Economic · Trains

1846: The Race for the Midwest

1846 is an 18xx game that traces the westward expansion of railways across the Midwestern United States.

3–5 players240 minages 14expert difficulty

About the game

What is 1846: The Race for the Midwest

1846 is an 18xx game that traces the westward expansion of railways across the Midwestern United States.

As in other 18XX games, the winner is the player with the greatest combined wealth (cash on hand + value of stock held + value of private companies owned) at the end of the game. Play proceeds in a series of stock rounds, each followed by a pair of operating rounds. In stock rounds, players act as investors buying and selling stock in corporations. During operating rounds, corporations will lay track, build stations, run trains for revenue to be paid out as dividends or withheld, and buy trains. The majority shareholder of each corporation acts at its president, making all decisions during operating rounds. Players will continue operating companies, collecting dividends, and reinvesting until the bank breaks.

1846 features several unique elements, such as scaling the number of corporations, private companies, and bank size to the number of players. Additionally, the traditional starting private company auction has been replaced with a private company draft, introducing hidden information and a degree of randomness. Corporations that run a train from the East coast to the West will receive additional revenue. Moreover, virtually all track builds will incur costs, bringing corporate capitalization and long term financing questions to the fore.

An unofficial 2-player variant from the designer has been made available in the files section.

Specs

Game details

Players: 3–5
Age: +14
Duration: 240 min
Difficulty: Expert
Type: Board game
Year: 2005
Mechanics: Hexagon Grid · Investment · Market
Categories: Economic · Trains
Designer: Thomas Lehmann
Publisher: Deep Thought Games, LLC

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Reviews

What the community says about 1846: The Race for the Midwest

davidarribas6/10

Solo una partida, la puntuación refleja más que nada las ganas de volver a jugarlo, parece un juego bastante prometedor.

David_Trovador8/10

Si queréis adentraros en el apasionante mundo de los 18XX, juegos de economía, acciones en bolsa de las compañías ferroviarias, planificación y optimización de rutas, construyendo y actualizando losetas de vías de tren, y comprando trenes, recomiendo encarecidamente empezar por el "Steam Over Holland" y luego, por éste 1846. Ambos son juegos que en una tarde larga los acabas (El SoH muchísimo antes, pues tiene unos turnos limitados de partida y se acabó, el 1846 se acaba cuando la banca se queda sin dinero que depende del nº de jugadores en el setup... y francamente tirará atrás a más de uno

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