Trains, trains, trains

I went and bought 1825 from BGG marketplace. It's a full set, too, all three units (but none of the extra kits). Why? I don't know, I suppose because it was there? Well, it does seem like an interesting game. I've read nice things about it from Geek and I think I might like the emphasis on track-building instead of stock manipulations.

Well, I'll see about that. I do like the flexibility on player amounts and the short playtime. If the game can be played in two and half hours in a meaningful way, that would be really, really sweet, because it would make playing on Thursday evenings possible. Three hours would be fairly cool, too. So, it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

I'm still waiting for my copy of Steam over Holland, sent from Netherlands two weeks ago. I'm getting anxious, because stuff usually arrives in a week from Europe. Well, the seller has only positive feedback at Geek, so I suppose he just sent the game using slower mail service (consider how cheap the shipping was, I'm fairly sure it wasn't priority mail). Not that I would have time to play the game, but...

Thursday I also received my copy of Ur 1830 BC, which is Splotter's slightly heretical take on 18xx. Instead of shares in railroads, players buy land in Mesopotamia and build irrigation networks. The basic elements of 18xx are there, with some interesting twists. The game has decent ratings, nothing superb but solid enough. I like most of what Splotter has done and I think the theme is quite interesting here. The way the irrigation systems works seems intriguing as well. I'm really looking forward to trying this one.

And finally, the VFLGS has made some deal with Mayfair Games and now stocks more of their games. That includes 1856 and 1870. My friend Tommy has 1856 and has played it few times. Most notably in the small con organised for Board Game Society actives back in 2006: they started Saturday morning and played for over six hours. Then they played something else, went to sauna (and played something else in sauna as well) and after that, decided to play another round of 1856. That was a quick one, just slightly over four hours. That's pretty cool, and probably a good idea too, considering most players were newbies. Like Tommy said, 1856 is as newbie-friendly as teaching someone to swim in a shark pool while beating them on the head with a brick... So anyway, there's a fairly cheap copy of 1856 calling to me, while I'm doing my best of resisting it's call. Sounds tempting, but the six-hour play time and brutality towards newbies means that the game is practically unplayable. I can imagine getting these three- and four-hour games on table, no problem, but six hours and more is just too hard.

So, all in all, I guess you could say I'm interested in 18xx games.