Ed, Jimmy and I played what is becoming one of my favorite 18xx games.

Jimmy started the bidding by putting up the '3' then passing, he got it for a cheap $90.

Then I put up the '8' and got it for a reasonable $60.

At this point Ed and Jimmy put up the '6' and '11', I thought they should go for $50. Ed disagreed and got both for $60. At this point Ed and Jimmy were laughing about the '8' getting shut-out.

Since things were going poorly in the south, I put up the '12' (my favorite minor) and got it for a awesome $90!

Ed then snatched up the '5' and '10' for $60 each.

I put up the '7' (setting up my favorite combo) and got it for $70!

Then Ed put up the '15' and got it for $60. And Jimmy put up the '9' which I got for $80! Getting the '9' turned out to be critical for me.

At this time, Ed had 5 minors. The 5, 6, 10, 11 and 15. Ed had $150 left. I had 4 minors. The 7, 8, 9 and 12. I had $150. Jimmy had the '3' and $360.

I realized that Jimmy was trying to put up all the companies me & Ed wanted and try to get us out of $$$, so he could get his companies cheap. I am sure Ed was thinking the same thing.

So I put up the '14', Ed and Jimmy got into a bidding war, Jimmy got it for $130, ouch! Ed put up the '1' and it cost Jimmy $120, double ouch!! Jimmy is left with $110. Both me ($150) and Ed ($140) have more $$$ than him.

Jimmy put up the '2' which I got for $110. I put up the '13', Jimmy said I should have put up the '4' and he had a point. Ed got it for $115. And Jimmy got the crappy '4' for $40. So Ed got 6 minors, I had 5 minors and Jimmy had 4 minors.

The first set of ORs had the usual '1' to London, the '2' & '12', '3' & '14' and '5' & '10' building towards one another. The '4' built southwest, the '6' built north, the '7' is going to Hamburg, the '11' is going to Trieste and the '15' heads south since it has nothing better to do.

The '13' was cut off in Jimmy's attempt to connect the '14' and the '4'. It didn't happen, but it limited the '13' for awhile. Then the '8' and '9' built toward each other. This generated alot of talk, but the '8' can afford to blast the mountain into Krakau in OR3 which means the '9' can connect up and run for $90. The '8' also has single 2-train run of $90 in OR4! This Berlin to Budapest run was very profitable all game.

In the first SR, Ed and Jimmy both opened a company by merging in 2 minors. The lousy '6' and '11' for Ed and the great '1' and '3' for Jimmy. I invested in 2 shares of Jimmy's $100 company and a share of Ed's $90 company. It made no sense for me to start a company.

The next set of ORs, my minors made huge profits while the majors snatched up all the '3's and a '4'.

The next SR, Ed uses 2 minors to open another corp, the '13' is still viable with a '3' train. The '15' is now an empty husk.

Jimmy uses the '14' to start a company, merges the '4' into Ed's first major and immediately sells it.

I merge the '2', '12' and '7' into one major. The '9' and '8' into another major. And bought the share that Jimmy sold.

During the next sets of ORs my majors fall back and buy 4-trains (the only majors all game that don't start with trains). But my majors make alot when they do run. Jimmy cuts me off when I try to connect to Paris.

No new majors were started during the next SR. Jimmy buys the poison 4-train and the first 5-train next OR. Both Ed's corps got the last 2 5-trains. Jimmy's 2nd major was train locked. One of my corps got the 1st 6-train. The next OR Jimmy's 2nd major got the 2nd 6-train and my 2nd major got the first 8-train.

All the shares were purchased next SR, unfortunately the shares in my first corp were left last so Ed was able to get one more share than me. I didn't have a large enough $$$ lead to make up for being one share behind Ed, so we called the game at that point. Jimmy was way behind.

Rules note: you can't merge a minor into a major unless the major has never run or it's the Final Exchange Round.

I'll have a longer post later, but this game (especially the IA) seemed to go oddly. I feel that not opening a corporation the first SR is crazy in 18EU.

Lol, we've been playing 18EU for nearly 10 years that way. I wonder if this is a new rule? I will ask Ed check the rules to see what his set says.



Thats why I wrote this session report! This game was definitely unusual. However I don't see how I could have successfully done anything else. If I started a company with the '2', I'd have had to start it at $76 to get all 5 shares. Which means it would have had $65 + $304 = $369 in it. So I get a '3' train. That really limits what I could do.

Instead, I got 3 shares of companies which had multiple engines. When I started my companies, it was at $100. I had to fall back 1 time, but then I was making alot of $$$ with 4-trains. It seemed to work out but it did speed up the 2 companies which opened. Of course, I had so much $$$ in SR2, I opened 2 majors at $100 and bought a $110 share of stock.

BTW, reading my response just now, I realized it might come across as condescending. That wasn't my intention so I did some wordsmithing and hopefully changed the tone. I certainly appreciated Excalabur's response. I am alittle chagrined that we could have been playing this wrong for the last 10 years. And I very much want to hear the opinion of other 18EU players about this wierd game.

That's from the "version 1.0.0" rules off of the Deep Thought Games web site.

I feel that letting Ed have four minors in the south for $60 apiece is where it all went wrong for not-him: an extra minor is worth an appreciable amount, especially when he had two natural corporations out of it.

Regarding your lack of major in the first SR, you had 2/7/8/9/12 + £40. This should result in ~$340 on hand in the first SR if the 9 doesn't run to Krakow. You can then merge the 2 and the 12 at £100 and you're cooking with gas. (Alternately, and perhaps preferably, the 7 and 9.) I don't see where the downside is, here? You said you made 'mad profits' with your minors, but surely two ORs worth of trains existing is better than having a bunch of minors with maybe two three trains between them?

There's also groupthink in the auction values, obviously: the 15 is great (in my experience) if you have the 3 or 14, similarly the 3 is good if you have the 14, 15, or (worse) the 1. But I don't see that the 3 is really £30 better than the 15....

Am I reading correctly that not all of the corporations got started?

Thanks for letting me know.



After the minor auction, I thought Ed had a slight lead over me and Jimmy was out of the game. Jimmy let Ed bid up every company which was a big mistake.

In OR1, I made $115 while Ed made $160. And in OR2, I made $170 compared to Ed's $175. But OR3 I made $282 to Ed's $200 and OR4 I made around $312 and Ed made around $200. So I had $200 more to invest. So after IA and SR1, I am basically 1 share behind Ed. But after SR2, I am 1 share ahead. I stayed about even with Ed the next set of ORs even though both my companies didn't run one set of ORs. Thats because my companies were much more profitable than Ed's companies.



Lets say I merge the 2 and 12. I have 5 shares at $100. I have a $210 run, $105 to me. But I made $105 with the '2' and '12' alone, plus $57. Hmmm, though this would have slowed Ed down. His '13' and '15' minors were isolated. He put a 3-train into '13' and he couldn't have done that if I bought two 3-trains. Maybe thats a wash.

But this would have given me two 3-trains instead of 4-trains. I had really good 4-train runs with my companies. But I get an extra run with the 3-trains, higher share values. Maybe you are right. I didn't want to merge the '12' because it was making $120. But it might have been better to have done that. It didn't hurt me much though. But it helped Ed.



I agree, but thats not group think, thats Jimmy making a big mistake. He got the '4' instead of the '15'.



Ed was full at 20 shares, I had 19 shares. Jimmy was the only one who could start a company and he didn't have the $$$. Actually, Jimmy was $2 short of buying a share of my stock. That would have left me and Ed tied with 19 shares a piece. And I would have won. I would have given Jimmy the $2 if it was legal, lol. The SR after that there is no reason to open a company since the company will only run once and the company isn't fully capitalized.

Its unlikely a 3 player game will have more than 7 majors started since the cert limit is 20 and 7 majors give 63 certs.