1862
Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties Mike Hutton https://18xx.guide · v1.0.1| Players | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start cash | £1,200 | £800 | £600 | £480 | £400 | £345 | £300 |
| Cert limit | 25 | 18 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 |
Bank £15,000. Twenty companies and no privates. A round is Parliament → SR → ORs, and the game opens with two Parliament rounds.
StartSetup
- Eight companies are available from the start, four more from the first B train and four from the first C. The last four are discarded.
- Each company draws one permit—Freight, Local, or Express. It may own any train but may only run the type it holds a permit for, and only a merger ever adds another.
StartParliament
- In turn a player opens an auction on any available company, bidding £0 or more in £5 steps. Passing drops you from that auction; the winner starts the company at once, and play resumes to their left.
- A player who has taken a charter this round may still bid, but may not open another auction.
- The winner pays the bid, sets a par, and buys the 30% director's certificate at 3× par. They may then buy up to two more shares.
- A charter is an obligation: float that company before the next SR ends or pay a fine of 5× par, the company returning to the IPO.
SRBuy/sell shares
- Sell any, then buy one—or start a company. Shares of one company sell as a block.
- A company is a 30% director's certificate and seven 10% shares.
- No limit on shares in one company, and no limit on the pool.
- Float at 50% sold. Chartered companies are fully capitalized; non-chartered are incrementally capitalized.
- A trainless company's shares sell at half market.
- Shares cost par from the IPO, market from the pool or a charter.
SRShare price
- No sold-out rise. Selling drops the price one space a share.
- Above 200 or below 40 the first share a non-director sells moves nothing; above 400, the first two.
- An unfloated company's price never moves.
SRStarting a company
- Chartered—won in Parliament. It takes 10× par on floating and three tokens at £60, the home among them.
- Non-chartered—started in an SR by taking the director's certificate from the IPO, setting a price of 54–200 and paying the company 3× it. On floating, the director buys 2–7 tokens at £40, the home among them.
- A company may only start if it will be able to place its home token when it first operates.
OROperating round
- Merge → track → token → run → dividends → trains → redeem → acquire.
- A company may redeem one share an OR from the pool, at market, and shares it holds pay it dividends.
ORMergers
- At the start of its turn a company may merge with a company it can trace track to, by consent of both directors; at the end of its turn it may acquire one. Either way shares combine 2:1 and the survivor takes the trains, treasury, permits, and tokens.
- The new price is the lower price plus half the higher, rounded down—but a trainless company's price is halved.
- Odd shares leave an option share: redeem it for half the new price, or hand it back for the same.
ORLay track
- Two yellow tiles, or one upgrade. A build may instead be one small station or a link to London.
- A small station is a dot added to a plain stretch of track anywhere on the map, connected or not—one to each line of track on the tile.
- London has four token spaces. Only a company with one may run there, no route may be traced out of London, and building there is the whole build.
- Only one token a turn besides the home, and tokens are free to place—they were bought on flotation.
ORRun trains
- One run must include the home station; each further run must meet an earlier one at a large station. Every station scores once, and separate trains may share track.
- Freight counts hexes: the two ends pay, plus £20 for each hex between them as the crow flies—£30 per hex if either end is a port.
- Local counts the large stations. Every small station on the way is extra at £20. The treasury also takes £10 per hex visited.
- Express counts large stations and off-board areas, ignoring small stations.
- An N/M train runs to M stations and scores the best N of them.
ORPay dividends
- Withhold ←1 · pay < price 0 · ≥1× →1 · ≥2× →2 · ≥3× →3 · ≥4× →4
- George Hudson: add treasury money to the revenue in tens, the least that reaches the share price. Doing it forces a payout.
ORBuy trains
- Trains come in bands A–H, one price to a band. Every train of a band sells before the next band appears, and an older band then changes hands at half price.
- A warranty is £50 from the treasury, three to a train at most, and one is spent after each run. A warranted train does not rust. A and D trains come with one free.
- Trainless at the end of a turn, a company must sell treasury shares at full market or refinance—every holding halves 2:1 and it takes 10× par. Failing both it goes bankrupt.
Receivership
- A director may sell down below three shares, putting the certificate in the pool. The company is then in receivership: it is run by its largest shareholder, lays no track, places no token, always withholds, and buys at most one train an OR.
- Three shares in one hand takes the certificate back out of the pool.
ENDEndgame
- A bankrupt company pays its shareholders the share price, loses its tokens and trains, and returns to the IPO. Players never go bankrupt.
- The first H train forms the LNER at the end of that set of ORs: no more Parliament rounds, building, mergers, or new companies, the IPO empties into the pool, sales stop moving prices, and the certificate limit becomes the largest holding at that moment. Every company then operates three more times.
- A price reaching the top of the market ends the game at the end of that OR, and the bank emptying at the end of that set. Neither forms the LNER.
| Band | # | Cost | Freight | Local | Express | ORs | Limit | Rusts | Brings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 7 | £100 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 of each | Yellow · low off-board | |
| B | 6 | £200 | 2 | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2 | · | Green | |
| C | 4 | £280 | 3 | 3 | 3 | · | · | A | Middle off-board |
| D | 3 | £360 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | · | Russet | |
| E | 3 | £500 | 6 | 4/5 | 4/5 | · | 2 of each | B | High off-board |
| F | 2 | £600 | 7 | 5 | 5 | · | · | C | |
| G | 1 | £700 | 8 | 5/6 | 5/6 | · | 3 in all | D | |
| H | ∞ | £800 | 9 | 6 | 6 | · | · | LNER · endgame |