1849

Country of Origin: Italy
Designed by: Federico Vellani.
Published by: Federico Vellani (Italy)
Released: 1994.
Licensed by Hartland Trefoil.

1849 started life as 1850/Sicily, but was renamed to remove the conflict with the Bill Dixon/Mayfair design when Federico licensed the game with Hartland Trefoil. It was designed with smaller groups of players in mind. The scale of the game allows four players to finish a game in about two hours. Unlike most 18XX titles, 1849 is not set in a historical time: it is a "what if" game. Several companies offered to build a railroad in Sicily, but the king turned them down - now we get to see what might have happened.

Interesting features of 1849:

The players bid on concessions at the beginning of the game. A concession may or may not be granted (there will be a random drawing of starting corporations: one less than the number of players will start), but all bids are forfeit.

Players winning concession bids on starting corporation (a player may not run more than one of these) , only pay for half of the president's share, set par price, and the corporation gets its tokens for free.

When a corporation is started later in the game, the president has the option of immediately buying up 40% (including the president's share) of stock.

Corporations capitalize as shares are sold.

Corporations control their unsold shares initially. This means the corporation retains earnings for any unsold share not in the bank pool. This also means that the corporation can sell shares into the bank pool to raise capital.

If there are any shares in the bank pool, a corporation's share value is lowered one row.

Players buying shares pay current share value whether purchasing from the bank pool or the corporation. 1849 features narrow gauge and normal gauge track Unlike other 18xx games, the trains have a number of hexes they can travel. Different gauges of track cost different amounts for the train to travel over.

The map of 1849.
The cities of 1849. This section is not yet available.
The companies of 1849.
The 1849 FAQ. This section is not yet available
Some 1849 strategies. This section is not yet available
The trains of 1849.
1849 variants. This section is not yet available

A major revision of this game is now available. Details have been provided by Federico Vellani.

Go back to the platform.

dmreed@bihs.net last updated 3 June 1996