Chicago 1875: City of the Big Shoulders

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 6 out of 10

   Cavedog_pdx

   (played on BGA) This game is fun and helps to scratch the 18xx itch in about two hours. It does have some issues though that after about 20 plays are too hard to ignore and make it so this will never be an all time classic. 1) It seems necessary to buy other players' stock and sell it simply to drive their prices down. If other players do this and you don't you're left at a disadvantage. It's not like 18xx where selling other player's stocks to change turn order or to take a profit when the stock price is higher than the par price. Timing sales of stocks is an essential part of the strategy in 18xx games but here the turn order is determined by the appeals track. Selling stock also changes the prices of the initial stock offerings so it also lowers the amounts of cash the companies ultimately end up raising from stock sales resulting in a more artificially cash tight game. 2) Sometimes the building tiles you have to choose from are utter crap and this can put you at a disadvantage at the beginning of the game (+2 and +3 appeal are the best for sure! Any why would someone use your +1 for $10 instead of the +1 and go first for $20 unless they were super short on cash? it doesn't make sense!) 3) It's really hard to determine which companies are the best to run at the beginning of the game without having much experience playing. The two pig companies (Swift and Anglo-American) are great money makers. Companies that can hold a capital asset are easier to use and both Swift and AA can do so along with Brunswick Balke Collender (BBC), Libby, and Spalding. BBC can make a great deal of money but needs a lot of investment in order to do so successfully (get managers). Libby is the same it needs a lot of investment and two salespeople to get up and running then makes really good money. Spalding is easy to get both factories going so you could potentially get your extra partner turn 1 but otherwise doesn't make much money. Cracker Jack is easy to start up. (I haven't seen a game yet where both pig or both food or both shoe companies are opened at the beginning). N.K. Fairbanks is easy to start, needs only two employees and five goods to run both factories, and is easy to automate however it can't get a free employee on the appeals track and gets tight on money later since it doesn't get the help of capital assets. Elgin is interesting it might be better as a second company with two managers as it will be able to climb the appeal track quickly (It was my first company in my first game and had no problem reaching the top of the appeal track quickly). The shoe companies (CM Henderson and Daggett Bassett & Hills) need a lot of employees, commodities, and don't have spots for capital assets. They never seem to do as well and are rarely first round opening companies. 4) It's really hard to tell the wood and coal cubes apart in the market on BGA. 5) 175 starting capital is a strange amount. The only reason to start your company at a price other than $35 so you can get 5 shares is if people are trying to torpedo other players' stock prices in round one. It's also the same amount whether you play with two, three, or four players. 6)There are times when there seems to be lots of good stocks available and that it makes more sense to buy those than to start a second company. Trying to start a company in turn 5 sucks unless there ends up being some dividend payout spaces to choose from. 7)The goals aren't very good. Everyone will want a 5th partner and will do what is needed to get one. Often competing goals of most workers and most automation will be in the same game, or most 10% shares and most 20%. The goal of most cash in one company saw a player in one game open a company at $60/share who only bought the director's share. Other players were suckers who also bought shares. The company never hired workers, took a loss of $10/share ($30) and allowed the owner to get the $200 bonus ($180 invested, $350 payout) 8)The certificate limits are odd and arbitrary. They might be too low in a 2 player game. 9) Resources in the market can be too ridiculously tight in turn one and even turn 2 once in a while. I had a company in one game that was unable to run in round one because another player bought too many resources. If you want that kind of game play Power Grid 10) Haven't tried the expansion but the popular opinion is the companies are overpowered.

2. 7 out of 10

   brewsaki

   This is my first entry in 18XX-style games, although it doesn't have any trains. For me, this is a good thing, and I really enjoy the worker-placement aspect of it. The stock trading is fun, and there is a lot of variability from game to game. Managing your own companies is also a lot of fun. Why I got rid of it: I love this game, but after playing it 15 times in 2020, plus hundreds of times while testing the BGA adaptation, I no longer had any desire to play it. I bought it back then got rid of it again: Not enough tension. I wish there were reasons to withhold and that money was tighter.

3. 7 out of 10

   Ayanami77Ivy

   Enjoyed my play but did get lost in the woods about half way through my play. Would definitely like to revisit this game and see if I can work through the stock manipulation a little bit better than what I ended up doing. Automation seems very important in the game.