By John Puddifoot Late Spring 1998/Vol 5, no 2 As the box notes, 1830 is The Game of Railways and Robber Barons.
You play a Rob ber Baron, emulating the likes of Gould, Vanderbilt,
and Fisk, all of whom built personal fortunes of a magnitude unimagined
today while making huge contributions to the industrialization
of North America. This is the opportunity that 1830 presents to
you. In playing 1830 you will find it to be one of those rare games
that minimizes player luck while maximizing player skill. What
you do, and what the other players do to you, solely determines
whether you win or loose. Dice, cards, or spinners do not determine
your fate. Yet there are no sure strategies. This can lead to
very different games depending on the style of the players. While
1830 has moderately simple, logical rules, it is not a simple
game. Like Chess and Diplomacy, the rules of 1830 form a framework
that allows players to test their skills at any level. After playing
well over 1000 games of 1830, I have yet to see two the same.
An additional complication to 1830 is that the best actions and
strategies change as the game progresses. What is an excellent
move early in the game is often precisely the wrong thing to do
later on! Here I will suggest some strategies to the novice and intermediate
player. If you are looking for the basics of how to play, the
Avalon Hill computer version of the game is a fine teacher for
game flow and rules. However the computer is only good to the
intermediate level -- Sharks will beat the computer every time. Railroads & Robber Barons In 1830 there is no one perfect strategy: every play has its advantages
and drawbacks. It is the skillful player who will be able to discern
what these are and be able to forcibly demonstrate the failures
of the other players' actions. Similarly, it will be how you react
to the other players' actions that will determine your standing
in the game. Knowing what to do and when to do it is critical.
Nearly all strategy in 1830 depends upon the ancient art of timing. The rules of 1830 are subject to some variations. Like most games,
1830 has several commonly played variants that arise out of different
but still somewhat valid interpretations of the written rules.
While there is a set of standard rules currently under discussion
by the Train Gamers Association, I recommend that you discuss
the rules with any players you have never played with before.
Do this before you start the game to avoid fiery discussions later!
These variants do not really affect the way the game progresses,
but they do improve and hinder certain strategies. For the purposes
of this article we will assume that the rules followed are as
used by the computer version of the game. Etiquette Suggestions To speed play, don't be rigid about backing the game up if a player
makes a legitimate oversight. This removes player paranoia about
making foolish errors. While there are obvious limits to what
is acceptable, be friendly about it. Remember, you are playing
this game for fun. Besides, a victory because of an unintentional
blunder is hollow at best and proves little about the relative
skill of the players. Making the amount of money each player has public also quickens
and improves play. This permits each player to make their decisions
with some certainty about the options available to the other players,
thus reducing the analysis required for each play. If you, or another player for that matter, gets shafted early
on in the game, then I suggest that you change your objective
from winning. Instead try to place ahead of one of the other players,
or try to set a record for the highest dividend. Don't simply
walk away. You may even win despite your best efforts! I suggest all of the above "rules" so that the game will move
quickly and be more exciting. While games of 1830 should be finished
in four or five hours at most, simple dawdling by players can
drag out games. This has given 1830 and other 18XX games the reputation
that they take forever. My experience is that the players can
take forever to make up their minds or finish their negotiations.
The actual playing of the game takes relatively little time. I also suggest that you "rate" your players and be kinder to newbies.
Our group uses a three level scale: guppies, chum, and sharks.
Guppies are new players who are largely unfamiliar with the rules
and strategies. We give guppies accurate information regarding
the ramifications of their actions, outline their play options
to them, and generally do not try to manipulate them. This encourages
them to play again, even if they lose badly, and improves their
play quickly. The next level, chum, are players familiar with
the rules and some of the strategies, but who do not have their
skills finely honed. We graduate players from guppies to chum
after they have won their first game. Sharks are those feared
players who have honed their skills to a high level. Show them
no mercy. Sharks tend to feed on chum. Game Keys Stock Market Good Stocks/Bad Stocks Let us look at an example. During the stock round the Pennsylvania's
price token is sitting in the 67 box in the red starting zone.
There is one share left in the initial offering and no shares
in the bank pool. There will be two operating rounds before the
next stock round. If the Pensy sells out by you buying the last
share, and no one sells, the expected increase in value will be
$15 per share. ($4 for all sold, $11 for dividends.) Last operating
round the Pensy had a single 2 train and ran for $4 per share.
As the Pensy has lots of money, you expect it to buy one three
train and increase this dividend by connecting to Baltimore (B)
with the help of the B? and laying the C? tile. This should increase
the dividends in the first round to $8, and in the second round
to around $16 if everything goes as expected. This totals $24
in dividends. Thus you think the total increase per share value
in the Pensy will be about $39 or 58% (39/67). On first inspection the best share will be the one that has the
best increase in value, percentage or absolute depending on how
close you are to your share limit. If there were no other factors,
you would fill your portfolio with as many of these shares as
you could purchase, selling less desirable shares in the process.
Of course there are other factors so it is not this simple. When to Sell Dumping a fiscally questionable company you are president of on
a unfortunate player who bought more than one share in a company
is usually a good move. Hand him the company charter with its
depleted treasury and address him as "Mr. President!" in a deep,
ringing voice. Then laugh diabolically! Before you do this however,
make sure that you can replace the shares you are going to sell
with something else. If there is nothing to buy you will end up
holding cash and fall behind the other players who have their
cash invested in moneymaking stocks. Also make sure that the company
is truly unsalvageable. There is nothing worse than to dump a
company on someone and then to have him demonstrate your incompetence
by using it to win the game! It is important to consider if the
new president could go bankrupt at this point. If it is likely
that he will, then also check to make sure you will win when he
does. Don't hand victory to someone else! Of course if it is a
matter of your survival, dump at the first opportunity! Another reason to sell is simply to raise cash. You could need
cash for many reasons. You could wish to trade the share(s) you
have for a better one(s) available for sale or you many want to
raise cash to start a company. In the rare endgame scenario where you are certain that the game
is going to end on a bankruptcy immediately following the stock
round, you should as soon as possible sell all shares that will
not increase in value further or yield further dividends. Remember
when doing this that sales will change the operating order, so
be aware of the new order after the sales occur when deciding
what to sell. These sales will both knock your opponent's totals
down while ensuring that they do not do the same to you. As games
that end in bankruptcies are often decided by slim margins, this
action may be the key to your victory. Of course if you are a mustache twirling fiend with no scruples
you may simply wish to trash a competitor's share price. This
does have advantages in that it reduces the other players' portfolio
values while not harming your own. It is not always the thing
to do though. Selling, especially when to do so brings the stock
into or near the non-counting yellow zone, can often free up share
room for your competitors. It can also leave you holding cash
while the other players hold stock -- not a good thing. Beware
also of retribution from other players who may start to trash
your stocks. Starting a Company The question of which company to start is one that is hotly debated.
In actual fact, the best company to start, or to run, varies from
situation to situation. In general start companies that are near
to other running companies. This will get your dividends high
quickly because the other railways in the area will already have
largely developed your track network. Start companies that have
a reasonable chance of getting an eventual run of at least $ 24
per share. Companies that are trapped in a small section of the
map because of unfavorable or malicious track lays are not good
candidates. Check also that the critical pieces of track to get
the company started and running well are available! If you have nothing else to do, be on the lookout for arbitrage.
This occurs when the open market price for a share is higher than
its par value and there are still certificates in the initial
offering. Buying the share from the initial offering at par and
then immediately selling them into the bank pool at market can
often gain you the extra few dollars you need to buy the share
you really want, or allow you to start your company. At the very
least it is a quick profit! When you are nearing your share limits, start to buy up companies
that have higher absolute returns if you can afford them and buy
shares that are in the non-counting colored sections of the stock
market. If you are nearly full and there are still reasonable
shares to buy, consider putting one of your companies in the colored
sections during the upcoming operating rounds to make further
share room. While this may not pay off in the short run because
of reduced cash flow, the extra income you get from your higher
number of shares and the extra company money for stations and
trains can pay off handsomely. Priority Deal The best method to keep the priority close to you is to figure
out what you want to do this stock round and then do it as quickly
as possible. It may even be worth while passing before you are
completely out of cash if it means that the priority ends up in
a significantly better position. Next Time Editor's Note: As you may have guessed by now, this is the first
part of a two-part article. The second part will appear in the
Summer 1998 issue of the TGG. John Puddifoot has been a TGA member of long-standing ( recently
appointed to the TGA board) and a charter member of the dreaded
Vancouver Sharks (an 18xx group). He helped to playtest many Bill
Dixon designs and I consider him to be in the top echelon of 18xx
players in North America. Home | The Manifest | All Aboard | Train Gamers Gazette Questions or comments? Email tgatrains@aol.com. The contents of this Web Site are copyright © 1998 by The Train
Gamers Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Designed by Scott Lininger. Last modified Tuesday, 16-Jun-1998 12:39:56 CDT
.
1830 Game Theory and Strategy
The object of the game is to maximize your personal wealth at
the end of the game. Keep this firmly in mind because it is easy
to become wrapped up in the game's railroading aspects. At certain
points it is desirable or more often required to use your own
funds to improve the fates of your companies. This is fine, but
it is not the player with the best company that necessarily wins
so keep your contributions to your company to an absolute minimum.
Likewise do not become emotionally attached to your stock. If
it is a bad company it matters little if it is your bad company
or someone else's. In some situations it might be better if the
presidency was in other hands!
In the group I play with the only random elements of 1830 are
the players. Predictable play in 1830 leads to quick defeat and
it is to your advantage to be diabolically random. Keep the other
players guessing as to what you have planned. If they know for
sure what you are going to do, it is likely they will thwart you
if it is not also in their best interests or if they think you
are winning.
To make the game more enjoyable for all players, as well as improving
your own play and speeding the game, try to think ahead as much
as possible. Try to predict what the other players will do and
plan accordingly. If everyone takes only a few seconds to purchase
stock and a couple of minutes to run a company, the game can easily
finish in four hours.
Barring disasters, 1830 has four key components: controlling track,
cash flow, controlling trains, and diplomacy. Having all these
areas under your control will normally ensure victory. Unfortunately
the other players may not allow this.
Controlling track is making sure that the track network develops
to the greatest benefit of companies you own shares of, while
companies you do not own end up running the local bus service
for peanuts. Cash flow is keeping cash coming into your hand so
that your options each stock round do not necessitate having to
make undesired sales of stock. Controlling trains is ensuring
that you are able to buy trains according to your schedule and
not that of one of your opponents. Diplomacy is the fine art of
influencing the other players to make plays that are in your best
interests.
1830 is a game that can be won or lost on the stock market. Your
decisions as to which stocks to buy and which stocks to dump determine
your cash flow in the coming, and subsequent, rounds. This decision
will also determine which companies you will control, willingly
or unwillingly and the eventual value of your stock portfolio.
Picking winning stocks is therefore critically important.
But what is a good stock? In the simplest terms the return on
a stock is the total of its declared dividends added to its change
in stock price. For one operating round in the future this is
easy to calculate, further into the future may not be so effortless.
For most situations, you can assume that a railway will declare
dividends and increase in share value. (Why this is so will be
explained in part two in the next issue.) It is also easy to predict
if a railway will sell out. These two observations will tell you
where the railway's price will be on the stock market. Dividends
are a bit more difficult to calculate. If the company is not expected
to buy or lose any trains, assume that it will declare the same
as the previous operating round. Adjust this figure for any obvious
track improvements and any purchase or loss of trains. This should
give you a good first guess as to what the increase in value will
be. This calculation is simplified if you are the president of
the company in question, as you generally know what the company
hopes to do and what its chances of succeeding are. Remember that
a random element, another player, may not do what you expect.
There is no "sure thing" in the 1830 stock market!
There is a critical difference between the absolute increase in
value and the percentage increase. Early in the game you should
look at the percentage increase in value when doing share value
calculations. This is so you can get the greatest return on your
money. Later in the game when you are approaching your share limit
you should look at the absolute or dollar increase in value. You
do this because you can no longer trade one share for two cheaper
shares that together increase in combined value more than the
one share because you are restricted by the game's share limit.
The most important reason to sell, and the one you should always
consider first, is "Do I hold two or more shares of a company
I do not want to be president of?" The title of "Mr. President"
is highly undesirable if it is the president of a company that
has little or no money and must soon buy a train. To be the president
of such a company is the leading cause of bankruptcy in 1830.
If you are in such a situation, the safe play during your next
stock action is to sell as many shares as necessary to reduce
your holdings in that company to one or none depending on what
you think the company's long term prospects are. Hopefully you
can do this before anything unfortunate happens. You can hold
more than one share in relative safety if the current president
cannot sell enough shares to make you president because of bank
pool limits. You can also be at ease if the company is safe in
the short term and you can sell before the current president has
a chance to dump the company in the next stock round. Of course
if you want to be president of the company, hold as many shares
as you wish.
Adjusting the operating order of the companies by selling shares
is well worth considering. Which company gets to go first in the
following operating round may determine if a company gets to run
that last time with a soon to be dead train, which company gets
to buy the first 5, which company gets to trade that 4 in for
a diesel, which company gets to place that critical piece of track,
or which company gets to place that decisive station. Pay attention
to the operating order, and predict what will happen if it remains
unchanged in the following operating round. If it is not to your
benefit, try to change it so that it is!
What to Buy
If you have money, you should buy the best stock available. The
simple reason is that money in your hand does nothing. Money invested
in stocks grows providing you with more money for the next stock
round.
Starting a company is an extremely effective way of making money.
For every dollar you invest, you get two dollars back in the company
treasury assuming you sell the sixth share bought. If other players
help you, you get a greater multiple. This company money can be
used to purchase worthy private companies from your holdings at
twice their face value or to help prevent a fiscally unsound company
of yours from raiding your personal cash reserves. Running a company
gives you greater control over what will happen in the game and
gives you a better chance of ensuring that your shares will be
worth the most at the end of the game. However it is unwise to
sell all your shares to start a company. If you do you kill your
cash flow from dividends in the coming operating round and thus
your flexibility in the next stock round. (You can avoid the cash
flow problem if you have one of the larger private companies to
loot with.) Once you have bought the president's certificate,
the company is usually yours, so you may be able to take advantage
of other opportunities during the stock round before finally starting
your new company.
When you are considering starting there are six magic numbers
to keep in mind: $402, $432, $456, $492, $540, and $600. This
is the amount of cash you will need to buy the six shares necessary
to float the company. Make sure you have it in hand before you
buy that presidentís certificate as unliquidated shares can change
in price as other players sell or the bank pool can fill up preventing
you from selling. As to a starting price, set pars at lower values
at the beginning of the game so as to maximize the percentage
return. Later in the game, start as high as possible as you will
need every dollar to buy those expensive trains.
Other Purchases
You may want to consider buying shares in a competitor's company
so as to benefit from his stock while at the same time avoiding
the liabilities that running a company brings. I refer to this
as leaching. Riding someone else's coattails can be very profitable.
Just make sure you jump off before you become "Mr. President"
or before someone else dumping first sends the stock into the
toilet. This is also a useful tactic to employ when someone is
running a company into the yellow zone. These shares are cheap,
don't count against your share limit, and prevent the president
of that company from gaining too much benefit when these shares
eventually do pay. And they will pay. Avoid becoming president
of such a company however, unless it has a lot of cash or your
have a masochistic streak.
Keep a keen watch on where the priority deal card is going to
end up. If you act last in this stock round, you will have the
last chance to react in the next stock round. This is not good
as you will be vulnerable to becoming an unwilling president,
to having no company to start when you desperately need to, to
having all the good shares snatched up by other players and/or
having shares that you wish to sell depressed in value by previous
sales. The later you are in the next stock market turn order the
worse it is.
To optimize your next round position, try to get an idea of where
the priority will end up. Can you influence other players to move
you up in the next round queue by your buys and sells? If you
can't and you are far down the line, look to make critical moves
in this stock round rather than waiting for the next one. Buy
that presidential certificate a stock round early and sell some
of those hazardous shares that could make you president of an
insolvent company. It might not be the best time to do this, but
it minimizes the damage next round.
I hope that the above has given you some insight into how to improve
your play in 1830. However manipulating the stock market is only
one part of 1830. Next time we will look at how a railway is actually
run and discuss the pros and cons of various railways. See you
then!
The Puffing Billy | RailCon | The Switchyard | Union Station