March 9, 2003 Note: This was first posted in mid-November 1994 in the newsgroup 'rec.games.board' - I have made a few minor edits (in Red).

I have been following the discussion of 1835 and it's starting packet for some time now. I have no actual playing experience with 1835 (have played 1830 in the past), but I do have a copy and been studying the 4 player case. The assertion that the fourth player can be taken out of the game at the start attracted my attention; this is a very serious play balance problem, if true. I have some thoughts about this, first I will construct the scenario to see if I understand the situation.

We have four players, Scrooge, Snively, Fagin, and Nell (playing in that order) - while Nell was out of the room getting cookies (at the direction of Fagin), the three villians plotted.

Scrooge started by buying Bergisch-Markishe
Snively bought the Leipzig-Dresdner private
Fagin bought Berlin-Potsdamer
Nell (not knowing any better) bought the Nurnberg-Furth private
Scrooge bought Magdenburger (attracting a glare from Snively who wanted it)
Snively bought Koln-Mindener, because he didn't want Fagin to get another big minor railroad.
Fagin, knowing that the Bayersche wasn't going to float for several rounds, bought the Braunschweigishe private
Nell (completely unaware of her fate) bought the Bayersche Direktor certificate
Scrooge bought Berlin-Stettiner
Snively, wanting a nice income property, bought Altona-Keil
Fagin, continuing his plan, bought the Hannoversche private
Nel, finishing her doom, bought the Ostbayreische private
Scrooge, with 235M still in hand, PASSES
Snively, Fagin, and a soon to be upset Nell all pass because of insufficient funds.

Scrooge (235M), Snively (45M), Fagin (15M), Nell (71M)

I am assuming that 6 operating rounds pass before the Pfalzbahnen is bought (by Nell probably) - after all, if a player is going to be buried, she should be buried DEEP. I have done an estimate of how much money each player will have: Scrooge, 3 minors (20M+20M+25M) for 5 turns (325M+235M=555M); Snively, 20M*6 + 2 minors (30M+30M) for 5 turns (420M+45M=465M), Fagin, 55M*6 + 1 minor (35M) for 4 turns (470M+15M=485M); poor Nell, 15M*6 (90M+71M=161M). After Pfalzbahnen is bought, there is a flurry of activity. Not only Bayersche floats, but so will Sachsische, and possibly Badische (depending on whether Bayersche or Sachsische stock is sold). The final outcome is unknown of course, but it appears that Scrooge is in the best position. Not only did he buy more stock, as soon as his minors buy their second train, their income is going to double or more (in fact Magdenberg might have made a 2nd run on turn 6 to Dresden for an additional 25M). The minor railroads owned by the other players don't have as great of an upward potential.

This is an example of what I see is the other game balance problem for the 4 player case - the first player can not be prevented from picking up 3 minors. As I see it, one way to minimize his advantage is to rush the game into Phase 3 as quickly as possible. To me, this suggests that the best strategy for the other players is to float Bayersche in the starting round, and then "thrash" the stock of all railroads to the limit (sell to the bank pool).