1846

Chuck, Doug, Jeff, and Scott played a game of 1846 this past week. This is one of the popular 18xx railroad stock games and is generally considered a great introductory game to the system. We acquired the following companies to start the game: Chuck: Illinois Central (plus Michigan Central private RR and the Meat Packing Company); Doug: Chesapeake & Ohio (plus the Big 4 private RR and the Mail Contract); Jeff: Grand Trunk (plus the Michigan Southern private RR, the Tunnel Blasting Company, and the Ohio & Indiana); and Scott: New York Central (plus Chicago & Western private RR).

The first turns of the game saw the Illinois building north toward Chicago from Cairo, Illinois; The C&O started short runs to the east of Huntington and got the Big 4 operational out of Indianapolis; the Grand Trunk focused on its side of the Canadian border in northern Michigan; and the NYC pushed east from Chicago and west from Erie toward Cincinnati. The Illinois was at $90/share, the Grand Trunk and NY Central were at $80/share, and the C&O was $100/share.

By the time Phase II ended, Jeff had bought the C&O out from under Doug and Doug had invested in the Pennsylvania RR. There were two East-West routes (a southern route from Huntington to Centralia and a northern route from Erie to Chicago) and Chicago was linked to Centralia to the south. Also, there was the pocket in northern Michigan along the Canadian border where the Grand Trunk continued to operate in isolation. The Penn was $50/share, the Illinois, Grand Trunk, and NY Central were all at $112/share, and the C&O was $124/share.

As of the end of Phase III, all of the railroads were interconnected with the exception of the Grand Trunk, which remained in its northern pocket. The Penn had dropped to $30/share, the Grand Trunk was at $124/share,  the Illinois and NY Central were at $137/share, and the C&O was $150/share.

At this point all of the railroads were running their money routes and it was a race to build big enough engines, but there was a difference in scale. For the final routes of the game, the Penn earned $430 and the Illinois earned $450. However, the Grand Trunk finished with a $620 route, the C&O with $630, and the NYC with a $690 route. The game closed with the Penn at $90/share, the Grand Trunk at $150, the Illinois at $212, the C&O at $250 and NY Central $295. Chuck had full control of the Illinois with 20% investments in all of the other RRs; Doug had full control of the Penn at60%, a 30% investment in the C&O, and 10% of the stock in the NYC and GT; Jeff had control of both the Penn and C&O with a 20% interest in the NYC and Illinois; and Scott had full control of the NYC with 20% in the Penn, Illinois, and Grand Trunk.

Congratulations to Jeff for his strong win! His holdings totaled $5,351 ($3,014 in stock value and $2,337 in cash). Scott followed in 2^nd, just a fistful of dollars ahead of Chuck, with a total value of $4,138 ($2,674 of stocks and $1,464 of cash). Chuck finished with a total value of $4,083 ($2,630 of stock and $1,453 of cash). Doug closed in last with a total value of $2,912 ($1,652 of stock and $1,260 of cash).