Playtests at Manorcon

This last month has seen several playtests of 18GB, including the first plays with people outside my local gaming group.  As I expected, I learnt a lot.  For the last playtest, I didn't play myself but just watched the game unfold with no input from me beyond explaining the rules.  I have several changes to make as a result of this testing. The basic design seemed to hold up but various bits need quite a bit more work.

The biggest problem is the mix of trains in the end game.  After the local playtests, I made the 3X optional after the purchase of the first 4X, because players found that the 3X weren't worthwhile and hurt the companies that had to buy them.  The optional trains seemed to work but reduced the number of companies saving for the final 6X.  The game still ends 3 ORs after buying the first 6X; arguably this now makes the game too short.  This whole area requires more thought.

I tried changing the rule for converting companies to ten-share companies, so that conversion happened when any player bought a notional sixth share.  The idea was that if someone has a successful five-share company, another player can force them to convert it, potentially at an inconvenient share value.  I soon found that the game needs the original mechanism as well, in which the director can convert a company during the stock round.  Currently I am keeping both but it may be that the conversion by buying the sixth-share is too complex.

Several people had trouble laying track in Scotland.  This partly reflects the current design of that part of the map.  In one game, the double-town tiles were another contributing factor.  The idea of the double-town tiles was that these three hexes would be areas of particular contention for the right tiles.  In practice this isn't working well because the alternatives to the obvious tile lays don't work so well.  One 18xx designed suggested that I drop them, on the grounds that the double-city and triple-city tiles already give enough variety and strategy to the game.  He's probably right.

In the most recent playtest, no-one started the NER.  This surprised me and challenged some of my assumptions about the game.  As a side effect, it meant that it was impossible to token-out Newcastle (because one space had to be reserved for the NER).  I realised that I had designed the game with the assumption that the NER would always be one of the tokens blocking Newcastle.  As I was also concerned that the NER might be too strong a company, I'm now experimenting with starting it in Middlesbrough instead.

There are various other small tweaks as well but these are the most significant.  I was a little surprised to learn that the map and tile mix needed so many tweaks, as I had thought these were pretty stable.  I do think the revisions will significantly improve the game, so if tests bear this out, the experience will have been very useful.