2 player variant for 1861

With the help of a friend, I have been attempting to find a two player variant for 1861. Our last attempt proved to be very balanced throughout the game. Whether this was by luck or incompetence is yet to be proven.



The first step is to modify the initial layout of the board. The idea is to create a 'second' Nikolaev with the M-NN by removing its ability to lay additional tiles.
-Moscow starts as Green with its orientation set.
-Nizhinii/Novgorod starts at green.
-Saratov has an illegal yellow tile placement. This tile can be upgraded to a green city in phase 3+ as long as it does not use the illegal spur off-board to the NorthEast. As an alternative, I suggest either borrowing a #115 tile from 1825 (or 1860) or creating your own.



The second step is a reduced privates auction. The two Moscow privates will not be auctioned off here.

The third step is a second privates auction. Here the Moscow privates and the Nikolaev and M-NN are auctioned off in pairs.
-Nikolaev and Moscow Yaroslavl
-M-NN and Moscow Ryazan

Both combinations have a minimum R150 bid that both players are compelled to make. The player with priority from step two will make the first bid at R150+. The next player will raise or pass. The winner will determine which pair they will choose. The 'winner' will use their winning bid. The 'loser' will use their last bid.
-Subtract the Min Bid of each private from the final bid and fund the Minor with the difference.
---example: Final bid R180, chooses Nikolaev & Yaroslavl, subtract R40 from R180, fund Nikolaev with R140 setting its market value at R70

The fourth step is that the game continues under normal rules.

Optional Rule: No company can lay yellow tiles in the protected hexes unless the company or the RSR own the corresponding Private. With this rule, the owner of the Nikolaev (or M-NN) is not compelled to sell the corresponding private to that Minor so that it may build to Nizhnii/Novgorod, but at least the option has already been guaranteed.

Money and Certificates are based on 6 player game times three; R630 and 33 Certificates.

Thanks,
Christopher

As I understand it, track lays on the MYR and MRR hexes are not restricted by whether or not the private is in a player's hands, but only by the phase of the game; is this an additional variant rule?

Not until you said something. It looks more like a misunderstanding of the rules on my part. And how I had taught the game to my group.

We have been playing that your company could not lay the yellow tiles in those hexes unless the company or the RSR owned the private.

I'll update the post above with this as an optional rule.

Hi guys and girls,

i would like to hear about some experience with this variant. Is there anybody who tried this out?