1846: The Race to the Midwest 2nd Printing

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.

Components:

• 1 Mounted mapboard
• 5 sheets with 120 tiles
• 7 Corporate mats
• 63 Stock Certificates
• 12 Private Company Certificates
• 29 Train cards
• 5 Player cards
• 1 Priority Deal card
• 1 Pack of Play Money
• 1 Rule book

Game Play

Players begin by investing $400 apiece in drafting private companies and launching corporations. WIth fewer than five players, some companies and corporations are randomly removed, making each game different.

Play consists of alternating stock rounds with pairs of operating rounds. During stock rounds, players buy and sell shares, possibly launching new corporations. During operations, each railroad — with its majority stock holder (President) making all its decisions — lays track and stations, runs routes, declares dividends, and possibly buys bigger and better trains.

As new train types appear, older trains go obsolete, representing technological progress. A corporation without a train must buy one — with its President having to make up the difference out of pocket if the corporation doesn’t have enough cash!

The game ends once the bank runs out of money. The player with the best stock portfolio and most cash on hand — not including any money in corporations — wins!

1846 is an ’18xx’ game, one of many games by different designers inspired by Francis Tresham’s 1829. 1846 has several unique features, such as its opening draft, variable setup, and (comparatively – 18xx games tend to be longer-playing, but this is one of the shorter ones) shorter game length, which are good for players new to 18xx.

1846 features a nice balance between portfolio management and board play (track and station lays and building profitable routes). It is highly rated on BGG but has been previously available only by small press publication. GMT is proud to offer this new version of 1846, with enhanced components, as our first 18xx game.

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Note to existing 18xx players: Andy Lewis, an avid 18xx player himself, says you are going to want to know the following two things about our version:

1. We’re not changing anything in terms of game play. This will still be the1846game you love, just with better components.
2. Regarding the components, besides putting the map on a mounted game board, we’ll be using half-size playing cards for the Stock Certificates and trains, and the Corporation mats, stations tokens, and track tiles will be on the high-quality counter stock like what you’ll find in our more recent versions of theDeluxe Edition of Twilight Struggle.