We played I think our third game of 1861 this year. It's still my favourite 18xx game, although it's possible the fact that I won again is a factor in that.

We all definitely played much better, less naive, followed coherent strategies, abused loans as much as possible, etc.

A setback was that I couldn't save Nikolaev from nationalisation, so immediately after losing it, I created Ekaterinin which turned into an amazingly good company that dominated the end game. My brother thought I created it just to use it to buy a train and then dump it (a valid strategy), but I just really wanted another company.

My real leap ahead happened when I could convert Ekaterinin from minor to major just before a new stock round, but decided not to. Instead, I kept it as a minor for one more operating round, used my money to buy the other players' shares instead, and used the revenue from that to convert Ekaterinin one round later. That put me ahead in shares at a critical moment when several companies were running 3 train routes and making ridiculous revenues, which helped me buy more shares than anyone else, and that's ultimately what wins the game.

#18xx #1861 #boardgames