When I have played 1844 recently, I have suggested three different
tweaks to the game:
1. Allow suboptimal runs to activate mountains and tunnels. (This is
especially handy early on for the NOB president to grab an early
mountain) The one exception being that one cannot run suboptimally to
prevent a mountain or tunnel from being activated.
2. That the FNM has to buy at least one 2, not 2H, on its first turn
to stop any strange monkey business. The FNM can buy more trains if
it wants.
3. After the formation of the SBB and players have received (or paid)
money for their pre-SBB shares, starting the next SR -- priority will
go in reverse with the player with the least cash getting '1', the
next least cash '2', and so forth. The player with the most cash will
go last. This rule is a balancing mechanism to make the endgame more
interesting.

--- In 18xx@yahoogroups.com, "allen" <astancius@...> wrote:
>
> understood david, and thanks for the clairification.
> as i have two translated versions of 1844 in which one
> is formatted in such a way to form a booklet.
> neither discusses any options, or variants other than this elephant
variant
> usage.
>
> thus, in my opinion, if there's some optional rule
> not published, then it MUST be discussed before
> the game starts, or it ain't allowed.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David G.D. Hecht" <Barzai@...>
> To: <18xx@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 12:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [18xx] 1844 - the suboptimal run optional rule
>
>
> OK, here's the thing: as with so many other products of
germanophone origin,
> the 1844 rules translation in the initial kit was not altogether a
model of
> clarity. Many of us who played the game initially assumed it was
acceptable
> to make a suboptimal run in order to activate a mountain: of
course, we
> didn't think of it in those terms. Then, suddenly, someone read the
rules
> closely and said, "Hey! Wait a minute!" After a long debate we
undertook to
> contact Helmut and he clarified that, indeed, you weren't permitted
to
> activate a mountain (or indeed a tunnel, though I've rarely seen
that be an
> issue) if that meant you were underdeclaring your run, even by so
little as
> a single franc per share.
>
> It is, of course, possible in at least some instances to evade the
> restrictions involved with some creative track laying, and that's
what
> people started doing. Since this privileged certain mountains
rather
> dramatically over others, some folks then took the view that the
original
> interpretation (i.e. that you could run to a mountain to activate
it any
> time, even if that resulted in a suboptimized run) would take the
curse off
> the other mountains not so fortunate. In my own jargon, I refer to
this as
> "loose activation" versus the actual rule, which I call "strict
activation."
> Since many players are unaware of the clarification, I always ask
when
> sitting down to a game of 1844, "Strict activation or loose
activation?"
>
> This is what Bill means when he refers to this as an "optional
rule". A
> perhaps more precise nomenclature would be "house rule".
>
> I hope that we are now clear on this.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Michael Leuchtenburg
> To: 18xx@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 2:30 PM
> Subject: Re: [18xx] 1844 - the suboptimal run optional rule
>
>
> Bill Jaffe wrote:
> > I’m asking about the OPTIONAL rule, not the base rules.
> >
> > I am fully aware that the BASE rules require max value runs.
>
> As Chris Shaffer pointed out, there is only one optional rule in
1844:
> Elephant priority. Maybe you're talking about a variant created by
> someone other than Helmut Ohley, the original author of 1844.
>
> - Michael
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
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