1883: Building Railroads In Northern Italy

Overview

1883 is a game in the 18xx family of train games, set in Northern Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed by Manlio Manzini, co-designer of 1841. Some features: a/ 1883 is an "incremental cap" style 18xx, where corporations receive money in their treasuries by 1/ players buying the corporations shares or 2/ the corporations issuing their shares to the Bank Pool at almost market price. b/ Random Events - which corporations can mitigate by buying political support. c/ Government Concessions - whereby corporations (and players) get a bonus for making certain connections d/ A bus company - which players may buy shares in, and that has its own network on the board e/ A co-operative corporation - which players take turns to run (and may steal from) f/ Two corporations that can merge if their presidents agree. g/ "Gravity trains" which only cost L.20 and can run on track already used by 'normal' trains and add to company income - they don't count against a company's train limit, but a die is rolled to determine whether they breakdown (and so don't get income) or are even lost altogether. h/ only a dividend payout greater than or equal to a corporation's current share price will move that share price to the right on the market.