Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
For the first time in my 18xx career (which began about two years ago with a play of 1861: Railways of the Russian Empire), I found myself looking through the rulebook, playing games online, and then doing an in-person play only to still find myself realizing a sad truth.
I had no idea what I should be doing to win.
Yes, even with other 18xx games, I read the rules and had a sense of what I should be doing. Playing the games helped bring winning strategies to life and I always left the table having a better sense of what I should, and should not, have done during each game.
Now that I’ve played 25 different 18xx games, as well as lots of different stock manipulation and/or non-18xx train games such as Iberian Gauge, City of the Big Shoulders, Chicago Express, and others, I have a unique perspective on 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties—
It is not for me. That’s not because the design isn’t eye-opening, well balanced, or unique…gosh, 1862 is, without question, the most unique experience of the 18xx games I have tried. But I can’t grasp even basic strategy with this one, a minor frustration that became major by the sixth time I played it online before trying this in person.
1862 is unique in one other way: it’s the only 18xx game I would teach in full even to other 18xx players who have not tried it before. (Even the game’s rulebook hints at this, with this ominous line in section 2.5 of the manual: “Whereas many veteran 18xx players may shy away from using these [simpler game variants] when learning a new game, in this case it is a good idea initially to play a simpler game as there are many things which will be unfamiliar to even the most experienced player.”)
Facts. That’s because 1862 has so many unique systems. Please note that this review will not discuss the basics of 18xx game design; for that, take a peek at my 18xx introduction to learn more about how these mechanics work.
“1862 is Bananas”
When I alerted some of my 18xx game friends in Chicago that GMT Games was kind enough to send a review copy of 1862, one of them wrote back right away:
“1862 is bananas!”
Boy, was he right. 1862 goes off the rails immediately by introducing players to a map that almost seems too small for a train game. But that is mitigated by one of the more unique systems in the game—trains come in three flavors, local, freight, and express. Local trains make money by hitting cities plus small towns; freight trains run “end-to-end”, so a 2F runs through two cities then additional F trains owned by a company have to use a different route extending from the end of another F train.
Express trains give experienced train gamers a break; they run like normal trains in other 18xx titles, and ignore towns like trains in 1861 ignore “dits” (small towns) on various tiles. But local and freight trains have a lot of additional rules and options. Freight trains make revenue on the start and end of that line of F trains, with a fixed value awarded for locations visited in-between the start and end points. Local trains use a subsidy model to help build up cash in a company’s treasury.
Local trains can’t visit ports and red “off-board” locations, but freight and express trains can. The 1862 map features a subset of the United Kingdom, including bigger cities like London. London is pretty juicy, but can only be included in route revenues if a company has placed a token in the London off-board location, another unique element of the 1862 design.
And some of these differences are just the beginning. There are no private companies in 1862. There are 20 majors (16 of which are included in a 2-6 player game, more if there’s more players), but their release is staggered by train phase. You can start a company by bidding for it (during a new-to-me “Parliament Round”) or by waiting to just start it, like in other 18xx games, during a stock round.
Starting a company in a Parliament Round makes it a “Chartered” company, using full capitalization rules and a limited number of tokens that have to be bought after winning the bid. Technically, if you get this part wrong and can’t afford to buy the tokens and float the train by the end of the next stock round, the company goes under obligation and the president of that company is fined into oblivion! This happened in one of my online games and the player simply refused to participate for the rest of that game…he was essentially eliminated before the game’s first operating round!!
Start a company in a stock round, and it becomes an incremental capitalization company, similar to how this works in games like 1846: The Race for the Midwest as well as 1861. In addition, incremental cap companies can buy between 2-7 tokens, instead of the three that have to be bought for full cap companies.
That there are two different ways a company can start can be really confusing even to experienced 18xx players.
Oh, you want more when it comes to “Mania”? Companies with local trains can use some of the subsidy money to boost revenues (“The George Hudson Manoeuvre”), which ultimately can help raise stock values. There are optional mergers for companies who want to take advantage of a larger network. There are no track upgrades available when the game end has been triggered for the remaining operating rounds (a change that I love, because at that point, most games are competitively over anyway). When a forced train purchase happens, you can’t sell shares or provide out-of-pocket personal funds to make up the difference, a rule that killed one of my early online plays because I was planning to be short on treasury funds.
You can even warranty your trains, to allow an extra run before the train rusts. That can save the bacon of a player who gets caught in the train rush as play progresses.
Give It Time
1862 sits in an interesting place.
I think 1862 is maybe the worst way to introduce a new player to the 18xx system. In person, this one is a time nightmare even with a short variant suggested by the rulebook, particularly when new players have to figure out how trains can legally run. 1862 has rules that no other 18xx game has, at least amongst the ones I have tried. In a system that is well-known to be cutthroat, some players will be kneecapped early in a game that can run 6-8 hours because the small map can leave players stranded if they want to connect to other parts of the grid.
Even for players who know their way around the game system, 1862 does things that are sort of wild. So, maybe you can get away with showing this to experienced 18xx players, but I would not recommend joining new-to-18xx players at the table for 1862.
For experienced players? An easier recommendation, particularly to try something different or to invest in a system almost unique to itself. Maybe 1862 is akin to other games, but that’s not what I found in polling other 18xx players both at TraXX (a train game convention with a lot of experienced players) and in my network before going online and finding similar evidence.
But I can definitely see why some players adore 1862. It is very confrontational, even with a small group of players. It plays solo, and some people really love it at that player count. (I didn’t try the solo for this review, and I don’t expect to, either…I prefer my train games at larger player counts.) The GMT production, particularly the clean rules and the heft of what’s in that box, really shines; if you are going to grab this one, go with the GMT second edition because it is something else. Investing in all the differences 1862 brings to the table is quite rewarding, and it was fun to talk strategy with one of my online opponents who has logged dozens of plays on 18xx.games.
One additional note about the physical production: I love the board layout here. It’s amazing how much information can be tracked with the trifold game board, particularly with all the information you’ll need to remember in the map area of the board regarding some of the edge case rules. Also, there are two double-sided player aid sheets included that are really helpful when it comes to the reminder of how track upgrades differ in 1862 versus other games.
If you’re willing to dive deep, 1862 seems to be the proverbial juice that is worth the squeeze. I have started to find my sweet spot with 18xx games, and operationally-focused games on slightly larger maps with fun powers tied to different privates are giving me a lot of highs right now, like 1880: China and 18Espana, both Lonny Orgler designs. 1862 gets away from some of my preferred design tastes, but a lot of that is on me—the wide-ranging differences in rulesets made 1862 tough sledding for me through my first six plays.
1862 was less interesting than I had hoped, but it is definitely staying in my collection in the hopes that one of my local friends will help me get better at some of the nuances. I expect to lean into the Simple Freight Game variant to ease my mind of the train differences, along with using the LNER formation rules tied to the purchase of the first “E” train (such as a 6F). That way, I can still explore the system, but get out of games a little quicker.
1862 is bananas, so manage expectations appropriately!
1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties details
- Designer: Mike Hutton
- Artists: Mark Simonitch, Mike Hutton, Rodger B. MacGowan
- Publishers: GMT Games, LMN+B, Ltd
- Release Date: 2013
- Player count : 1 - 8
- Age range : 14+
- Time range : 120 - 300 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Auction/Bidding, Market, Network and Route Building, Ownership, Solo / Solitaire Game, Stock Holding, Tile Placement, Victory Points as a Resource
- More articles about 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties.
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