1829

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.

1829 — Schematic summary (vs 1830)

ORIGIN AND SETTING

• Tresham's original design (1974, evolved from "Mainline"): the game the whole 18xx genre is named after
• 1830 (1986), by the same designer, is a later refinement of it, not an independent game
• Map: southern England and Wales (Northern Board variant for the north and Scotland); 2-9 players depending on setup, versus 1830's 2-6

LEARNING CURVE AND TRACK MECHANICS

• Three built-in rule tiers (simple/intermediate/full), dropped in 1830
• Track-laying via "survey parties": a tile can only be laid in the hex the survey token has just vacated; 1830 replaces this with the standard free-connection system
• Terrain costs for mountains and rivers, kept practically unchanged in 1830

COMPANIES AND STOCK MARKET

• Floating at 60% and full capitalization on floating: identical to 1830, with no change at all
• Certificate limit exemption: flat price threshold (under £30) in 1829, board-zone threshold (yellow area) in 1830

TRAINS

• 2/3/4/5/7 progression (no 6, no Diesel) in 1829, versus 1830's 2/3/4/5/6/Diesel progression
• Rusting: 2-trains last until the first 5-train and 3-trains until the first 7-train in 1829; 1830 moves these thresholds to its own 4-trains and 6-trains