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Background
I played this game over the last weekend for the first time and was surprised to find that no one had ever reviewed it before on rpg.net before. I have played a few games involving trains in the past, and have seen the rather impressive train game sub culture in the gaming room in many conventions, so I had at least some idea what I was getting into.
The Game
1870 is a game involving two primary arenas of action. There is a financial aspect of the game combined with the physical layout of track. Both are very important and integrally linked. The game play is rather smooth once you understand it, though the learning curve is rather severe until you do. This is definitely one of those games that it helps to have someone who knows the rules (or who has studied them scrupulously before hand) to explain things as you go.
The basic setting of the game is that of competing rail barons in the mid-southern states shortly after the transcontinental railroad has been built. There is no SEC, FBI or other such federal organizations to prevent gross manipulation of stock or looting of companies. It is literally survival of the fittest, and whoever gets the most money wins the game.
The first round of the game is the most complicated. Each player starts with $350 that they can invest in bidding for six private companies. Each of the companies must be bought out; though if at least two players bid on the same company, then there is an auction between them. There is a 'cascade' effect, so that if one company is auctioned off, then all companies that have been bid on are bought; whereas if the 'frontline' company has not yet been bought then all kinds of bids can be placed on companies 'behind' it. Each private company generates a minor amount of income and offers certain key advantages to a player later; including the ability to have a public company buy it from the private player and pay back and exorbitant amount for it from the public company's budget.
Once all of the private companies are bought out then the public companies come online. There are eleven public companies, each with a special starting city and a terminating city. If the rail company manages to make a solid run to the end, then they get a one time cash bonus of considerable size.
The first turn of the game involves various players buying stock in the public companies. This is done by a player buying a 'president's share' which is worth two of the total of ten shares of each company (i.e. each 'share' is worth 10% while the President's is worth 20%). For a company to become functional, 60% of the stock must be bought out. The president sets the price of the initial stock offering, and the starting budget of the company is 10 times that of the initial stock offering.
The stock price works on a matrix, so that if the stock pays dividends it either goes left (no dividends), stays where it is (half dividends) or goes right (full dividends). If the stock is entirely owned (i.e. none of the shares of stock are on the open market) then it goes up, and for each share of the stock sold it goes down one. Thus, the matrix automatically encourages the owner of the stock to pay out dividends. Thus, all the owners of the stock must determine when (or if) to sell the stock, how much it will be worth in terms of dividends or the sheer stock price and whether or not the president of the company might try to loot it and take the money to another company. Since the value of stock is worth money at the end of the game, this makes it a tough and tempting choice to buy valuable stocks or potentially take up risky and highly volatile junk bonds at the same time.
The second major aspect of the game involves laying track. Each company MUST buy a train. There are three colors of track that become available as one of eight phases come and go. The phases are determined by the train cards that are bought; thus if someone buys a great many trains, then suddenly the game progresses to the point where everyone must spend a great deal of money on another train. The added complication to this is that each 'tech level' of train has a certain shelf life; so that the train you buy today might not necessarily be there tomorrow. However, players can sell trains to each other (usually obsolete trains) at any price they want, which often encourages one player to own more than one company and shuttle the trains back and forth between it.
Each phase generally has one 'stock' round, followed by two to three 'operational' rounds (lay track, buy trains, run the trains, collect money, pay dividends). The constant mix of making the stock more valuable combined with laying the most efficient route and retaining the most efficient trains makes it not only realistic but extremely addictive.
Playtest
This is not a game for the faint of heart. The reading of the rules and set up took over two hours. The game itself could probably be explained properly in thirty by a veteran, but even then some of the extremely important exceptions to some key rules could warrant giving a newbie the 'complete' tour. It says on the box that the game takes four hours, but even with a group of total veterans that would be highly unlikely.
The game lasted for approximately 10 hours. This is not a happy game you play for an evening of fun. However, those 10 hours went by extremely fast. Indeed, everyone was involved with the game the entire time. The scores all ended up being within 20-25% of each other, despite some extremely competitive play.
There were six of us, five players owning train companies while I played a pure 'stock ownership' strategy, just because I could and because I wanted to see what would happen if I played just the stock market. The end result was that while I was slightly bored, I still had quite an effect on the game, and it became readily apparent to me that the other five players were enjoying the game immensely.
The end result of my unusual strategy was to put me somewhere in the middle; and while I think such a strategy is possible, it can only be done by someone with a considerably higher skill level than my own.
Bottom Line
The game was thoroghly enjoyable. I hope to play it again some time, and highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a 'step up' from most of the 2-5 hour games that get played on board game nights.
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