 First edition box cover art | |
| Players | 2–6 |
|---|---|
| Setup time | 10 minutes |
| Playing time | 4–6 hours |
| Chance | None |
| Age range | 12+ |
| Skills | Strategy |
1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons is a railroad operations and share trading board game first published by Avalon Hill in 1986 based on an original design by Francis Tresham. The popularity of 1830 spawned an industry creating similar "18XX" games. 1830 was republished in 2011 through a partnership of Mayfair Games and Lookout Games.
1830 is a strategy game where the only element of luck involved is in determining the initial play order. The game takes the basic mechanics from Francis Tresham’s 1829 , with players seeking to make the most money by buying and selling stock in various rail transport companies located on a stylised eastern United States map. Players also operate any companies of which they are the President (by virtue of being the dominant shareholder), in order to generate revenue and affect stock prices.
The game is designed to represent the beginning of railroad operations in the eastern United States beginning in the year 1830, with stock companies in the game representing historical railroad companies.
The goal of the game is to maximise personal wealth before the game ends, whether by nurturing a railroad company to increase its stock value, gutting it and running with the money, successful stock trading or arranging for another player to go bankrupt. Buying, trading and speculating on the stock market is often where 1830 is won or lost.
A game is finished when the bank runs out of money or any player goes bankrupt, with the player with the greatest personal wealth winning.
1830 has been translated as a PC game of the same name by Simtex in 1993. This game has been praised for superior computer AI and, due to the lack of randomness in 1830 game play, the transparency of game play. [1]
Grant Tavinor, writing in The Aesthetics of Videogames, described the game as "extremely complicated". [2]
1830 was also reviewed in the 36th issue of Casus Belli. [3]
Sid Meier's Civilization is a 1991 turn-based strategy 4X video game developed and published by MicroProse. The game was originally developed for MS-DOS running on a PC, and it has undergone numerous revisions for various platforms. The player is tasked with leading an entire human civilization over the course of several millennia by controlling various areas such as urban development, exploration, government, trade, research, and military. The player can control individual units and advance the exploration, conquest and settlement of the game's world. The player can also make such decisions as setting forms of government, tax rates and research priorities. The player's civilization is in competition with other computer-controlled civilizations, with which the player can enter diplomatic relationships that can either end in alliances or lead to war.
Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company's "Hasbro Gaming" division.
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