I played a game of 1825 Unit 2 with Justin Rebelo. It took us what, four days. The game was over after the seventh round. Using Google Docs and the actual board worked well, though we had couple of tile mismatches because of careless notation and mistakes. Despite time zone differences, we had several longer sessions where we could move the game along many rounds.
Let’s have a bit of a recap…
SR1: Justin starts, LNWR is sold, Justin gets it 6-4. I start Mid, which is split 4-6. So far, so good. Justin got the L&YR directorship, I got GCR — I didn’t want to repeat that mistake from our previous game. We both got one share of our companies, then there was no more money. Both Mid and LNWR buy two trains.
SR2: Passed the round. LNWR got a 2 train, Mid got a 3.
SR3: One share each. Steady payouts.
SR4: Both L&YR and GCR form. I bought the GNR director’s share, once again to make sure I will get it. Justin got three more shares of L&YR, I got one. Buying more L&YR might’ve been a good move for me. GCR bought a 3 train, L&YR got two 2 trains from LNWR and a 3 train.
SR5: Justin got NER directorship, then we both bought GCR shares. I sold Mid to buy couple of GNR shares to float it, Justin swapped LNWR to Mid and got some more NER. LNWR buys the last 3 train, so both GNR and GCR buy a 4 train and a 2 train from Mid. LNWR buys a 2 train back from L&YR, shifting lots of money that way. Mid gets the first 5, rusting all 2 trains. L&YR buys the only train from LNWR, GNR gets the 5 from Mid.
SR6: We buy out GNR shares. Privates are sold. Justin buys NER, so do I. Justin sells LNWR to buy NER, I sell NER to buy LNWR and grab the directorship (we were at the certificate limit now). Justin gets more NER, I take the remaining LNWR shares. Here I believed Justin lost the game, losing the LNWR directorship seemed fairly significant. I now had four directorships against Justin’s two. In the op rounds LNWR gets a 3 train from GCR. LNWR and Mid mostly retain money, while L&YR, GCR and GNR pay out. Justin leads a bit, but I’m getting closer every OR. NER gets a second 5 train.
SR7: Justin sells Mid and LNWR to buy NER, I sell LNWR to buy Mid. I should’ve bought NER. LNWR buys a 3 from Mid, Mid then buys a 6 from bank. NER pays out £380, Justin gets lots of money. L&YR also pays well, while GCR and GNR are weaker. In the last OR, L&YR and NER pay a total of £700, while GCR and GNR total at £500.
Bank is broken on OR7.3. The spreadsheet shows no mercy: Justin has £7,712, while I only have £7,372. I thought I would win, but Justin’s stronger runs and lots of NER shares proved me wrong.
It was a very good game, despite the result. In the early game I was behind, but managed to catch up quite spectacularly and I believe Justin too was fairly sure I would win. Well, that didn’t happen, and Justin played the end of the game well. I can clearly see some mistakes I did. Maybe there’s something to learn from them.
We both also learnt some 1825 rules, like the fact that the operating order is set in stone and does not change, no matter what happens. We also learnt some PBEM discipline. Also, I learnt there’s a tile that can be played on the NSR starting hex, I thought I killed that company with my non-upgradeable tile lay. We didn’t use the minors, because our certificate limit was too small, no space for them. NSR might’ve been interesting, Furness maybe less so. I’d also like to use the Through Base station upgrade for the LNWR home base, that tile would make sense.
1825 Unit 2 is a good two-player game, it’s compact and interesting. Next time I’m playing 1825 with Olli, we’ll try this one instead of the Unit 3 we’ve been playing. My next game with Justin? Well, I’m game for either of the units, but I’d also like to try 1860…
