Key Rules and Clarifications for 1825
edited by Lou Jerkich
Unless otherwise specified, the rules and clarifications noted below
apply to all of the three Units of the 1825 game. The following
rules observations are not comprehensive, but do address issues
critical to the correct play of the game. Bold black text is
quoted verbatim from the 1825 rules.
Rule
1.8 Routes (also 4.5.2, 4.5.4 and Rules for Kit K2--Advanced
Trains)
A Route is a length of railway on
which a train can earn revenue. It must begin and end with a
large Station and it must include at least one Base Station belonging
to the Company. A Route may not go through a Station that is entirely occupied by other Companies' Tokens but it
may terminate at such a Station. A Route may not use the
same piece of track twice over, nor may it include more than one
Station on the same Tile or hexag (or more than one visit to the same
Station)....
The pointed observation about a Route being able to terminate at a
Station full occupied by other Companies' Tokens is intended to stress
the contrast with the previously published 1829 game. In 1829,
Routes may neither go through nor terminate at stations fully filled
with the tokens of other Companies.
The rule about large Stations forming the beginning and end of the
Route is fully applicable to the basic games of Units 1 or 2.
However, in Unit 3, it was noted that there was an exception. Rule 4.5.2 of
Unit 3 reads: A Route must begin and
end with a large Station except that the '3T' Train may begin and end
its run on any Station that is available to the Company.
In the Rules for Kit K2--Advanced Trains, there are rules specific to
the 3T and 4T trains. This rule reads: Type 'T' trains are limited to the number
of Stations shown which may be large or small, without
restriction. A small Station may form the end of a Route.
These Trains are the only ones allowed to use single track (as shown by
a black and white dashed line and included in Regional Kits).
These Trains may also call at two value 10 Stations on the same Tile or
hexag. Thus 'T'
Trains are an exception to the rule that requires large Stations
to form both ends of a Route, and within specified limits they are an exception to the rule forbidding
Routes to run to more than one Station on a tile. Moreover, they
can be used with the single track that appeared in the first editions
of Regional Kits R1 (Wales) and R3 (North Norfolk)..
Notable
Discrepancy: Rule 4.5.4 of Unit 3 and the rules for
U3 Trains in Kit K2--Advanced Trains
Rule 4.5.4 in all three Units specifies that ...The Train number
indicates the maximum number of Stations it can connect.
For Unit
3, however, this sentence continues with the addition of a special rule
for the U3 Train that appears in Unit 3: ...although the 'U3" train may connect any
number of small Stations in addition to three large ones, two of which
must form the ends of its Routes. Unfortunately, this
exception to the rules is not consistent with the rules for the 'U3'
Train that appear in Kit K2--Advanced Trains. In Kit K2 the rule
for 'U3' Trains reads: Type 'U'
Trains are limited to the number of large Stations shown but the number
of small stations connected is unlimited (as in '1853'). The
Route may end at a small Station (again as in '1853'). Players should
agree before playing on whether or not to follow the Unit 3 rule or the
K2 rule for the 'U3' Trains.
My
preference is to use the K2 rule and allow the 'U3' Trains to
end at small Stations. It is too difficult in 1825 to incorporate
very many small towns inside a route bounded by large Stations, so this
train does not provide much of an advantage at all. The Cambrian
and the Highland Railways each receive one of these 'U3' Trains as part
of their formation, but they do not get to use the U3 advantage very
much. They both would in fact be better off with a 'T' Train
unless the 'U3' Train is allowed to terminate its run in a small
Station.
Rule 3.1 Setting Up
Choose
a player to be the Banker.
The Banker now takes Private Companies for as many people as are
playing, choosing the cards in ascending order of price. Include
the Director's Share in the LNWR when there are five or more players....
The above applies to Units 1 and 2.
The Rules (3.2) for the two-player Unit
3 specify that The £30
and £60 private Companies are now dealt blind by the Banker and
paid for by the recipients. Whoever bought the Abroath and
Forfar Private Company then goes first in deciding to either buy the
Stockton & Darlington Railway or pass. Once that is bought,
the Caledonian and North British Railway shares will become
available. For Units 1 and 2, if any remaining Private Companies
are still offered for sale, they must be bought in ascending order of
price before anyone can buy the LNWR shares.
Notable
Discrepancy: Section 7--Combined
Units [Untis 1 and 2] versus the Note on page 17 of the Unit 3 Rules
Section 7 on the back cover of the Unit 1 and Unit 2 rules specifies
that When two or more Units are used
in one game a few adjustments are necessary....Do not dupicate Private
Companies with the same name. Units 3's rules on page 17,
in the second last paragraph under "Note" specify the following: Do not duplicate Private Companies with the
same VALUE. It appears that the chief intent meant by
their capitalization of the word "Value" is to stress that only one of
the £30 value private Companies should be in play regardless of
the
number of Units being used. Avoiding duplication of "value"
automatically eliminates any duplicates of Private Companies with the
same name, taking care of all the other cases of like value.
My preference is to use the
Unit 3 rules, which appeared later in time than Units 1 and 2.
Should players choose to follow the rules from Units 1 or 2 instead,
then in a combined game they would have to decide in which order to
place the three Private Companies valued at £30.
Rule
3.2 The First Share Dealing Round
...In this, the First Share Dealing
Round, players may only purchase certificates, not sell them.
Without such a rule, players could just buy and then sell off shares in
all companies in turn in order to get as many as possible started.
Rule
4.1.2 First Operating Round
...A Company Token is placed on the
Company's Initial Base (see 1.2).
This initial base placement noted in this rule occurs in the
First Operating Round when all newly-formed companies are
"formed." Thereafter, each company takes its own turn in the
Operating Round. Those companies starting during the First
Operating Round clearly have no conflict with rule 4.4.6 that limits
companies to placing only one base token per turn. See also the
discussion under rule 4.4.6 below.
...The Director is given Company Credits
equal to the face value of all ten Company Shares (even though some may
not yet have been bought).
Thus, there is full capitalization in 1825.
Rule
4.2 Railway Building
There are several noteworthy points among the rules for building
track.
Rule 4.2.2: One or two Tiles may be
laid each turn but, if two Tiles are laid, they must not be adjacent to
each other (even when not connected by a railway line).
Rule 4.2.5: Tiles may be placed on
hexags that are not quite complete but half hexags (and smaller
fractions) may not be used unless the adjoining Board is in
place. Tiles may be placed so that a railway terminates against
the edge of the Board or against the side of an incomplete hexag.
Rule 4.2.7: Placing a Tile on a
mountain hexag (indicated by a triangle) costs £100.
Placing a Tile on a hexag in which the land is dividend into separate
parts by water such as a river costs £40 (or more when indicated
by a number in a square)....
Rule 4.2.8 (Units 1 and 2): The
placing of Tiles on some hexags is reserved for a particular
company. These are named on the Board in white....
Rule 4.2.8 (Unit 3): The hexag containing Dumbarton is divided by water
and includes a mountain and therefore costs £140. The cost
of laying a Tile on Dundee is £80 and on Dunfermline and
Kirkaldy is £120 as shown on the Board.
Note that rule 4.2.9 in Unit 3 indicates that there is a
reserved space for the GSWR south west of Glasgow. The white
printing on a beige background make it difficult to see these reserved
spaces. Players should ntoe them before the game begins. It
is also important to not miss the cost of the more expensive Tile
locations in Scotland at Dumbarton, Dundee and Dunfermline.
Rule
4.3 Building Railways: Promotion of Tiles
Several important points pertain to the promotion, or upgrading of
tiles from yellow to green, green to russet, and russet to grey.
Note that there is a clear difference in the rules between a Tile lay
(the first Tile placed on a hexag) and a Tile promotion (the upgrading
of one Tile to the next color).
Rule 4.3.1: Only one Tile may be
promoted in a turn. This is an alternative to laying a new Tile
or Tiles....
Rule 4.3.2: A Company may not promote
a Tile unless some of the new track on the Tile is part of a line
leading to a Base belonging to that Company. A Station can only
be promoted if it can be reached by one of the Company's existing
Trains. The sizes of Train currently owned and the position of
existing Bases are therefore significant in deciding whether a
particular Tile can be promoted.
It is commonly accepted that the first sentence refers only to
plain track tiles and not to station tiles since it is easily
demonstrated that its application to station tiles would create
ridiculous situations causing havoc with track development.
(Contemplate the difficulties of promoting of Glasgow with the
requirement that the new track must be part of a line leading to a base
belonging to that company. If the CR wishes to create a NE-SW
route through Glasgow with the russet upgrade, it cannot do so because
it would have to build track to the southwest side of the tile--a
location only open to the GSWR until the GSWR places track there.)
Rule 4.3.4: A promotion may not change
ordinary track into a Station or vice-versa. Small Stations may,
however, be promoted to large Stations and two small Stations on a Tile
may be combined and become one large Station.
Rule 4.3.6: Some special green Tiles
are reserved for specific locations. These are the #52 green
Tiles showing two separate large Stations which may be laid on the
yellow hexags on the Board. They may be used from Phase Two
onwards. Note that the use of these Tiles is a Tile 'lay', not a
'promotion' and has to comply with rules 4.2.2 to 4.2.8. From
Phase Three these #52 Tiles may be promoted by the russet Tiles
#64 to #68.
Rule 4.3.7: The green tiles on
the Board are deemed to represent Tiles already in place. In
Phase Three (4.7.3) these green hexags may be replaced by overlaying
them with special russet Tiles. [Special tiles exist for this
purpose
for London, Liverpool, and the BGM tiles in Birmingham, Glasgow and
Manchester.] A standard Tile #38
may be placed on Bristol,
V10. Because these actions are treated as promotions they
do not involve construction costs.
Note that this last rule means no construction cost is required to
place the russet tiles at Liverpool or Bristol. A tile #119 can
also be used at Bristol.
Rule
4.4 Establishing New Bases
....Bases may not be set up on small
Stations.
Rule 4.4.1: A base may only be
established on a large Station if it is connected to an existing Base
owned by the Company. Effectively, both the new Base and the
existing one must be part of the same Route, although the Route may be
of any length and it is not restricted by the size of the trains that
are available.
Note that unlike Tile promotions, there is no restriction to placing a
new Base other than a legal connection to an existing Base.
Rule 4.4.6: Only one token may be laid
per turn. The number available is limited and one is reserved for
use on the share price index.
Rule 4.1.2 (see above) clearly provides for companies in the first
Operating Round to place their initial base prior to taking their own
regular turn in the Operating Round. Thus those companies formed
at that time can certainly lay an additional base during their first
Operating Round. The question arises whether companies formed
later in the game will also be able to lay an additional base aside
from their initial one during the first turn in which the company
operates. Fortunately, Keith Thomasson reported in an 188xx Yahoo
e-group message on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2002 that on the previous evening Francis Tresham, the designer and
publisher of 1825, told him that a company may always lay one base in
its first Operating Round in addition to the one which had been laid in
its home starting location.
Rule
4.5 Running Trains
Note: See rule 1.8, above, for additional information on running
trains over routes.
Rule 4.5.5: If desired, two '2' Trains
are allowed to be run together and treated as if they were a single '3'
Train.
Doubleheading in this manner allows a company to go from a large
Station through a small Station and end up at a large Station, to meet
the requirements of both ends of the run being large Stations. If
not for doubleheading, then some companies might not be able to run for
awhile, or might have to run poorer routes. For example, the GWR,
from its base in Swindon, can only reach London easily in Phase One by
doubleheading two '2' Trains to run through the small town of Reading
that lies in between. Note that the rules do not permit the size
of more than one Train to be used in determining whether a Station may
be promoted, per rule 4.3.2. However, this rule says to treat two
'2' Trains as if they were a single '3' Train. Thus, the
doubleheaded '2' Trains can extend the distance over which
a tile may be promoted to equal that of a '3' Train.
Rule 4.5.9 The money earned by
the Company's Trains is paid out by the Bank, either as a Dividend to
the shareholders or as Company Credits to the Company.
Furthermore, the opening paragraph for rule 4.5 states: If the Director decides not to pay a
Dividend the earnings (if any) are paid to the Company in Company
Credits. There is one more relevant statement in the
rules in Section 2--Procedures. Here it states that The Companies use a special form of money,
called Company Credits, except when paying earnings to the players
(shareholders) when ordinary money is used.
Because earnings go to the players, who are identified as the
shareholders, and lacking any statement to the contrary, the logical
conclusion is that unissued shares and the shares in the Bank Pool
(both of which are held by the Bank) do not receive dividends.
Thus either the players in the game receive dividends for the shares
they own in a Company, or that Company receives all the earnings in the
form of Company Credits. There are no half-dividends in 1825, and
no way for the Companies to receive cash from running their Trains
except by fully retaining all earnings.
Rule
4.6 Running Trains
Rule 4.6.4 A Company on its
Train owning limit may NOT buy the first '5' Train even though this
starts Phase Three and makes any '2' Trains owned obsolete.
Rule 4.6.5 Trains may be
bought from another railway Company at a mutually agreed price of at
least £10. This can only take place at the end of the
purchasing Company's turn. (Both Companies often have the same
Director.)
Rule 4.6.4 is sometimes forgotten by players, so it is good to keep it
in mind. Rule 4.6.5 is necessary since the denominations of
Company Credits in basic Units 1 and 2 do not include bills lower than
£10. (Where denominations lower than £10 occur in
1825 it is due to the small change needed when Minor Companies are in
play that have variable starting values. Nevertheless, even Unit
3 which contains three Minor Companies retains the rule that Train
purchases must be for a minimum of 10.)
Noteworthy
Points: There is no requirement in the rules for
1825 that a Company own a Train. There is consequently no set of
rules regarding forced Train purchases as occur in most 18xx
games. Miscellaneous Rule 6.5.1 specifies that Players and Companies may not lend each
other money, Trains, etc. Since there is no requirement to
own a Train, there is no provision for giving any money from a player
to the Company, whether for Train purchases or otherwise.
Section
5 Share Dealing Rounds (SDRs)
....Players are not allowed to sell
Shares during the first SDR but they may be sold at any time during a
player's turn in other SDRs.
....the round will go on for as long
as at least one player continues to buy every time it is his or her
turn. It will stop once every player has consecutively declined
the opportunity to buy (not sell) a share. Consequently the round
continues for as long as players require it to do so.... The next Share
Dealing Round will start with the player on the left of the last
person to buy,....
Rule 5.1.5: Once all Shares in a
Company have been bought the Shares in the next Company become
available IF the Companies are of different value. When several
Companies have the same Share value it is only necessary for ONE
Company in that value band to be fully subscribed before Shares in the
next band become available....
Rule 5.17: There is a limit on
the number of Shares that a player may hold and this is given in TABLE
3. Private Railway Companies are included in calculating the
total. Each Director's Share counts as ONE certificate.
Rule 5.2.6: The sale of Shares into
the Bank Pool has no effect on the formation of a new Company
(4.1.2). It is sufficient that six new Shares should have been
bought in the Company, even though some may have been sold afterward.
Rule 5.2.9: Private Railways may be
sold into the Pool for £30 less than their face value. They
may be bought from the Pool at face value.
Rule
5.3 Take Over Bids
2nd paragraph: A Director's Share may
be sold into the Bank Pool in the normal manner. If another
player now holds a majority he or she then immediately acquires the Director's Share by exchange
with two ordinary Shares. If two (or more) players should qualify
preference is given to the one nearest to the seller's left. If
no player holds the necessary two Shares the Company will go into
Receivership (6.4). Player's may not buy a Director's Certificate
from the Bank Pool (6.4.7).
Rule 5.4 Minor Companies
[from Unit 3 rules]
Last paragraph: Minor Companies run
after other Companies during an Operating Round. They then run in
initial price order (Ref. 4.1.3) with formation order used to resolve
any ties.
Rule
6.2 End of Game
1st paragraph: The game ends when the
Bank runs out of ordinary money. Complete the Operating Round
which is in progress by making a note of the summs due. Players
then add up the value of their cash and the current value of their
Shares as given on the Share Price Index. Private Railways that
are still running are added at their face value. Nothing else may
be included. The wealthiest player is the winner.
2nd paragraph: The game also
ends if the Company Share value reaches the highest price recorded on
the SPI. In this case the game stops at the end of that Company's
turn.
3rd paragraph: Games should be
run to a time limit if desired and should then finish at the end of a
complete Operating Round.
Rule
6.4 Company in Receivership
A Company goes into Receivership if no
player holds the two Shares necessary to qualify as Director. A
Reciever (1.7) is then appointed to run the Company....If all Players
are Directors the Receiver is the player currently holding the Priority
Deal Card.
Rule 6.4.1: The Reciever
operates the Company in the normal way except that no Dividends are
paid, all earnings being retained by the Company. The earnings
must be the maximum possible.
Rule 6.4.2: Company assets may not be
transferred.
Rule 6.4.3: A Company in
Receivership may lease a Train from the unsold stock in the Bank for
£10 per turn. This Train remains the property of the Bank
at all times. Only one Train mya be leased by a Company. (A
Train may still be leased even if the Company already owns a Train or
Trains.) The leased Train will be the next one on offer for
sale. If the Train is of a new type it will not cause a Phase
change. (The Train may still run its full distance.)
Rule 6.4.4: A Company in
Receivership must buy a Train, if possible, as soon as funds permit
unless there is no Route on which it can be run.
Rule 6.4.6: A Company in
Receivership need not make payment for construction costs, Station
markers, leasing fees, etc. until the end of each turn.
Rule
6.5 Miscellaneous Rules
Rule 6.5.4: When Trains are sold
between Companies the price must be made public.
Rule 6.5.6: Players and
Companies need not divulge their financial details.
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page.
This page was originally created on 17 July 2008. It was
updated and posted with
some additional content on 26 August, 2008. Minor typographic
corrections made 23 July 2009.
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