Heng’s Gaming Blog

1830 @ Mage Café 30 May 2008

Ξ June 6th, 2008 | → | ∇ Boardgames |

1830, the railroad era begins. Jefg8, aanemesis, ceternal and I got together and became railroad moguls, robber barons for a night. 

The initial private company sale saw jefg8 going for the CPR sister company, aanemesis experimenting with B&O’s sister company, ceternal trying out PRR’s sister company while myself settled for a random income generator.

The first stock round saw the typical investment of the railroad barons into the complements of their sister company, jefg8 – CPR, aanemesis – B&O, ceternal – PRR. As I took a random private company, I didn’t feel confined to one particular company and thus settled on C&O.

The first operation (OP) round saw CPR, PRR and C&O floating, all within the same par value of $82. All operating companies bought their first train.

 

The second stock round saw B&O finally floated with its minimum 60% shares subscribed. Aanemesis joined the fray one turn late. Will it be a turn too late? Second OP round saw companies declaring dividends for the first time, while gobbling up their second train. Obviously this being a veteran game means that everyone plan for the extra profit returns despite the short life span of the 2-train.

 

3^rd OP round saw lucrative runs from CPR beating everyone else. But only C&O forged ahead with a risky 3^rd train purchase.

 

The sale of the first 3-train saw the game shifting into higher gear as there are now 2 OP rounds each turn. The availability of the green tiles saw upgrades all around to maximise earnings on routes plied by existing 2-trains. The strategically bought 3^rd train in previous round saw C&O’s dividends soaring. A timely joined blockage by PRR and C&O west of PRR’s homebase forced B&O to seek her future eastwards. Continued conservative spending by CPR meant that her dividends fell far below of C&O for the first time.

 

4^th stock round saw aanemesis trying to float NNH in an endeavour to conduct a joined expansion program between B&O’s and

New York (NY). Intervention by a certain cash-flushed C&O proprietor saw aanemesis’ plans shattered as NNH was stolen away unceremoniously.

 

4^th OP round saw more route upgrading and expansions but otherwise no answers to C&O’s continued dominance of the dividends payout. NNH operated for the first time to dismal dividends return (due to its isolation from existing tracks). It however was building away from B&O’s home base.

Stock round 5 saw cash-flushed jefg8 and ceternal joining the 2^nd-company fray with NYC & ERIE. Started as a means to complement their existing companies,

ERIE meant to help CPR with its lonely expansion up north. Meanwhile, NYC worked in conjunction with PRR to tap the riches of NY together.

 

OP round 5 saw trains purchases flying fast and furious due to the new companies’ needs. Brown tile were made available as 2-trains were made obsolete. The viciousness of the 1830 game was made evident by the limited tiles as

ERIE was forced to connect southward as the only tile available to connect northwards was used up. NY was quickly connected to and the lucrative route monopolized by PRR and B&O. Cut off from NY, C&O for the first time looked shaky and had to rely on its western links operation to save its fiscal performance. NYC quickly got in on the NY action together with NNH on the northern approach. Capitalising on NNH’s previous track building, NYC was able to generate a respectable return on the first run.

As the night goes on and the rounds became longer, it quickly became a game of attrition for us four railroad barons as we fought sleepiness to see who has the alertness left to maximize our train runs. Unfazed by his initial failure, aanemesis floated the last company, BM, to bring all players’ public companies to 2 a piece. New developments happened eastside of NY as BM tussled with NNH and NYC. Faced with no competitors,

ERIE finally linked up with CPR on the north and complemented each other’s runs perfectly.

The final moments of the game saw ceternal made a mistake in disposing of his permanent 5-train to upgrade to a Diesel. A quick shuffling of trains and an injection from my personal funds saw C&O ending with two permanents while all other companies ran with one permanent train. This mistake was capitalized by C&O’s numerous runs before the bank broke, signaling the end of the game. Jefg8 during this while also developed

ERIE and CPR unhindered to finally tapped into C&O’s lucrative western links.

Final game result:

Player Networth:

Ayheng: $9045

Aanemesis: $7434

Ceternal: $7213

Jefg8: $7080

 

Public companies final EPS (earnings per share), in order of startup

PRR: $32

C&O: $43

CPR: $30

B&O: $31

NNH: $19

NYC: $30

ERIE: $20

BM: $21

 

Analysis: ceternal would have done better in this game, alas he had a phobia of being hotsun (our term of being dumped with the ownership of a sub-par company), thus resulting in less than optimal share purchases. Jefg8’s CPR did not do too well, probably due to more often than usual dividends withholding. Aanemesis as usual did some funky experimentations that did not quite turn out fantastic results. Above all, I suspect that the purchase of the 2^nd permanent train as well as the early risk of running 3 trains pushed the game in my favor.

 

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