I first played 1856 a couple weeks ago, when my brother-in-law came to visit and brought his copy with him. The game is actually a game of 1830, with some rule changes. If you haven't read my review of 1830 , do so before proceeding.

Here are the major differences between 1830 and 1856:

The map - 1856 covers the area of Upper Canada (Southern Ontario). The map is of the area around Toronto, Niagara Falls on the lower left, lakes Ontario and Erie on the bottom edge, Detroit on the lower right, Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay on the top edge.

More stuff to try - 12 corporations are available and 8-trains have been added. (We played without the 8-trains, they extend the game time but don't seem to offer any other benefit.)

Rail capitalization - starting money is much tighter in 1856. The up side is that you can float a rail at 20% owned rather than 60%. However, the operating capitol is limited to how much is owned. For example, if 20% is owned, and the share price is set to $100, operating capitol is $200. As more shares are purchased, operating capitol increases. You're really purchasing shares from the corporation rather than the bank, as in 1830.

This effectively removes any incentive to invest in other's rail lines. If you have the money to buy shares, you have money to float another rail. The effect is less cross-investment, but cross-investment is more often used to steal a rail line.

Loans - Each corporation is allowed to take out loans of 100$ per share owned.

The Canadian Government Rail line (CGR) - This is the biggie. When the first 8-train is purchased (or 6-train for our house rules), the CGR comes in to play. At this point, all loans above are called. Any rail running in the red becomes annexed by the CGR. All shares of the dying rails are traded 2 to 1 for CGR shares, and the CGR presidency moves to the player with the most shares. The CGR is run by preset rules, so nothing too dramatic can happen to it.


In both games, the main strategy is funneling as much cash from your corporations into your personal wealth. 1856, with the added option of loans, allows much more of this. 1856 also encourages you to transfer wealth from a small line into a larger one, with the incentive that sooner or later the CGR will take it over and negate the loans. "In 1830, if you run your rail into the ground, you're pretty much screwed." - my brother-in-law's quote, and btw, he helped me pull this info all together. Here's more:

"In either game, those that do the best are those that successfully funnel the most money to themselves in the early stages of the game, using whatever rules for that game. Those that are more ruthless in the stock market tend to do well in both games. Both games have the 'free money' concept, the disincentive to pushing your company too high in the stock market, by buying stock for a few rounds, then dumping them into the open market for immediate profit."


While 1856 certainly stands on it's own, I tend to see it as something to play as an 1830 variant. It's nice but not necessary to have both available. The advantage to owning only 1856 at the moment is that it's in print and available. Finding a good copy of 1830 could cost an arm and a leg. 1856 could easily be played by 1830 rules for another change of pace, and of course, the opposite is also true.

The 8 trains are not added between the 6 trains and the diesels. They are used instead of Diesels, as a variant. After we've had 80+ runs with diesels (and the CGR running 220+ with 3 Diesels), we now always play the 8 train variant.

Since 8 trains are optional, you played the CGR correct. Its start is always triggered by the first 6 train bought.

I don't think 1856 would work with the 1830 rules. The high number of companies, and the high numbers of cities on the board, would lead to an insane train rush in the midgame if companies get 100% capitalisation.

That would be like playing chess using the rules for checkers..lol.

After reading Jeff's review I'd speculate he hasn't played the game..more than once. Many of his review comments (ie. 8 trains) clearly leads me to believe the 1856 rules weren't read closely before trying to play, thus rule play errors. I disagree on his strategy comments, he just hasn't played enough. He should have stated more clearly it was a review based on a quick first impression.

1830 it's not.

re: the rules.
I have played this game with the same set of friends several times, and it wasn't until round 5 we stopped making serious errors in following the rules. Just as a warning for all of you out there wanting to try this game.
It is an absolutely great game, but make sure you read those rules properly while playing. so many important small things in there that should have been highlighted (or maybe I should have checked up on this site before).