1830: The Coalfields

The game has become less cutthroat in a sense as trains obsolete instead of rust. The extra company added makes for a heavy traffic jam down south. The whole board action centered more around NY and Boston with minimal heading to Chicago. Overall game play still quite similar to the original 1830. But has added more options at the coalfields. It’s possible to win by concentrating around the coal field area. I will consider this as a little expansion for 1830. But I suggest taking the Rust train rule instead.

The end-game takes too long compared with other 18XX games.

Inclusive the N&W, Reading and the Pere Marquette Company sheet and stocks.I like that variant a bit over original 1830 and i recommend it for 4 to 6 players and you got additionally 1x6er and 2x7er Lok. The only not ideal rule is: the delayed rusting of the ALL 2,3 and 4 trains. I play a houserule, that only two trains can get the comfort of delayed rusting. So every player has a red and a white star token, that he can be placed one of the Loks, after the Lok has done the 1st Operation round. Only one star can be placed per OR in the station token phase of every operating company. The white-star token runs a rusted Lok for a full revenue run and the red-star token for a splited revenue run, where half of the money goes in the treasury.

Coalfields is critically flawed but briefly interesting -- it takes 1830 and loses the train rush and company push while increasing the absolute focus on NYC. The result is a pedestrian exercise of plodding down the dreary slope waiting for the game to happen.

The best of the 1830 variants, although the actual coalfields themselves are only of marginal relevance. The B&O and NYNH have been weakened, while moving the C&O makes the game even more NY-centric than before. The game's pace has been reduced, but if you want to play 1830 on a more level playing field then this is the way to go. In different ways it's just as flawed as the original: the B&M is perhaps a little too strong, while the Canadian Pacific remains as weak as ever.

Although it add some nice track building options it lengthens the game to much for what it is worth. I also do not like the monster runs that come with it.