1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties - Solo Playthrough

I'm trying out an 18XX game! 1862 to be precise, I'm new, I'm keen, let's give it a go. Things to note - I've never played an 18XX game before this, I've been learning & practicing but I'm likely to get things wrong because this is pretty complicated BUT it'll be a fun journey either way :)

0:00 Starting Soon
9:05 Hello!
16:35 Playthrough Time
4:22:17 Post Playthrough Chat/Impressions

#boardgames #1862#slickerdrips

[BoxofDelights]

Great stuff!! A super playthrough and ambitious to take this on for the channel. Super!

[petervanderham]

This game sneaked on to my radar when watching the Heavy Cardboard top 20-1. He has a couple of playthroughs of it too, but yours is a bit easier to understand. Great one Tom

[starvrosleem]

Great to see another play through of this. Thanks for tackling it.

[frantz]

kudos for tackling this. That had to be a big time commitment to learn and practice before hand. Thanks for doing it....been wanting to try this for years.

[JustbGood]

At 1:36:30 your initial placement of ESR is not allowed. The lines cannot run to a red barrier on Harwich. You would need to twist it so that the right line heads to the white/blank hex.
I don;t think it matters as you do not use that line until much later but just for the Klingon sub-titles!!! Great play of an amazing game.

[davidm]

Around the 2:30 mark you might want to double check the rules on removing trains. If you purchased no trains in that round then the bot will purchase the tile +1. I do not remember if you purchased a train. I kept thinking you did not, but I stopped and started a few times so may have forgot myself. Important rule to remember for future plays. The train rush is fast. You are doing great!

[KSweeney]

I love GMT rule books. Learn via the play book, then rule book for reference.

[BoxofDelights]

(01:33:15 just a quick note on the George Hudson: you can only do this if revenue < share price, and you can only inflate it enough to hit or just exceed share price, so you can't do it to artificially inflate revenue and stock price 2+ steps ).

[kylemeighan]

Loved the playthrough. I am by far not an 18xx expert, but I have played a few 18xx games. What I can say about all of the ones I've played is that you have to focus on the fact that you are not running train companies but INVESTING in train companies. In other words the focus should always be on how you can get the most personal money out of those railways, not necessarily how to make those railways successful. Subtle difference in mindset but it seems to be the same here.

[Dragonnox]

At around 2:50:00 you ask how people go through the whole deck when refilling columns. What I understand is that when you re-deal the cards into a column, if you draw a card for a company that is already out of the game, it immediately gets discarded and you keep filling the column until all 6 cards are for companies still in the game.
"When dealing new cards, any Share Certificate for a Company which is out of the game is placed into the Bank Pool and another card is dealt to replace it." - from the solo player guide
Enjoying the playthrough so far. I've been seeing track tiles in my sleep lately as I'm new to 18XX games, recently read the rulebook and solo player guide and just played 2 full games last weekend that took me about 6 hours each!
Time to watch the rest of your playthrough now...
Edit: Just saw someone else in the comments also confirm the way the columns are refilled :)

[daviddigby]

Fantastic work mate! Given me the enthusiasm to tackle it myself.

[philsheep]

Cheers for this, I'm thinking about this for definitely solo and possibly for introducing some of my group to 18XX. It did make me chuckle with your constant "I'm doing things....and stuff" as I know I'll be doing the same, if I get this, haha. And it did make me laugh when the conversation partway through went something like "Are you still playing", "Yes, trains" as though the simple word "trains" was explanation enough - again, I can see myself saying something like that, LOL.

So, have you played it much more since this stream, solo and/or multi-player? Just wondering if you enjoyed it enough to make time to explore the system a bit more.

[NancyABQ]

I haven't reviewed all the rules, but it seemed like part way through the game you quit upgrading any track? It seems like you would have been able to make more money on upgraded track? I'm only at hour 3:00 in the playthrough as a write this, so maybe it gets addressed later.

[davidm]

Such a great game solo. One strategy to think about is that your Express line wants to go off the board as fast as you can. If you could get EUR to London you are in great shape for that route for a starting route. Then get to the sea.

[Ogrecrusher]

01:19:00 Is there a limit of 3 on Chartered companies? edit: Ah I guess the "3 tokens" refers to the stations owned by the companies!
02:01:04 Can you pass through that first N&S Station? I thought they were blockers? Even so, surely it's better to come out of Ipswich and run around the Local stations and stop there? You also counted all the large stations, I think you were supposed to only score 2 of the 3?

[davidm]

Just noticed something while watching. You were asking how people can go through the stack of cards. When a company is out of the game you do not place it in the row of 6 you are creating. The more companies that are out the faster you go through the stack.