General

"1844 Switzerland" is a railway building and share dealing game for 3 to 7 persons. It is based on "1829" by Francis Tresham. Historical railway development is followed as far as possible, but in some places history has had to be rewritten.

I would like to thank Peter Minder who collected extensive historical material and drew the map, Mrs. Tanja for her patient reading of the rules and making them understandable to 18XX beginners, Noel Leaver for the English version of the rules, play testers Martin Hartmann, Robert Jasiek, Adam Romoth, Andreas Trieb, and many others whose criticism and suggestions substantially contributed to the game, and Karl-Gerd Amerongen without whom the production of the game in this form would not have been possible.

The player who has the most money and the largest share value at the end is the winner. A railway network is developed using the yellow, green, brown, grey and grey-blue track tiles. As in a real railway, the tracks in the game connect stations. The locomotives travel from one station to the next one and make money by carrying (imaginary) passengers. The more and the bigger stations a locomotive visits the more it earns for the company and/or the shareholders. In the game you and your fellow players own private railway companies (P1-P7), mountain railways (B1-B5), shares in the tunnel company (T1-T5), and shares in up to 15 corporations. The companies belong to the shareholders. The player that has most shares in a company is the director of the company and decides how the company operates.