It didn't take long until i heard the first time about #1817 after I had started playing 18xx. It was almost like before I actually experienced 18xx games myself, when 18xx was seen as this niche that no normal person touched because it was so complicated, long and had ugly maps. Basically the same applied to 1817 and its derivatives, just within the 18xx micro-cosmos.

From Thursday 28th November to Sunday 1st December 2024 I attended the VPS-Con in Verden (Aller) in the north of Germany. The location was beautiful. Several timber-framed guest houses with a chapel with a big fully windowed side as one of the locations to play games in. Food was also decent and the price for the whole weekend was a steal.

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.