18xoxo

Disclaimer: I am no 18xx expert by far. I have maybe 10 games under my belt and most of them spread out across different titles, as I love to explore new things. However, as there's usually little information on all the different 18xx games, I would like to provide some insight into how the games felt (to me) and what made them special.

Ok, now it's getting serious. PNW is probably – SPOILER – my favorite 18xx as of now and I think I played it the most (which means still a lowly 5 times maybe?). Therefore, this is close to my heart and compared to other titles, I start to formulate strategies in my head and have a more accurate guess on values. But more on values later.

What's the game about

• part of the 1822 family. That means
  • a lot of bidding every stock round. You bid on minor companies and different privates
  • minor companies become major companies through various ways. In PNW you merge 2 (one “normal” and one associated) connected minors.
  • the privates have different powers. Those can be game/rules changing
• majors are #incremental cap and start when merged (until phase 5, then they can be started during stock round)
• Automatic export at end of stock round, permanents included.
• Maps medium-sized, different variant for 2-3 player that plays on the same map (without the north) though
• Major companies have destination tokens which pay an extra
• linear stock market, with double and triple jumps possible
• no stock market shenanigans where certs don't count or you can hold above 60% (which you can have in certain cases anyway)
• 2 big cities compete for the highest tile per phase
• a few special rules around building
  • building blocks that reduce the cost of future track laying
  • timber exists (building cost +10, receive +10 profit when a train runs through, can't be upgraded)

Whew. That list kept getting longer and longer and doesn't have all the details. And I have to admit, even in my now 5th play I still was unsure about certain rules (this time how to convert an associated minor into a major after phase 5). Nevertheless, this game feels comboish in an effortless way to me. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

This is one of the games I actually own. I bought it, after my first 18xx depression had ended, and I played like 2 games on 18xx.games. At that time I heard that 1822 might be good for Euro gamers like myself and less mean. Then, I looked at the different 1822 options:

• vanilla 1822 and 1822CA got discarded because of their size and length
• leaving me with 1822MX and 1822PNW.

Between the last two, 1822PNW looked pretty and I liked the region, so I bought it. If that sounds like a pretty superficial decision process, yeah, it was. Luckily for me, it turned out absolutely right.

The map

I love the map. As I stated in the disclaimer, part of the fun of 18xx is to always discover new things. That doesn't necessarily have to be new titles – new strategies or, like in this case, new map layouts, also count.

There are probably many different factors that play into why every game the map looks pretty different. The different timings of when minors are available. The mountain range in the middle and the water in the west and south. The privates, that allow crossing those natural dividers. Even the rules for timber might have a word in it. To me, this feels great and like a clear winner over maps with one big city like London in vanilla 1822. Yes, the area east of the mountain range might be weaker, but I still feel tempted to prove that wrong (and fail every time).

The companies

Part of the charm of 1822-games is the puzzle, how you use the different minors and private companies as combos. Again, with the different timing of when minors are bid on, you're constantly thinking which company you could build where, merge with which other company and so on. Take into consideration, that privates might allow you to declare a non-associated company to be associated with a major, thats not in the game so far or that you suddenly can route over water or impassable mountains, and you realize, how much this can be in flux at all times.

Values

This is nothing special to 1822 and its brethren. Since in every 18xx game, the winner is decided by how much value he/she was able to accrue, this is at the core of everything. But since you're constantly bidding on 3–5 items per stock round, this is much more enforced and brought to the front than in other titles. And it can be exhausting. Without a few games under your belt, 90-100 Dollar for a permanent or a Pullman might seem a lot. For a 100 you can start a new minor! And then those values change depending on the amount of players and current game state/phase. Yes, that still sometimes makes me feel lost and is probably also the reason why this is no good beginner title, besides the amount of special rules, that's in here. Also, there's a slight variation here to the usual rule that any capital should usually be invested (full credit for pointing that out to Tony from Wheel Tapping Podcast ): you have to plan ahead and therefore might want to keep money so you are able to bid in the next SR for certain Privates/Companies that you need.

Also, there was an interesting chat in the all-chat of 18xx.games about whether the lack of concessions to bid on makes the game more or less prone to too little/much policing. I think there's definitely a point to make that fewer items increase the density of bids on each single item, but I know too little about this game and its competitors to really give my own input.

Player count

One of the few games where I can state an opinion on this topic. Having played at 3,4 and 5, I feel 4-5 are great on the standard map. With 3 (only one play!), it feels too open and players have too much cash. There's a special variant for 2–3 players that only uses the south of the map and leaves the northern companies out of the game, but I couldn't test it so far, as the implementation was, at the time of me writing this, still in alpha and buggy on 18xx.games. If I had to make a call, I'd prefer 4 players.

Production

Great! I really like the All-Aboard Games titles I have seen so far. Would have been perfect with a tile holder (which you can order separately at All-Aboard, too, but the ones from Cube4Me look like the better set).

Final thoughts

Would I add it to my collection? Obviously, I did! So far, this is my 1822 (including the smaller 1822 MRS/NRS) of choice. I haven't played CA or MX, but CA I will never be able to play live because of playtime. So I will have to try MX soon and then update.

Playing this, I sometimes wonder what if, for example, destinations were also somewhat randomized. Wouldn't that be even more amazing? Or would it be helplessly imbalanced or hard to set up? I think I need to play 1862 soon to get more input into randomized companies and board setup.

Also, there are some things I am not too keen about. Why is, for example, Minor 6 always in the first bidding box at game start? It's a private that's heavily comboing with many good privates like Pullmans, lumber baron etc. and needs to be put in check through bidding. Wouldn't it have opened the map up even more, if that minor came (randomly) very late into play? Also, I am not so sure about regionals, which are minors that basically do not much except for value extraction from a major and providing a token. That might be not nothing, but a lot of times it's very unattractive in early-mid game. I really would like to be able to ask these questions to the designer, maybe one day.

If you want to dive into running trains in the Pacific Northwest and have no player nearby, go check out https://18xx.games/ and start playing online. For support of the designer/publisher, please head over to All-Aboard Games

#18xx #boardgames