2038: An Initial Review
Well, these days it's feast or famine. Just Wednesday my 1870 came in, and Saturday my 2038, TimJim/Prism's newest addition to the 18xx series. I think there are a lot of cool things going on here (although there are a few things I have reservations about as well), so I'll provide my usual post-release review :)
Components are nice but nothing special (TimJim/Prism is a very small company, after all). The board has all the important information on it (number of trains, phase transitions, share limits), which is a very nice touch I wish more games had. With all the 18xx games I've played I get confused sometimes on what obsoletes what and when the off-board zones change values (never mind the certificate limits). The stock chart is kind of cheesy, as are the stock certificates and counters, but everything is perfectly serviceable and, in general, much nicer than TimJim's previous offerings. The rules fit on a singe 4-page folder, but nonetheless seem to be pretty complete (although they could have been a little more verbose, obviously).
Since the game runs routes very differently than anything else in the series, I'll look at the stock market first. It's most reminicent of 1835, but has shades of 1830. You get to set the par, stuff floats at 50%, and gets its full capitilization at that point. Companies again are laid out in tiers, but all you need to do to clear out a tier is buy all the president's shares. A company that pays out dividends advances *two* boxes on the stock market. A company that pays out a half-dividend, retaining the other half, advances one space. A company that witholds moves back a space. Selling a block of stock in a company reduces its price by one row, regardless of the number of shares sold.
Just like 1835, there are 6 minors, each wholly owned by the player who buys it. The minors can either pay 50% to their owners and 50% to their own treasuries, or keep it all. They all merge later on into the Asteroid League, a very large conglomerate company, giving their ex-owners a 10% share. In phase III the player owning the Asteroid League private may form the AL corporation; in phase IV he must. Each minor that hasn't joined the AL by phase V must be merged in at that point. If a minor merges in to the AL, and has a spaceship, it gives its owner 50% of its cash plus a 10% share of the AL. Additionally, you are responsible for your minors ... they must have a ship. If you can't afford one, you have to either go into your own pocket or merge into the AL if it's around, and you don't get the "half cash" bonus. This is basically how things work in '35 with a couple of twists. Obviously, the formation of the AL is a major game event which players need to prepare for.
The major changes, obviously, are in the operating round. The new system is very intruiging.
First, obviously there are no trains, but spaceships. Each spaceship has a "hold" capacity that functions identically to the number on a train ...it's the number of mines a ship can hit. It's also limited by range, which is the number of hexes it can move. So, in phase I you have a choce between 3/2 tugs and 5/1 scouts, the first number being the range. Exploring a hex costs an extra range point, so the tugs can move one hex, explore it, pick up anything there, and return to base. Each run must start at a friendly base and, if it is to score any revenue, end at any base (exploration runs can be one-way trips, though). At each ship level, you have a choice between a "tug" model with holds and a "scout" model with range (the ship cards are printed on both sides) - the tug model is usually a bit more expensive.
The board is a blank hexgrid with most of the bases on the outskirts and a couple of bases in the middle. Additionally there are a few trans-shipment points on the outside which score revenue as the terminus of a run if you have an extra hold at the time. There is a pile of tiles, and whenever you spend an extra range point to explore a hex, you pick one from the pile and turn it over, laying the tile on the explored hex.
So what can you find in a hex? Well, either one or two mines. The asteroid belt is littered with wealth; there are no empty hexes. The mines can be one of three kinds - nickel, ice, or rare; and each comes in two or three values. Companies can claim mines, which increases their values; nickel jumps by 40 when claimed, rare by 30, and ice by only 10. Looking at the tile distribution chart here, I see that roughly 57% of the mines are nickel, 25% are ice, and 19% are rare. Additionally, just over half the tiles have two mines instead of just one. Nickel comes in two sizes, 10/50 (unclaimed/claimed) and 20/60, about evenly distributed. Ice and rare come in three sizes, 30/40, 40/50, and 50/60 for Ice and 20/50, 30/60, and 40/70 for rare - in both cases, the higher values are much more common.
Now you might at this point be saying, what's the point? You flip over the tiles, see what you get, claim it, and go. Well, the types are meaningful because different bases will pay different bonuses for different ores, and different companies and minors also have delivery bonuses. Combine the two (for, say, the Venus Prospectors, who get a +10 on rare, and their home base which gets a +20 for rare, and you get +30 for each hold delivered) and it's extremely significant - getting the right stuff to the right place is the key. The distribution of tiles isn't all that significant when compared to the payoffs for getting the right cargo to the right destination.
Additionally, route management is more complex and *feels* much more "realistic" than the other games. Like I said, each route must begin at a friendly base and end at any base to score its run. Companies may build new bases to start their runs from, refueling stations which allow their ships to run further (any ship that stops at a station with a friendly refuelling station adds three movement factors, up to its original range, and can stop at as many as it can get to). Additionally, companies can claim mines, which increases their values, and prevents other companies from using them. Since each mine can only be scored by one corporation per OR (first one to get there can score it), efficient use of claim markers is very important. A company can place one or two claims a turn, at an increasing cost ($60 for the first, $100 for the second). Claims paced in the midgame may not be very well positioned for the longer runs in the endgame (the endgame seems to be aimed at getting long runs for single ores aimed at the offboard boxes that pay larger bonuses). Once the claims are out there thay may not be relocated, with the exception of the minors ... they each have two claims wich they may sell to a major for $60 and then reuse. This allows the minors to run point, doing exploration and claiming for a friendly major. The mix of stations, refuelling stops, and claims varies considerably for company to company as well; TSI has 10 claims, 1 base and 3 refuel, while VP has 3 bases, 4 refuels, and 5 claims. Obviously, this implies very different route management strategies. VP can't afford the luxury of burning a lot of claims for immediate revenue, but may be able to get to some nice claims TSI can't, and has the facilities to set up some long runs to get to the right claims. In general, ship ranges feel pretty short (at least the ones with any hauling capacity), so good play will revolve far more around good play of claims than good tile picks (the latter certainly helps though; if VP can draw a few good rares right next to their base, they don't *need* to go out of their way to use their few claims). None of the minors have any extra bases or refueling stations.
Back to the relatively real world of the stock market, the initial start packet composed very similarly to 1835, but is resolved like 1830. There are the 6 minors, plus 6 privates. 1 private is the usual throw-away "blocker" ($50/$10 with no attributes), 3 each provide a bonus facility (base, refuel, or claim) and are bundled with a TSI share, one is the presidency of TSI, and one is the future presidency of the Asteroid League. Unlike 1835 (thankfully) they are autioned off 1830-style in order of increasing price. The thing which bothers me is that at the beginning of the game, players have $1800 - the privates and minors add up to a total cost of $1430, leaving only $370 between all the players, assuming everything goes for base price! Privates and minors represent 80% of the initial wealth. Compare this with 1830 - $2400, $620 in privates (26%); 1856 - $1500, $380 (25%), 1870 - $2100, $490 (23%). 1853 and 1829 aren't really comparable, but 1835 has about 2000M in cash (varies with the number of players) and 1684M in privates/minors, for a whopping 84%. The minors are a significant difference, obviously, but they still only add to about $600 ... the real kicker is all the privates that are bundled with shares. The observable effect is that the first stock round tends to make the players (or me, anyway) feel railroaded. There is very little flexibility in what companies start or what you can do. The game can't really proceed unless the start packet is cleared out, and somebody is bound to feel forced to purchase some private they don't want for $140 or $160 just to get the game moving. If even a few privates/minors go for more than face value it becomes mathematically impossible to float any company beyond the TSI - there just isn't any cash (and the odds of it all being in the right place even if there is enough is miniscule). Fortunately, people will still have somthing to do with the minors. Still, I don't see why those 3 privates have to be bundled with TSI shares - if they were just "normal" privates without the shares attached, the players could choose the companies to float, which would lead to a lot more variety. It's not like there is somthing we are trying to simulate here.
These leads right in to my other potential problem with the game - the disparity in company potential. This takes two forms: first, the TSI. It will virtually automatically float on turn 1 at $100. There are two ORs between all SRs, so it is virtually assured a 4-6 OR lead on every other company, plus it has a very large number of claims and gets a free probe which can explore 1 or 2 hexes per turn (it's a 0/4). All in all, it's a real powerhouse. The other problem is those damn minors. Just like in 1835, the minors are the key to success ... the payoff on the investment is still much, much higher than anything else. Minors can form growth corporations, or join the AL early to give its owner half its cash, but I can't possibly imagine any circumstances in which anyone would want to do such a thing, short of mismanagement. If you can't get a $150 run with your minor, you just aren't trying. Nothing else is going to give you $75 per certificate, even considering stock increases. This becomes another problem, since the AL shares don't go on sale until after the AL comes into play; if none of the minors join the league, the president is stuck with a company with no train and $250, and being forced to buy a ship for a company he holds only 20% of.
Anyway, I think you really have to sit down and push the counters to get a good feel for what's going on. It feels very much like an 18xx game, but the mechanics are very different and somewhat unusual - and very interesting. I reccomend picking it up if you are interested in 18xx. It'll be a significant change of pace while still tapping into the excellent design. I don't think I'd reccomend it as highly as 1870 or 1856, but still a fine game.
Go back to the platform.