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1829

Designer: Francis Tresham

Francis Tresham's original 1829: the design that started the whole 18xx genre, set in southern England.

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1829 Contents

How it works

Setup
  • 3 to 9 players: from £840 (3 players) to £280 (9 players)
  • £20,000 bank
  • Ten companies with printed par prices, from £100 [LNWR] to £56 [SECR]
  • Privates, from £30 to £900, are dealt out at face value
  • Three rule levels: basic, intermediate and full
Stock round ×1
  • In turn, sell and buy shares
  • New shares at the printed price, pool shares at share price
  • Selling doesn't lower the share price
  • No 60% limit: you can own a whole company
  • Ends when everyone passes
Operating round ×1-4
  • Private income
  • Each company, highest share price first:
  • 1. The survey team moves and opens the way for track
  • 2. One station (£40, later £100)
  • 3. Run trains
  • 4. Pay out (up) or withhold (down)
  • 5. Buy trains (never mandatory)
↻ Repeats until the end
End
  • The bank runs out: the game ends immediately
  • There's no other way to end it
  • The richest player wins

Components

Players
  • Their own cash
  • Shares and privates (certificate limit by player count)
  • The director is whoever holds the most shares
Companies
  • Ten historical British companies
  • Float at 60% sold and receive 10 × par
  • Company money, separate from the players'
  • None has to own a train
Bank
  • £20,000
  • New shares and the pool
  • 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 trains
  • Single-row market
Map
  • Southern England and Wales
  • Survey teams: track follows their path
  • Mountains £160, rivers £40
  • London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool printed green
Privates
  • Nine, from £30 (£5 income) to £900 (£45 income)
  • Some block a hex while a player owns them
  • Close with the first 7-train

Where the money goes

  • Players Bank Buying shares and privates
  • Bank Companies On floating: 10 × par
  • Bank Players Dividends, private income, share sales
  • Companies Bank Trains, terrain and stations
  • Bank Companies Withheld revenue
  • Players Companies Player money for a train: never needed

Phases

2
Start
2 · £180
Yellow; 4 trains per company; 1 operating round
3
1st 3-train
3 · £300 · 4 · £430
Green; 2 rounds. The 4-train doesn't open a phase
5
1st 5-train
5 · £450
Brown; 2-trains are removed; 3 trains; 3 rounds
7
1st 7-train
7 · £720
Grey; 3-trains are removed; privates close; 2 trains; 4 rounds
  • It's the first 18xx (1974): 1830 is a refinement of it.
  • The share price only moves with the company's results, not with sales.

A round, step by step

Illustrative example: we don't have the original rulebook, so the numbers come from the 18xx.games implementation and the map is described in general terms. 4 players with £630. We follow [P1] and the [LNWR], the £100 company.

  1. Before starting A small private Phase 2

    Each player gets £630. [P1] is dealt the [S&M], the cheapest private: they pay £30 for it and will collect £5 every operating round.

    [P1] cash
    £600
    [LNWR] treasury
    —
    [LNWR] share price
    —
    [LNWR] trains
    —
  2. Stock round 1 [LNWR] director Phase 2

    Each company's par price is already printed: the [LNWR] is £100 a share. [P1] buys its director's certificate, a 20% share, for £200.

    [P1] cash
    £400
    [LNWR] treasury
    —
    [LNWR] share price
    £100
    [LNWR] trains
    —
  3. Stock round 1 More shares Phase 2

    Turn after turn, [P1] buys three more [LNWR] shares at £100 and reaches 50%. [P2] takes a 10% share.

    1829 has no 60% limit like 1830: [P1] could own the whole company.

    [P1] cash
    £100
    [LNWR] treasury
    —
    [LNWR] share price
    £100
    [LNWR] trains
    —
  4. Stock round 1 The [LNWR] floats Phase 2

    With 60% sold, the [LNWR] floats and receives £1,000 in one go, the value of all ten shares. The money players pay goes to the bank.

    [P1] cash
    £100
    [LNWR] treasury
    £1,000
    [LNWR] share price
    £100
    [LNWR] trains
    —
  5. Stock round 1 Everyone passes Phase 2

    When nobody wants to buy or sell anything else, the round ends. In phase 2, just one operating round follows.

    [P1] cash
    £100
    [LNWR] treasury
    £1,000
    [LNWR] share price
    £100
    [LNWR] trains
    —
  6. Operating round 1 Income and station Phase 2

    The [S&M] pays [P1] £5. The [LNWR], with the highest share price, operates first and places its home station, which is free.

    [P1] cash
    £105
    [LNWR] treasury
    £1,000
    [LNWR] share price
    £100
    [LNWR] trains
    —
  7. Operating round 1 The survey team Phase 2

    Track doesn't go just anywhere: the [LNWR]'s survey team moves through the hex and the yellow tile goes on the space it has just left. That's how the network grows towards a neighbouring city.

    It's 1829's signature mechanic. 1830 replaced it with free track placement connected to your own network.

    [P1] cash
    £105
    [LNWR] treasury
    £1,000
    [LNWR] share price
    £100
    [LNWR] trains
    —
  8. Operating round 1 No trains, price drops Phase 2

    No trains yet, so no revenue and the share price drops one space: from £100 to £90.

    [P1] cash
    £105
    [LNWR] treasury
    £1,000
    [LNWR] share price
    £90
    [LNWR] trains
    —
  9. Operating round 1 Two 2-trains Phase 2

    At the end of its turn it buys two 2-trains at £180. It does so by choice: no company has to own a train, and the director never has to put in their own money.

    [P1] cash
    £105
    [LNWR] treasury
    £640
    [LNWR] share price
    £90
    [LNWR] trains
    2 + 2
  10. Stock round 2 One more share Phase 2

    [P1] buys another 10% of the [LNWR] at the printed price, £100, and reaches 60%. If they sold shares, the share price wouldn't move.

    [P1] cash
    £5
    [LNWR] treasury
    £640
    [LNWR] share price
    £90
    [LNWR] trains
    2 + 2
  11. Operating round 2 More track Phase 2

    Another £5 from the private. The survey team moves on again and the [LNWR] lays another yellow behind it.

    [P1] cash
    £10
    [LNWR] treasury
    £640
    [LNWR] share price
    £90
    [LNWR] trains
    2 + 2
  12. Operating round 2 The trains run Phase 2

    One 2-train runs from the [LNWR]'s station (£10) to one of the big printed cities (£40): £50. The other from the station to a yellow city (£20): £30. Total: £80.

    The two trains can't share any track section.

    [P1] cash
    £10
    [LNWR] treasury
    £640
    [LNWR] share price
    £90
    [LNWR] trains
    2 + 2
  13. Operating round 2 Paying out Phase 2

    The [LNWR] pays £8 per share. [P1], with 60%, collects £48. Paying out moves the share price up one space: back to £100.

    [P1] cash
    £58
    [LNWR] treasury
    £640
    [LNWR] share price
    £100
    [LNWR] trains
    2 + 2
  14. Operating round 2 A third train Phase 2

    It buys another 2-train for £180. There are seven in all; when they run out, the first 3-train will open phase 3, with green tiles and two operating rounds.

    [P1] cash
    £58
    [LNWR] treasury
    £460
    [LNWR] share price
    £100
    [LNWR] trains
    2 + 2 + 2
  15. Towards phase 3 What now? Phase 2

    The 2-trains will be removed with the first 5-train, and the 3s with the first 7. The [LNWR] needs to save up for big trains, and the game won't end until the bank runs through its £20,000.

    [P1] cash
    £58
    [LNWR] treasury
    £460
    [LNWR] share price
    £100
    [LNWR] trains
    2 + 2 + 2

1829 — Summary

Capitalization type

  • Full capitalization: once it floats (60% sold), the company receives its entire capital (par value × 10) at once — exactly as in 1830.

Floating percentage and per-player share limits

  • Floats once 60% of shares are sold (same as 1830)
  • No 60% ownership cap: a player may hold up to 100% of a single corporation, unlike 1830's 60% limit per shareholder
  • Certificate limit per player: 3 players — 18; 4 players — 18; 5 players — 17; 6 players — 14; 7 players — 12; 8 players — 10; 9 players — 9

Starting cash by player count

  • 3 players: £840 starting cash
  • 4 players: £630 starting cash
  • 5 players: £504 starting cash
  • 6 players: £420 starting cash
  • 7 players: £360 starting cash
  • 8 players: £315 starting cash
  • 9 players: £280 starting cash
  • The bank always starts with £20,000; there is no 2-player variant

End game triggers

  • The game only ends when the bank runs out of money — there's no "last train bought" trigger and no forced bankruptcy, since no company is ever required to buy a train

Number of phases

  • 4 phases (2, 3, 5, 7), triggered by the purchase of the first 2-train, 3-train, 5-train and 7-train respectively (the 4-train doesn't open its own phase)

Train list and prices

  • 2 train — £180 (7 units; rusts with the first 5-train)
  • 3 train — £300 (6 units; rusts with the first 7-train)
  • 4 train — £430 (5 units)
  • 5 train — £450 (5 units)
  • 7 train — £720 (4 units; buying it closes the private companies)

List of private companies

  • Swansea & Mumbles (SM) — £30, revenue £5
  • Cromford & High Peak (CH) — £75, revenue £10
  • Canterbury & Whitstable (CW) — £130, revenue £15
  • Liverpool & Manchester (LM) — £210, revenue £20
  • Hull (HU) — £315, revenue £25
  • Preston (PR) — £435, revenue £30
  • Holyhead (HO) — £570, revenue £35
  • Harwich (HA) — £720, revenue £40
  • Dover (DO) — £900, revenue £45

List of corporations

  • London & North Western (LNWR) — home at E8
  • Great Western (GWR) — home at J11
  • Midland (Mid) — home at E12
  • London & South Western (LSWR) — home at J17
  • Great Northern (GNR) — home at C14
  • London Brighton & South Coast (LBSC) — home at L17
  • Great Eastern (GER) — home at J17
  • Great Central (GCR) — home at C12
  • Lancashire & Yorkshire (LYR) — home at C8
  • South Eastern & Chatham (SECR) — home at L21

Game-specific mechanics

  • Track-laying via "survey parties": you may only build in the hex the survey token has just vacated
  • Three built-in rule tiers (simple, intermediate, full)
  • Up to 9 players depending on the chosen map setup (southern England and Wales, with a Northern Board variant)
  • No company is ever required to buy a train (MUST_BUY_TRAIN: never)

Emergency sell

There's no emergency sell mechanic: like its 1830 successor's own predecessor, 1829 never requires a company to own a train in the first place, so the entire chain of president cash and forced share sales that defines 1830's mechanic simply never triggers here.

Comparison with 1830

1. Origin and timeline: here the comparison runs backwards
1829 isn't a game measured "against" 1830 — it's its direct ancestor. It began in the 1960s as "Mainline," a generic track-and-shares game that Francis Tresham relocated to southern England and renamed 1829, after the year of the Rainhill Trials, the dawn of the railway age. It was published in 1974 (Hartland Trefoil) after twelve years of playtesting. 1830 didn't arrive until twelve years later (Avalon Hill, 1986), and was designed by that same Tresham: it isn't a new game so much as a refinement of his own original design that went on to become the reference point for the whole genre.

2. Map and number of players
1829 covers southern England and Wales (with a Northern Board variant from 1981 covering northern England and Scotland) and supports 2 to 9 players depending on the setup chosen. 1830 narrowed this down: northeastern USA, only for 2-6 players.

3. Three built-in rule tiers
1829 ships with three levels of complexity — simple, intermediate, and full — designed to bring new players in gradually. 1830 dropped this staged structure and is always played with a single, unified ruleset.

4. Track-laying via survey parties
A mechanic unique to 1829 that no later game in the genre kept: each company moves a "survey party" token across the hex grid, and a tile can only be laid in the hex that token has just vacated. 1830 removed this entirely and replaced it with what we now consider the standard system: laying tiles in any hex connected to your own network.

5. Floating and capitalization: 1830 left this untouched
Both games float their companies once 60% of shares are sold, and both pay out 100% of par value in full the moment a company floats — the exact same formula, inherited by 1830 without any change at all.

6. A different exception to the certificate limit
In 1829, shares priced below £30 don't count toward a player's certificate limit. 1830 replaced that flat price threshold with a specific zone of the stock chart (the yellow area): the criterion shifts from a numeric price to a position on the board.

7. A different train ladder
1829 tops out at a 7-train, following a 2/3/4/5/7 progression (no 6-train, no Diesel). 1830 rewrote this into the 2/3/4/5/6/Diesel progression that's now nearly universal across the rest of the genre.

8. Later rusting
In 1829, 2-trains hold on until the first 5-train is bought, and 3-trains until the first 7-train. 1830 moved both triggers earlier, tying them to its own 4-trains and 6-trains respectively.

9. Terrain costs, nearly untouched
1829 already charged a financial penalty for building over mountains and rivers. 1830 kept this idea almost unchanged, folding it into its own terrain cost table, which is now a genre standard.

10. The genre's own name comes from here
1829 is named for the year of the Rainhill Trials, the birth of the British railway age. 1830 kept that same naming convention — christening the game after a real year — applied to the United States, which is why we still call the whole genre "18xx" today.

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A term you do not recognise? They are all explained in the 18xx glossary. Glossary →