1844 is a railroad operations and share trading board game in the 18XX series, designed and published by Helmut Ohley in 2003. It is currently out of print, but is being reprented as of 2006. Peter Minder collected extensive background material and drew the map. In financial terminology, stock is the capital raised by a corporation, through the issuance and sale of shares. ... A board game is any game played on a board (that is, a premarked surface) with counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across the board. ... Introduction 18XX is the generic term for a series of board games which recreate the building of railroads during the 19th century, since the individual games use particular years in the 19th century as their title (usually the date of the start of railway development in the area of the... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

1844 is a large game, consisting of three different types of companies (government, regional, and historical railways), tunnel companies, mountain railway companies, and a large map. There are two types of trains — H-trains which are limited to a range in hexes, and normal trains which count stops instead of hexes. Pre-government railroads (4-share companies) eventually merge into the Swiss State Railway (SBB), regional railways (5-share companies) receive less capitalization and are restricted to H-trains, while historical companies are typical 18XX companies with 10 shares, full capitalization, and no train restrictions. Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. ... Introduction 18XX is the generic term for a series of board games which recreate the building of railroads during the 19th century, since the individual games use particular years in the 19th century as their title (usually the date of the start of railway development in the area of the...

1844 introduced two several new concepts to the 18XX hobby: Introduction 18XX is the generic term for a series of board games which recreate the building of railroads during the 19th century, since the individual games use particular years in the 19th century as their title (usually the date of the start of railway development in the area of the...

• Player order is determined by money on hand (least money goes first after the private companies are auctioned, most money goes first thereafter).
• Foreign investors buy the cheapest available train at the end of each set of operating rounds. This avoids the "poisoned" train frequently present in other games, and ensures the game will make progress to a conclusion.
• Players may buy tunnel and mountain companies instead of a normal share, which can be used by companies in the game to improve their runs. Once activated, these companies will continue to pay dividends to the owner.
• Incremental obsolescence of trains — normal trains become H-trains before they become obsolete.

Railroad Companies Represented in the Game

• Schweizerische Nordostbahn (NOB)
• Schweizerische Centralbahn (SCB)
• Vereinigte Schweizer Bahnen (VSB)
• Jura-Simplon-Bahn (JS)
• Gotthardbahn (GB)
• Schweizerischen Bundesbahnen (SBB)
• Ferrovie Nord Milano (FNM)
• Rhätische Bahn (RhB)
• Bern - Lötschberg - Simplon (BLS)
• Sensetalbahn (STB)
• Appenzeller Bahnen (AB)
• Montreux-Oberland Bernois (MOB)
• Jura neuchâtelois (JN)
• Chur-Arosa (ChA)
• Visp-Zermatt-Bahn (VZ)

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. ... The RhB (Rhaetian Railway / Rhätische Bahn (German) / Ferrovia Retica (Italian) / Viafier Retica (Rumantsch)) has the largest network of all the private railways in Switzerland. ... The Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon (BLS) railway, known since the merger of the old BLS with the Bern-Neuenburg-Bahn(BN), the Gürbetal-Bern-Schwarzenburg-Bahn (GBS) and the Simmentalbahn (SEZ) in 1997 as the BLS Lötschbergbahn, is the largest standard-gauge network on the Swiss Railway system... The MOB railway, Chemins de fer Montreux-Oberland Bernois is a 75km long narrow-gauge (1000 mm) railway in southwest Switzerland which runs from Montreux to Zweisimmen where passengers can transfer to the standard-gauge BLS railway, and there is also an MOB branch line from Zweisimmen to Lenk. ... BVZ Zermatt-Bahn is a narrow gauge railway in the Canton of Wallis, Switzerland. ...

External Links

• 1844 at BoardGameGeek
• More details and ordering information