1846 Deep Dive for the 18xx Novice

If you have made it to this page I am hoping that you have read the preceding 18xx article - What are 18xx games and why you should (or shouldn’t) play them. In this article I wanted to take a deeper dive into the two halves of the 1846 – The stock round, and the operation round – and try to explore what makes the decision space that exists between the two so compelling. I also want to highlight areas where 1846 diverges from some of the more typical 18xx games.

1846 Stock Market

Like a supporting actor in a M. Night Shyamalan film, this stock market is one dimensional. In 18xx, this refers to the amount of directions the share price can move. You will notice that it can move left, resulting in a lower share price. Or right, resulting in a higher share price. As an aside, they made an excellent design choice by changing the color of the available par price options – we’ll get into what that is later.  Utilizing graphic design to remind players of the rules they read in the rulebook is a great way to reduce the mental overhead needed to get into a heavy game. Anyways, before we look at the way the share price can be affected, we should understand what it takes to get a token (i.e. found a company) on the stock market. This will take us to the start of the game.2

How does the game start?

After randomly determining start player and seating order, 1846 opens up with a distribution of private companies. I love this part of the game. Before everything starts in earnest, you are already asked to make an important decision. The private companies serve two primary functions, the opportunity for early game income, and the ability to gain bonus powers not available to anyone else in the game. These private companies are shuffled into a deck that also contains blank cards. Each player in turn order will draw a certain number of cards, and choose one of the available cards. If they do not choose the blank card, which is in essence – passing, they will select a private company, pay its associated costs and place it in their play area. The remaining cards are reshuffled and placed back underneath the deck which will be passed to the next player.

 Like the little kid bumpers in a bowling alley, the private companies available can provide a path forward, even if that path is somewhat overgrown and hard to see at times. This is helpful for new players who may (read: will) encounter some indecision. It's okay though, sometimes it's fun not to know what to do. Most of these bonuses are simple to understand and involve reserving spaces on the board, or adding small cash bonuses to certain routes. Two of the private companies are minor railroad companies, while essentially acting as neutered versions of the major railroads they remain extremely useful.

Sounds great – What’s the catch (There’s always a catch)

Note: Extremely unlikely hypothetical situation to follow.

Let’s say you purchase 3 private companies at $50, $70, and $80 dollars. Combined you’re looking at $200, in other words, roughly half your net worth. Like most wealthy investors, none of the players will start out rich. “This is great.” You think to yourself, beaming while you look around the table at the paltry private companies in front of your friends. You look around the board at all of your reserved spaces, and how to can combine them to start making real money quickly and know you can’t lose.

So why is our fictional character apt to lose? First we need to explain how to start a company. After the private company draft, the game begins in full, which alternates between a series of stock and operation rounds. You will then find yourself in the stock phase where – you guessed it – you take turns purchasing (and in later rounds, selling) stock.

How to start a company the easy way

Just like real life, it’s laughably easy to start a railroad company, you simply gain enough shares to become the majority shareholder. So how do we do this in game? Depending on player count, 1846 will have 4-7 companies available. Each company has 9 stock certificates available, eight 10% shares, and one 20% (referred to as the directors share, since it will always be held by the director). This is one of the likely branching point you will encounter in most 18xx games.

Some games might have a tiered system of companies, minors and majors, with differences in certificates available for each. While other might have only major companies available, but tweak the rules on how companies are funded. 1846 employs incremental capitalization. Simply put, this means that at least initially, the company’s starting money will correlate directly with how many shares purchased in it. For example, if you choose $40 as a par price, you will pay $80 directly into the company coffers. If no other shares are bought in that company, you will only have $80 going into the operating round. You should notice this isn't a lot of money compared to the cost of trains and tile upgrades. Another design choice in 1846 that accommodates new players is that companies float upon the purchase of the director’s share. This means they will be able to act immediately in the upcoming operation phase. Other 18xx games like 1889 require 50% of the shares in the company to be purchased before it can act!  Set the par price too high and now you can't buy that last certificate? Congratulations, you won't be operating.

Getting back to 1846, if there is an available company and it is your turn, you simply elect to buy the directors share. You will have your choice of initial share price from a limited set of options, in 1846 this ranges from $40 all the way up to $150. After choosing the price, paying double whatever that price is, (you did buy 20% of the company after all) you now run the show.

 Keep in mind however, that the director of the company is whoever owns the most shares, which is a variable number. To safeguard yourself, you will need at least 50% of your company if you want to maintain absolute control. Compared to your starting cash of $400, you should be able to easily see how expensive this can get. (70 x 5 = $350!). This highlights the importance of keeping your future company's plans in mind even before the game begins! And the great thing about 18xx is that every decision is like this. When should you start a company? What price? Like an old lime, how do you squeeze the most value from your private companies? Though these games can run long, it shouldn’t be boring. You will be examining the board, seeing how your opponents are developing their track, and determining ways to subvert their plans like the conniving robber baron you didn't know you had inside you.

Walk quietly and carry a big company. But maybe not at the start.

So you've got yourself a shiny new public company - What can you do with it?

- Pay money ( for all of these examples, this refers to company money, not your own) to lay down track tiles to connect cities to that are connected via track to one of your tokens (tokens on the board here represent stations).

- Pay money for trains , take notice how expensive they get in later phases

-  Use trains to run routes to make money

- Choose how to allocate payouts

- Pay money to lay down additional tokens - notice the limited supply. Expands routes for you, potentially blocks out others.

- Eventually, purchase the private company that you own for up to face value (also a way of using it to make money), $1, or anything in between. Your choice. Most private companies need to be bought into a major company in order to activate their ability.

So how do these companies interact with the stock market?

I will assume here that you read how running routes work in the 1846 rulebook. I don't want to get too bogged down in the rules minutiae, and they can explain it better than I can (Rulebook Link). If you don't want to read the rules, just know that in general, companies make money when they connect cities to their station tiles. The amount of cities you can run to is dependent on the train you own. The more expensive the train, the more cities you can connect.

When a company makes money in 1846, it's director has three options for how it is distributed. The third option here is a divergence from other 18xx games. The three options are to:

1) Full withhold - All of the money will go straight into the company coffers. This might be useful if the company will need a new train soon. We will get into why this could be necessary later.

2) Full payout - All of the money pays out to the shareholders. If the payout is $100, and you have one 10% share, you will get $10 dollars. Let's say the company still has three 10% share certificates on its charter, the company will get paid $30. and finally if Laura owns the 20% director share, and four 10% shares, she will get the remaining $60.

3) Partial Payout - This works the same as the full payout, except before distributing the money to the shareholders, you divide the total payout by 2 and give one half to the company. Distribute the remaining money as you would in Full Payout. There are some rounding rules I won't touch on here.

Now what are the ramifications of these choices? If you choose full withhold your share price will go down by one. If you choose full or partial payout it gets a little more interesting. If the total value of the payout is less than half that company's current share value, the share value will go down by one. If it is more than half but less than the current stock price, nothing changes. If it is at least equal to the current share price, but less than double, the stock price moves up one. If it is double but less than triple, the share marker moves up twice. If you make it out of the par price zone, and you are triple or greater than your stock value, the share marker moves up three steps!

While the above mentioned share movement is interesting, there are some non-company driven mechanics that will work at adjusted the share price. The first happens at the end of the stock phase. If all of the stock in a company is held by players, that company's stock will increase one step. This adds a shared incentive for players to invest into each others companies, a rising tide raises all boats kind of deal.

What if I'm not a fan of high tides?

 Any company that has a share in the open market at the end of the stock round will also go down in stock price. Much like buying a share involves looking at the current par price, and paying that price per share. Selling shares involves looking at the current par price, selling each share into the open market (a place on the board) and receiving personal cash. 1846 mitigates the damage this can do by restricting the share price drop to one step down, regardless of how many shares you sell. 1889 for instance, this doesn't work the same way and the share price will drop by one step for each share you sell. Allowing you an easy route to tanking one of your own, or an opponents company. Which is always great fun.

The arc of the game (AKA the part about trains)

The last thing we haven't discussed is the general ebb and flow of the game. These games always contain phases, the start and end of which are dictated by when certain levels of train are purchased. 1846 contains two types of trains that are categorized into four different phases. When all of the trains from the current phase are purchased, the next category or phase of trains becomes available for purchase. Once one of those are purchased, the actual game phase advances. Each designer puts their own twist on to what changes happen between each phase change, and it does provide a great mechanic for giving the game a defined arc. The other concept going on here is the idea of the Rusting Trains, this means that as newer trains become available, the old ones become obsolete and can no longer be used.

Why would this be an issue? Because unsurprisingly, the shareholder's expect their train company to own a train. If a certain company loses their train, they will need to purchase a train. If they can't afford it the director will be forced to provide cash to help. If they don't have enough cash they will be forced to sell shares to afford it. This is why I mentioned to look at how expensive the late game trains can be. Thankfully, 1846 has a gentle train rust. When phase 3 is reached, the phase 1 trains can still be used one more time before rusting. Likewise, when phase 4 is reached, the phase 2 trains can be used one more time as well.

I think I get it, so why are there so many 18xx games?

Each 18xx title offers a unique experience. Though all 18xx games share a hex grid map and a stock market, almost every rule can be modified, each is a lever that can be pulled, a gauge that can be adjusted. Typically, these games are put into two categories: ones that focus on running good companies, and others that focus on stock market shenanigans. I know this has been a lot of explanation, but hopefully you can see how these systems interact in a fun, interesting way. This game gives you a reason to care about what's happening on the table at all times. You need to be cognizant of the actions of any companies you are invested in, not to mention your own! I haven't even got into the east-west bonus, or why Chicago is so important. Or the bonus abilities of some of the major companies. In conclusion, give 1846 a try if you made it this far. You might just find your new favorite genre.

Note: This wasn't meant to be a completely exhaustive overview of everything 1846 has to offer. Just wanted to put a more in depth overview out there so potential players have an idea of what they are getting into.

Photo Credit: GMT Games