Personal View by Chris Lawson

As for my views on 1825, I think of it as a major failure. If treated as a direct replacement for 1829 you cannot complain because that's all it is. As a new component of the 18xx family, it fails big time for me, there are just so many poor elements about the design. It suffers from linear play, no decision making, no spark, poor rules, poor components. I did not like 1829, and 1825 has just added reasons to dislike it further. But please remember that this is only my viewpoint, some do like 1825 as a short or introductory 18xx game, but for me there are other, better designs more worthy to play. I was not very happy with the production of most of the components that came with the game. The Mapboard was nice but everything else was .... yuk! (no further comments). I did produce a new 1825 Kit which comprises of the following Company Certificates (not included with 1825) Tokens (Station Markers and SPI Marker) Company Shares (1 Director share and 8 ordinary shares) Stock Market Table (12" x 16" in full colour) Player Money (new version of corrected amounts) It was offered as an upgrade but I since withdrawn it (due to lack of demand).

Money Distribution by Chris Lawson

The below was obtained by comparing an 1825 acquired around Christmas 1995 (with a serial number of 29061 on the box) and another acquired (serial number 29132) a few months later. Please note that the following does not originate from Hartland Trefoil, it is just a comparison between the two releases of 1825 that I have seen. It may address and solve a few outstanding problems with the very early versions of 1825. It has been noticed that the first batch of 1825 games released had a error in the form that an incorrect amount of Player Money and Company Credits was included. This has led to the games ending to quickly as there was simply not enough money in the game. It would seem that the problem has been addressed and fixed in later games. Player Money   Company Credits   was (12/95) now (01/96) £1 24 24 £4 14 14   was (12/95) now (01/96) £5 16 16 £10 24 24 £10 32 32 £20 10 10 £40 12 12 £50 16 16 £50 12 20 £100 12 16 £100 12 - £500 - 4 £200 12 4 Total £2600 £5000 Total £5000 £2600 The problem was reported as that the amounts of the Player Money and the Company Credits got swapped around. It has been fixed by adding four more £100 and £500 notes to the mix of Player Cash and removing some of the Company Credits. A way to quickly see if you have an up to date set is to check the page titled "1825 (Unit 1) Parts List" and look at the date in the bottom right hand corner, the old version was dated 12/95 while the new version is 1/96. The old document <PARTLIST.U1>/1 12/95 states £2,600 (approx.) value of scrip in denominations of 1 4 5 10 20 50 and 100 £4,000 (approx.) value of Company Credits in denominations of 10 40 50 200 The new document <PARTLIST.U1>/1 1/96 now reads £4,000 (approx.) value of scrip in denominations of 1 4 5 10 20 50 and 100 £2,600 (approx.) value of Company Credits in denominations of 10 40 50 200 Please note that even though it does give a total of £4,000 I believe that £5,000 Player Money is included, some players prefer to use £6,000 to give a better game.

Tile Promotions by Chris Lawson

Another source of confusion has been a lack of Tile Upgrade information. This is normally in a form of a list of tiles and the possible promotions available, this is not usually a problem as it can be worked out quite easily but 1825 does allows single and double small stations to be upgraded to large stations. This should just clarify the situation as there has been some questions on just what is allowed. The actual mix of tiles has changed over time so I do not think there is a definitive list. On the reverse side of the new <PARTLIST.U1>/1 1/96 is the Tile Promotion Chart. This is in a graphical presentation and lists all the possible paths. Yellow Tiles Green Tiles 1 14 2 15 55 14 56 15 3 12, 14, 15 4 14, 15 5 12, 14, 15 6 12, 13, 14, 15 7 26, 27, 28, 29 8 19, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29 9 23, 24, 26, 27 Green Tiles Brown Tiles 12 38 13 38 14 - 15 - 19 45, 46 23 41, 43, 45, 47 24 42, 43, 46, 47 25 40, 45, 46 26 42, 44, 45 27 41, 44, 46 28 39, 43, 46 29 39, 43, 45 52 64, 65, 66, 67, 68

Components by Chris Lawson

I was not very happy with the production of most of the components that came with the game. The Mapboard was nice but everything else was .... yuk! (no further comments). I did produce a new 1825 Kit which comprises of the following Company Certificates (not included with 1825) Tokens (Station Markers and SPI Marker) Company Shares (1 Director share and 8 ordinary shares) Stock Market Table (12" x 16" in full colour) Player Money (new version of corrected amounts) It was offered as an upgrade but I since withdrawn it (due to lack of demand).