The Hotness
Games|People|Company
Eclipse
Gunship: First Strike!
Mage Knight: Board Game
Midnight Men
Agricola: Die Bauern und das liebe Vieh
Hawaii
Star Wars: Battle of Hoth
Wiz-War
Ora et Labora
Rex: Final Days of an Empire
Snowdonia
Barbarian Prince
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
Twilight Struggle
War of the Ring
Agricola
7 Wonders
A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (second edition)
Dominion
7 Wonders: Cities
Kingdoms
A Few Acres of Snow
Risk Legacy
Arkham Horror
Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization
Thunderstone Advance: Towers of Ruin
1812: The Invasion of Canada
Dixit: Journey
Elder Sign
D-Day Dice
The Castles of Burgundy
Le Havre
Kingdom Builder
Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game
Race for the Galaxy
Cosmic Encounter
Dominant Species
Dungeon Petz
Battlestar Galactica
Power Grid
Mansions of Madness
Last Will
Twilight Imperium (third edition)
Nexus Ops
Agents of SMERSH
Puerto Rico
Star Trek: Fleet Captains
Kairo
Core Worlds
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
Recommend
1 
 Thumb up
 Thumb up
5 Posts

1861: The Railways of the Russian Empire» Forums » Variants

Subject: 2 Player Variant rss

Your Tags: Add tags
Popular Tags: [View All]
Christopher Clouser
United States
Brownsburg
Indiana
designer
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
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

 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Last edited Thu May 29, 2008 3:45 am (Total Number of Edits: 1)
  • Posted Wed May 28, 2008 10:37 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • QuickReply
    •  
    • QuickQuote
    •  
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Andrew Schoonmaker
United States
Long Beach
California
This overtext intentionally left blank.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
WoofWarpWeft wrote:
The fourth step is that the game continues under normal rules. 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.
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?
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
Christopher Clouser
United States
Brownsburg
Indiana
designer
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
NeonElephant wrote:
WoofWarpWeft wrote:
The fourth step is that the game continues under normal rules. 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.
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.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
Ingo Griebsch
Germany
Bochum
North Rhine-Westphalia
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Hi guys and girls,

i would like to hear about some experience with this variant. Is there anybody who tried this out?
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
sok shee


msg tools
mbmbmbmb
WoofWarpWeft wrote:
The idea is to create a 'second' Nikolaev with the M-NN by removing its ability to lay additional tiles.
...The second step is a reduced privates auction.
...The third step is a second privates auction.

Honestly, I do not perceive the necessity for this:
The asymmetric distribution of privates and the Nikolaev in a 2 player game provides for a very interesting setting and game play (example see here).

Apart from that, the game setup lacks historical accuracy (the initial track should be laid to NN and not Saratov).
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
Front Page | Welcome | Contact | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Advertise | Support BGG | Feeds RSS
Geekdo, BoardGameGeek, the Geekdo logo, and the BoardGameGeek logo are trademarks of BoardGameGeek, LLC.