1829 Mainline

About this board game

1829 Mainline is an 18xx-style board game for 1–7 players, with games lasting about 240 minutes. It replaces the usual control over initial share choices with a more unpredictable portfolio-building challenge.

At the beginning, each player receives a collection of share certificates and selects an initial portfolio from them. More shares become available during the stock rounds, while players can also bring additional certificates out of their initial deal, buy shares from the pool, or draw a certificate and either purchase it or discard it.

The discard pile creates another tactical option. If you have enough money, you can buy your way down through the discarded certificates to reach the share you really want. This gives the share market a shifting character, where a certificate that was rejected earlier may later become an important opportunity.

• Select an opening portfolio from dealt share certificates.
• Buy from the pool, reveal certificates from the draw pile, or work through the discard pile.
• Operate one or more companies while trying to retain control.
• Promote tiles from yellow to green, russet, and grey whenever the proper sequence is followed.

Players generally operate one or more companies from the start, but control can change when another player finds the right certificates in the draw or discard piles. There are no phases as such, so tile promotions can occur at any time as long as the usual sequence is observed.

In 1829 Mainline, the reduced control over which shares you acquire changes the central challenge. Rather than following a fixed grand design, players must make the best possible decisions with the portfolio they were dealt and the opportunities that emerge during play.