Variant Kits

These kits provide optional tiles, single-track tiles, share certificates and changes to the board. These are mostly independent of the house rules, although kit DB1 is needed for the alternative station promotion rule, kit DB4 is intended for use with my simple variant for ferries and kit DB5 is required for Mike Hutton’s single track variant

DB1: Optional tiles - This kit contains new tiles that provide more options for promoting stations. It can be used on its own or with my station promotion variant. The kit comes in three sub-kits, one for each 1825 Unit, numbered DB1.1, DB1.2 and DB1.3. For convenience, the tiles themselves are on a single page so that they can be printed on a single piece of card.
DB2: SECR Changes - These tiles and share certificates guarantee the SECR access to London and make its shares available at the same time as the LBSC. I believe they improve both game balance and game flow.
DB3: Board Changes for Unit 3 - These tiles make several small changes to the board in an attempt to make the historical routes more likely to be chosen during game play. I believe they also improve game balance. Mikko Saari kindly uploaded a photo of the board with these changes to BoardGameGeek.
DB4: Ferry markers - These markers are for use with my optional rule for ferries. They should be placed to remind players that a ferry bonus is applicable in the adjacent port.
DB5: Single-track tiles - These tiles and share certificates are for use with Mike Hutton's variant for single-track tiles. They reproduce the tile mix of the original regional kits for Wales and North Norfolk, and provide additional tiles for use with Units 2 & 3.
DB6: Extra minor companies - These charters and shares add more minor companies in Unit 2, Regional Kit 1.1 (Wales), Regional Kit 2 (South-West England) and Unit 3. They are primarily intended for use with the variant for single-track tiles but can be used on their own.
DB7: Optional grey tiles - These tiles are optional replacements for the tiles no. 60 in Kit K3 (Phase Four). They provide a more varied range of promotions for russet track tiles, rather than the universal promotion provided by the no. 60 tiles. They are intended as a fun variation and I haven't tested them yet. About the only effect they are likely to have on game play is to slow things down a bit while players puzzle out which tile they want to use!
DB8: Alternative trains for minor companies - This kit provides alternative versions of the directors' share certificates for several minor companies. These changes are mainly intended to encourage track building into the less developed areas of the board. They can be seen as an alternative to Mike Hutton's variant for single-track tiles.