''1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons'' is a railroad operations and share trading

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

first published by

Avalon Hill 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 compan ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

based on an original design by

Francis Tresham Francis Tresham ( 1567 – 23 December 1605) was a member of the group of English provincial Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a conspiracy to assassinate King James I of England. Tresham joined the Earl of Essex's fail ...

. The popularity of ''1830'' spawned an industry creating similar ''"

18XX 18XX is the generic term for a series of board games that, with a few exceptions, recreate the building of rail transport, railroad corporations during the 19th century; individual games within the series use particular years in the 19th century a ...

"'' games. It was the inspiration for '' Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon''. ''1830'' was republished in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

through a partnership of

Mayfair Games Mayfair Games was an American publisher of board game, board, card game, card, and roleplaying games that also licensed German-style board game, Euro-style board games to publish them in English. The company licensed worldwide English-language pub ...

and

Lookout Games Lookout Games is a German board and card game publisher owned by Asmodee. The company published, among other games, the board game Agricola, which was honored with the ''Complex Game'' award by the German Game of the Year jury in 2008. History T ...

Game Structure

''1830'' is a

strategy game A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous, decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decision tree-style think ...

where the only element of luck involved is in determining the initial play order. The game takes the basic mechanics from

’s ''

1829 Events January–March * January 19 – August Klingemann's adaptation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's '' Faust'' premieres in Braunschweig. * February 27 – Battle of Tarqui: Troops of Gran Colombia and Peru battle to a draw. * Marc ...

'', with players seeking to make the most money by buying and selling

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

in various

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

companies located on a stylised eastern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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

beginning in the year 1830, with

companies in the game representing

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

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

value, gutting it and running with the money, successful

stock trading In finance, a trade is an exchange of a security such as stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, derivatives or any valuable financial instrument for "cash". Such a financial transaction is usually done by participants of an exchange such as a ...

or arranging for another player to go

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

. 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.

Private Companies

* Schuylkill Valley Navigation Co. * Champlain & St. Lawrence Railroad * Delaware & Hudson Railroad * Mohawk & Hudson Railroad * Camden & Amboy Railroad *

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 until 1987, when it was merged into the Chessie ...

Stock Companies

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

Boston and Maine Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad was a United States, U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. It was chartered in 1835, and became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the e ...

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 ...

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

Computer Game

''1830'' has been translated as the PC game '' 1830: Railroads & Robber Barons'' by Simtex in

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

. 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.

Reception

Grant Tavinor, writing in ''The Aesthetics of Videogames'', described the game as "extremely complicated".

Reviews

''1830'' was also reviewed in the 36th issue of ''

Casus Belli A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one bou ...

.''

References

External links

''1830''
game information on Blackwater Station *

A collection of articles on the game and game strategy. {{DEFAULTSORT:1830: The Game Of Railroads And Robber Barons 30 Avalon Hill games Board games introduced in 1986 Francis Tresham games Mayfair Games games Multiplayer hotseat games 1830 in rail transport