The play-by-email game of 1825 Unit 3 with Justin Rebelo is over (see announcement). We finished the game today, when I resigned on stock round 8. I was behind and Justin was starting minor companies so he would have four directorships (CR, GSWR, GNS and M&C).

I had NBR, which wasn’t doing too well. CR was doing great. GSWR was a real dog, because we owned it fifty-fifty, but then again Justin was taking money in and likely selling CR’s 2 trains at some point for really large sums of money. If I sold GSWR shares, I would get very little money and he could then buy the shares and start making profit. CR was owned 6-4, as was NBR, just the other way around.

I would’ve wanted to start GNS, but would’ve needed enough money in it to buy a train for NBR as well. Justin had the priority deal, so he could just start it as low as possible.

Things went bad from SR 1, actually — I’m too used to playing with Olli! In every game, we’ve started both CR and NBR on stock round 1. Now NBR didn’t start before SR 3, so my three shares were a bit of a waste. On the other hand, Justin was able to buy the GSWR directorship on round 1. Ouch. Lesson learnt.

I don’t like starting with Stockton & Darlington. I got it this time (since you almost have to buy it, if you’re offered it, because if you don’t, your opponent will just pass and collect £5), and I don’t like it. Sure, it pays well, but I’d still rather have shares.

All in all our play-by-email experiment worked well. Despite the big time zone difference, we had several occasions when we were online at the same time and could play several turns very quickly. We had the numbers in Google Docs and the chat option and the ability to modify the spreadsheet at the same time was very useful (and felt very futuristic).

Next up is a game of 1825 Unit 2, which I hear is good for two players as well. We’ll see. At least it’s even smaller, making storing it while we play more convenient.