1866

1866 is set in Western Europe. It is more fictitious than most of
these titles (most obviously, British Rail appears to exist in
1866...)

There are no stock rounds. You own one or more stock tokens which also
are placed on the stock market and act in operating rounds in the
ordering of descending value that companies also operate in; when your
token comes up, you can do one stock action (defined below) and it
moves according to what you did. You can't buy something you sold this
OR. 

WARNING: you can only buy a stock token as a stock action or in the
initial auction, so buy at least one in the initial auction or you'll
have a really boring game.

The map has some prebuilt ferry routes; some of them are only
available in later phases, and their tiles are coloured accordingly.
It's also divided into countries and regions ("regions" include
subdivisions of what are going to be Germany and Italy later on).

There's a particular gotcha (see rule 18.8) in that the region with
N18 Venice is considered to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
until later in the game.

There are 1822-ish L-trains, ordinary trains that count cities, and
numbered E trains. E trains score double the value of cities with your
tokens - but untokened cities score nothing, and count against the
run. Ordinary and E trains can share track (one ordinary train, one E
train).

Companies can buy "infrastructure" which pays income to the company
treasury based on the run of one of its trains and the phase of the
infrastructure.

There are three kinds of company:

Concessions are bought in the initial auction round and represent the
right to start a Major National Company. They are automatically
converted in phase 5 if not done voluntarily beforehand.

Major National Companies. These have 5 10% shares representing 50% of
the company, the other 50% being owned by the state. They are
restricted to their national borders. They don't buy trains or bother
with tokens; they run the longest route possible (ignoring other
companies' tokens) inside their country.

Minor National Companies exist only in Italy and Greece. They have one
50% Director's certificate, with the other 50% held by the state. At
some point they will merge into the Greek and Italian Major National
Companies. Otherwise they operate like the Majors (albeit their
borders are smaller).

Public companies are more like normal companies, except they come in
5-share flavours too (which from phase three can be turned into
10-share companies). They're incrementally capitalised and treasury
shares pay dividends to the company. The unusual thing is they can
only trace routes (for any purpose - eg a French public cannot use
track in Germany to place a token in France) outside their country/
region if the Director owns at least one share in the relevant
national company.  If a change of Directorship or share sales make
this not be the case their prohibited tokens return to the company.

So watch out - until Germany and Italy cohere, the German and Italian
public companies have very limited track possibilities if their
Director doesn't own shares in adjoining national companies.

However, there's no complicated privates.

The initial auction is of a stack of the six concessions plus the 10
minor national companies. Only the top card is visible. You bid
minimum value or more, you must raise in £5 increments, once you pass
you can't bid on the current item later, if you decline to bid on the
current item at all you can buy a stock token at that point or start a
public company.

When you par a public company, you can't use a par price spot with
another company's token on. The range of par prices increases with
phase. The exception is that there is one 200 space which can be used
by any company at any time if every other possible starting par price
is occupied.

You can't own more than 60% of a company.

Stock tokens count against the cert limit. You start with a supply of
unbought ones; they become bought (which is when they give stock
actions, appear on the stock market, and take up cert limit) and then
potentially destroyed.

When you buy one, you choose a completely empty par price space to put
it on.

In a stock action, you can:

Pass: token moves two spaces right.
Close the token. You recover its current price (and the cert limit
space), but it is permanently destroyed.
Only sell shares: token moves one space right.
Only buy one share (including converting a concession) or another
stock token: move one space right.
Both sell and buy: stock token does not move.

The game ends at the end of the third OR after the OR in which a 10
train is purchased; at the end of the third OR after the OR in which a
stock token enters the blue area of the stock market; or at the end of
the OR in which a public company enters the blue area of the stock
market. The bank cannot break. In the first two cases, stock actions
are mostly stopped during those ORs (details in the rules).

The unsold L/2s are removed at the end of OR 2; the 3s cannot be
purchased before OR 3.

When you convert a 5-share public company to a 10-share, the share
price doesn't change. There just are 5 more shares. The Director can
buy additional shares up to 60%.

Public companies can do up to 4 track lays, but the 2nd-4th cost £10,
£20, £30. The upgrade count possible increases with phase. How does
this interact with the count of lays? Dunno.

National companies have a phase-dependent lay/upgrade allotment.

Public companies can take £100 loans to buy trains during emergency
money raising; or to lay track, place tokens, buy infrastructure, or
pay loan interest. Loans are charged at 20% per OR. A 5-share company
can have 5 loans; a 10-share, 10. If the company cannot pay the
interest at all, the Director is liable. Outstanding loans at game end
double to £200 and must be paid off, with the Director again liable
for any excess. Taking and paying off loans causes up/down share price
movement.

When the national minors merge into the German and Italian majors,
each 50% cert in a minor becomes a 10% cert in the major.