The Complete 1825
Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Francis Tresham's 1825 is a massively expandable train game about the early British railroads. It is based on his classic 1829 (now long out of print), and is an attempt to make that game more managable and playable. The game has 3 base sets and numerous expansions, including 9 Expansion kits (6 have been released) 4 Regional kits (3 have been released) and 2 kits of additional money.
With all these options, it seems useful to list all the bits and pieces (currently released) so that we can discuss which expansions work well together, what the trade-offs are, and so forth.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Unit 1 is a standalone game, as are each of the base units. Each focusses on a different geographic region. Unit 1 covers south east England.
It supports 2-5 players although some people say it works best with 4 or 5 and is alright with 3. With 5 someone will not get a private company and instead will start as the director of the LNWR.
This number can be increased by adding the other base sets. It can be used with Unit 2, but obviously cannot use Unit 3 unless Unit 2 is also in play.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Regional Kit R1 - Wales adds Wales to the the northwest edge of the Unit 1 board. It also includes two minor companies and several tiles.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Regional Kit R2 - South West England adds the remainder of the west of England to the bottom left of the Unit 1 board. Again, it adds a new minor company and adds additional tokens for the Great Western Railroad, as well as a handful of tiles.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Regional Kit R3 - North Norfolk adds a tiny 2 hex board to the north east end of the Unit 1 board. It also includes a new minor company and a few tiles.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Unit 2 is another base set. The geographical region it covers is the Midlands, so it is connected to top of Unit 1 and the bottom of Unit 3, either (or both) of which it can be combined with.
It supports 2-4 players, although the feeling seems to be that it is best with 3.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Unit 3 is the final base set. It covers Southern Scotland & Northumbria.
It is unique in that it supports 2 players only. Eventually, Regional Kit R4 will be added to expand it further into the north. It is the only Unit to include minor companies, and apparently makes them far more integral than in other units.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Adds 15 additional tiles to any of the 3 Units. A reasonable mix, nothing too imbalancing.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Adds advanced and different trains to the game and is intended for Units 1 and 2. These trains are pretty interesting, but add just enough complexity that they probably shouldn't be used for the first few games, unless you are coming from a different 18xx game.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Extends the game into the fourth phase. Includes 6 and 7 type trains and several tiles. It requires more money to play. Can be used with any of the 3 Units. I haven't played it yet, but I doubt that it really adds too many more turns. When companies really start paying dividends at the end of phase 3, the bank depletes extremely quickly.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Adds two new minor companies and a couple tiles to Unit 2.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Contains 12 tiles that were not included elsewhere in the game, aside from some found in regional kits (such as 58). Any Unit may make use of them.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Adds a minor company to Unit 1.
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Mark Watson
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Adds an additional 10,000 pounds to the game, as needed to make use of many of the expanions (assuming you don't take the money from some other game). It is my understanding, however, that there are no suggestions as to *how much* money should be added to the expansions to get them running correctly.
Some players also have noted that Unit 1 works best with an additional 1,000 in the bank.
There is also a G2 expansion that adds a weird denomination (33 dollar bills) for easier change-making. Some players overcome this by using poker chips instead of the paper money, which increases the speed of the game and makes things much tidier.
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This 18xx kit augments an existing game. It supersedes previous Kits K1 and K6 and contains more tiles, 36 instead of the 15 in K1 and 12 in K6.
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I now have a copy on order.
