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I arrived at Ämmälä residence at about 14:30 and saw Antero drinking beer outside. This was a bit surprising as Antero hadn't indicated in any way that he would be joining us in our 18xx session. But his arrival was a jolly good thing as I suspected (and still suspect) that 1848 plays a bit better with 4 players than with 3. As we were going inside Matti also arrived. Nice to have all players arrive on time.
Although we hadn't officially made any plans on what 18xx game to play, I think it was more or less certain to everybody that we'll play 1848. I have been quite vocal about it recently... So 1848 we played. Unfortunately(?), I forgot to take my camera with me so this session will not feature any poor photography by me. I'll try to be descriptive in my writing.
A little something about the ruleset
Basically 1848 is very close to 1830 ruleswise, though there are few (important) differences. First is that the initial auction is done by Dutch auction. This is a very welcome change as the usual auctioning is a bit dull. Second is the addition of bank of England and loan system. Band of England basically helps capitalize companies with loans that won't ever be paid back, the only downside is that it hurts the stocks value. Usually you don't want to take loans, so Bank of England hasn't got much effect on gameplay, unless.. your company doesn't have enough money to buy a train. In 1848 players cannot help companies to buy trains. Instead companies have to take loans until they either end up in receivership (increase the value of BoE shares) or have enough money to buy a train. I see this as the only way for shares of BoE to become important enough to have an effect on gameplay.. by bad planning.
Back to session and initial auction
So, the players this time were Me, Mikko (Ä), Antero and Matti who was a newbie to 18xx games, though he said he had read the rules for 18AL and 1856. This helped explaining the game a great deal as he pretty much knew all the basic things and I just had to explain the 1848 specific stuff (to everybody) and there's really not that much to explain there. Mikko was randomly chosen to start the dutch auction. The play order from Mikko was Matti, Antero and Me. Without going into much detail about how the auction went on.. I ended up with 2 privates (Oodnadatta & Tasmanian), Mikko bought Trans-Australian Railway, Matti got North Australian Railway and that basic £5 income company and Antero got The Ghan. The privates in 1848 aren't all that great in my opinion. But maybe I just haven't seen their power yet (their special abilities seem a bit weak).
Robber barons start their first businesses
I got to choose first which company to start. I ended up forming SAR (£80) because of its close proximity to Tasmanian port (I had the private for that). Mikko decided to use the QR share he got from his private to his advantage and formed QR at £90. Antero chose to start with WA at £80 also. Matti didn't form a company as he didn't have enough money, but he would form CAR (at £100) during the next next stock round.
The early game was quite 2 sided. Mikko was railroading with his QR completely alone in Queensland. The rest of us were racing to build track in South Australia. All of us were making about the same amount of money though. 1848 has quite a train rush. The 2-trains were gone after two operating rounds and rusted already on fourth. 3-trains lasted a bit longer, but not much. I quite enjoy this, even though I seriously missed the train (  ) few times during the session.
The very early game track building was rather obvious. The South Australia's coast line was built quite quickly and Tasmanian port was placed on the west side hex. QR built track around the 3 nearest cities.
Mikko and Antero went for second companies fairly quickly and at the same time. Antero formed VR at £100 and Mikko NSW (£90?) to help QR with its track building. This meant that green phase trains were all bought in a blink of an eye and brown era was rapidly coming. I didn't quite expect things to move at this high speed and this made my train purchases look less than optimal (I had two 3-trains and one 4-train..) But me and Matti were making nice profits when Antero and Mikko were setting up their companies
Middle game creeps upon robber barons
My troubles (and Matti's also) started when Mikko was able to buy the last 6-train. Now my company would have to buy £800 8-train (or £1100 diesel). I had saved for a train a couple of rounds but my SAR was still missing a bit. In the end I had to help it with my newly founded COM (£100), which bought its sole 4-train and then upgraded it to diesel. After that SAR had enough money to buy 8-train. Matti's struggle for survival was even more painful. He had to take a couple loans in addition to withholding with his company, which threw CAR's share prize from £120 -> £50. CAR was left with only £5 in its treasury and 8-train, a close call.. Matti also formed FT during the same stock rounds as me at £80. So now all companies were in the game.
Track building situation hadn't changed all that much from early games basic premise. Only VR had now joined to the South Australia's rail network and NSW had joined with QR. Adelaine - Sydney connection was still far ahead. But with the addition of COM and FT, this would soon change. COM had the incentive to do so as it had a diesel. FT merely wanted to connect with the eastern part of the rail network.
Overall the "middle game" part of the game was incredibly short. The leap from first 5-train bought to first 8/D-train bought was 2 sets of operating rounds. 5 in total. It was funny to see that people were still preferring building two yellow tiles instead of updating to brown...
Robber barons stagnate at the late game
Maybe this was because of our inexperience with the game but all sensible track building options were pretty much gone when COM/SAR finally got the Adelaine-Sydney connection made. COM was soon making huge profits (~£750) with its diesel, while 8-trains were making about £480. SAR and CAR had the exactly same route from Perth to Melbourne (3 capital connections), WA had Perth - Adelaine (2 capitals) + 2E train. VR had Adelaine - Melbourne (2 capitals). FT had a link from Bathurst - Sydney - Brisbane - Toowoomba (2 capitals) with its 8-train. COM had nice diesel run from Cairns - Sydney - Adelaine - Melbourne (4 capitals). QR and NSW were running the Sydney - Brisbane (2 capitals) route. And that was pretty much it as we didn't buy more trains. It was quite clear after the game that at least Mikko should have started saving for 8/D-train but for some reason didn't. I should probably have too! As SAR could have easily run two 8-trains well. We didn't even use the 2E trains properly as only Antero bought one (and it was making him good money!). In short we played all very sub-optimally, but next time will be different, I can pretty much guarantee it. There was a bit station marker hate for my long diesel run by Mikko, but it didn't hurt me that much (ok, it did hurt me just enough to lose the game, maybe).
The game ended by bank (£10000) running out of money, but enough loans taken by companies end condition was just one loan away too. After counting Antero had made most money £6538 in total. I was second with £6528. Yes, I lost by £10.  Matti had about £6000+ and Mikko was way behind with something like £5500+. The game took 5 hours. To put this in perspective, our 18xx group plays 18AL in about 4 hours and 1856 in about 6 and half hours.
Thanks for the game, mates! 
Some thoughts about the game
Overall, I quite enjoyed it. In a way the game feels like survival game against Bank of England, which is cool. Though, bank of England doesn't have much effect on gameplay unless one or more companies actually fold to it. Compared to other companies through out the game, BoE was medium to low tier investment. Granted, a safe investment, but investing in other companies was a better deal most of the time. We actually were selling our BoE shares when we hit the certificate limit in order to get better shares.. Another good thing about the game is that it's unlikely to have scripted beginning. All companies are about even in their starting potential, though the ones in South Australia are probably a slightly bit better than the rest.
For those who are thinking of getting this game, a few words about the components that come with the game kit. First of all, the quality is good enough that you can start playing right after you cut the track tiles out as the certificates/trains/privates are cards (which have some sort laminate on them) and the track tiles and company charters are thick enough to handle. But I would still recommend laminating them anyway. I myself just added a thin plastic layer on them (the stuff you laminate book covers, usually).
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Posted Mon May 4, 2009 8:57 am