18 India‘s lineage is derived from Francis Tresham’s 1829 Mainline. The venerable Mr. Tresham created some novel mechanics for that game: all colors of track tiles being available without waiting for different phases, a draft of shares to be held in a player’s hand, “managed” companies (those operating without a director’s certificate in play), locations with variable revenue values, trading in trains, only having one opportunity to sell shares in a stock round, building yellow track very quickly, and having a discard stack of shares. 

Most of those mechanics sounded terrific to us – and very different from the majority of the games we’ve played. Of course, with one or more of us concerned about some randomness, a few of these mechanics were viewed with some trepidation. Specifically, creating a shuffled deck of certificates and dealing each player a hand of certificates at the beginning of the game did not sound appetizing. What if I got unlucky and did not get many of the shares that I perceived as “the best ones”? Additionally, the stock round mechanic of turning over a certificate from the shuffled deck and deciding to buy it or not did not appeal to us. Again, the “luck of the draw” is not a common aspect of traditional 18XX gaming. Nevertheless, based on the other mechanics, we decided to try the game of course!

Well, locating a copy of 1829 Mainline – if you can, and not paying a King’s ransom – proved difficult. However, from a friend we learned that 18Africa by Jeff Edmunds is heavily influenced by 1829 Mainline, so we started to look at that title. First of all, the game was available as a print-and-play game. Secondly, by reading the rules, we agreed that it was indeed influenced by 1829 Mainline. In fact, 18Africa also added a few of its own twists and mechanics to the gameplay. With this exciting development, we made a copy of 18Africa, and set out to play! 

As we played, the aspects of the gameplay that we were excited about did not disappoint. Of course, the elements we were less excited about remained a concern. Since all three of us are inclined to authoring games, we quickly decided to attempt to create a game environment that preserved those Tresham mechanics that we enjoyed, but removed or mitigated the random elements that we did not enjoy. BTW, yes, we finally did acquire a copy of 1829 Mainline.

Throughout this series of InsideGMT articles, we will get into the mechanics of 18 India and how we’ve used Tresham’s mechanics, how we’ve adapted and mitigated randomness, and the influence of 18Africa on the outcome as well. We simply wanted to play the great mechanics that Tresham created for 1829 Mainline but without some of the elements that, in our opinions, detracted from our enjoyment of the play. We believe that we have succeeded in our mission. Now, with GMT Games’ involvement, we are excited that the 18XX community will also have an opportunity to enjoy these mechanics in 18 India!

Author: TraXX