if their income is greater than their share value. Interestingly, the can pay out half and advance, as long as that half is greater than share value. This opens the door for many financial options. (A company could choose to withold or pay half in order to finance a share-repurchase, which will help the company's viability at the expense of the shareholders and short term cash).

(Most) companies start as a 'minor' corporation, with shares in 20% blocks instead of 10%. This gives the minor's a significant boost in price/earnings ratio, but limits the companies capitalization (and number of trains). Once a company has reach a destination, they can convert to a major company, which increases the train limit (and allows the company to sell 50% more and get the income until they sell) but dilutes the shareholder's holdings.

Balancing these interests (while maximizing personal returns) seems tricky and interesting.

Other changes are that private companies may not be sold to majors (thereby looting them) and that major companies that are required to purchase a train take out automatic loans. Additionally, if a company has a loan, it is restricted from selling a train to another company at a loss, or purchasing a train from another company at a markup! These rules make bankruptcy rare.

Another interesting (and confusing) twist is that (like '35 and '56), the government can take over insolvent companies. There are three possibile times for this (although only two can happen), when the first three train types rust. If a company has operated and is without a train after a type becomes obsolete, then it is nationalized! (It is nationalized even if it could easily afford the train!) This only occurs if at least two companies will fold. Nationalization typically causes the shareholders to lose value (of course), and the president must operate the company relatively cleanly (only buying and selling trains at face value).

Finally, 1826 has a novel train scheme. Early trains are rated at 2-10H, where "H" means Hexes. A 2H train can move 2 Hexes from wherever it starts. After the 10H comes the electric trains, which operate at a fixed number of stops (like trains from 1830) and can ignore whistle-stops. However, exactly how many stops the E trains can use depends on the number sold! (Starting at 2 and going up to 5). Additionally, while the E trains are the best type being used, they double revenue. However, the TGV train will eventually come out, and then it gets double revenue, but only makes 3 stops (as compared to 5 for the E).

So at the end of the game, there are three distinct train types: one that counts hexes, one that makes 5 stops, and one that makes only 3 stops, but at double value. Getting the right train onto the right company requires work.

Overall, I think that 1826 is meaty enough to hold interest, and is (unlike 1841) of a typical 'evening' timeframe. My first (3-player) game took 4.5 hours, including rules and a few questions. This will probably fall to 3-3.5 after a few plays. (Just for comparison, our group typically plays 1830 in 2.5 & 1856 in 3.5).

Update 2005 -- The above review was written fairly early on, but I suspect I've probably played 1826 7-10 times. It definitely focuses on operational aspects (much more so than the other games of the series), and is undoubtedly the 18xx game I am worst at. A nice change of pace, while still part of the basic system.

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-08-05T21:37:18+00:00

Hello!

Saturday, we had for the second time the pleasure to host David Hecht (guest
star ;-) ). This time, we had the whole day, so we decided to play his
excellent 1826. David just offered me this copy (gold edition) three days
before, so my wife and myself spent our evenings cuting, sticking and triming
the gamekit! ;-)
The components are topnotch (wooden tokens for the station markers, laminated
shares, charters, trains,...), kudos to Xris Lawson; even customised (with
parisians buildings pictures on them) money is provided (I still have to cut
them! ;-) ). The map is made of 4 sheets (A4) of paper of superior quality and
is "water-proofed"; I'll have to glue them on a thick A2 cardboard, then cut it
in 4 parts, binding them with tape. But until that, we have used a glas plate,
and it worked well.

We were four investors: David Hecht (no need to present him anymore), Patrick
Fautre (who is an experienced 1830 player), Philippe Keyaerts (who has designed
VINCI and EVO, but is rather newbie in 18XX) and your humble servitor (who
becomes a 18XX addict).

David took some time to explain the rules differences with 1830 and the 1826
particularities.

We felt that the private companies were quite balanced and that none was
particularly more powerful. I bought the one which gives the Parisian director's
share, but waited two turns before floating the company (as soon as the company
buys a train, the private closes, ala 1835), earning 25F each turns (--> 75F),
for a price of 165F and a "double share", I found it was rather cheap!

Instead, I launched the Paris-Orleans company, which had a straight way to its
destination. The good thing was that it was the only parisian company to start
to the south (the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee was still sleeping). The Est (Patrick)
and the North (Philippe) wer competing for reaching Reims and placing a station
marker, blocking the other before the first 4H train is bought! Philippe chose
to orientate the track in the reverse direction of The Est, leaving the Est with
any reachable city, and then unable to operate a 2H train.

This 1826 particularity (trains are limited in hexes instead of stops!) was a
little bit disturbing during the first turns. Moreover, once we had caught the
system, the Electric trains became available and their limitation is again
different (a number of stops, but ignoring the dot-towns and doubling the
dividends; the number of stops depends on the number of Electric trains in play!
Once the TGV's are available, the E dividends are not coubled anymore! gasp!).

I then launched the Parisian, trying to take benefit from the network previously
built by the P-O.

The second particularity (at least, new to me) was that the companies started
with "preferred shares" (40-20-20-20). When a company has reached its
destination, it then may "declare" itself as a "major" company and transforms
its shares: 40->20 , 20->10 and 5 additionnal 10% shares are issued.
It was not evident to know when to do that! But once declared, a major company
has its trains number limitation increased (2-->4) and also gets new shares that
it can sell to the bank pool to get fresh money for a new train or some
difficult track building. Of course, your "old" share parts are halved down but
you can buy new 10% shares in order to keep the presidency!

We prevented the ETAT-merger to appear (when the first 6H train is bought),
permitting to my P-O to survive! But we were unable to avoir the fundation of
the SNCF (first 10H train), merging the Alsacian and the PLM. David controlled
this powerful merger.

The end of the game saw the domination of the TGVs, especially on northern
tracks.
My P-O was able to realise something quite unusual with an Electric Train in the
game (David had never seen that before): to connect London to Milan.
I finally dumped the Parisian to Patrick (he owned 50%) after having transferred
its 10H train to the P-O. The forced loan provoked the droping of the Parisian
value, costing a lot of money to Patrick!

I finished with around 7700F, David with 7194F, Philippe with 7175F and Patrick
6900. A very close game!

Due to our inexperience and the very different rules with comparign to 1830, we
took much more time to play (10+ hours) than it should be (I guess it could be
possible in 6 hours, even if David told us that he played one game in 4h, but
with experienced players and one of the most efficient banker he has met), but
we all enjoyed this game and the discussions with very nice players!

Highly recommanded if you like "heavy" 18XX. It seems to have plenty of
different openings and game developments and possibilities, a good replayability
factor!

Fred