Boardgames

Summaries and rule notes for 61 games

18 India: The Railways of India
Descended from 1829 Mainline: permanent trains, "managed" companies without a fixed president, and royal bonds — for 2-5 players in about 3 hours.
1 finished gameplay
18Chesapeake
1830 simplified and polished to learn the genre without losing its depth.
5 finished gameplays
18CZ: The Railway Comes to Czech Lands
The Czech Lands with fifteen operating companies in three sizes (small, medium, big) that absorb one another, over a fixed run of eight stock rounds.
0 finished gameplays
18España
The Iberian Peninsula with dual track gauges, rugged terrain, mines, and partial capitalization.
6 finished gameplays
18EU: Railroading in Europe From the 1830s to the 1930s
All of Europe on one map: small companies that merge into big operating railroads, and a private auction using fixed-price bid boxes.
0 finished gameplays
18GB: The Railways of Great Britain
Great Britain with companies randomly split into two tiers, blending ideas from 1825 and 1860.
2 finished gameplays
18Ireland
5-share companies that merge (sometimes hostilely) into 10-share companies, with a small bank and two-stage train obsolescence.
1 finished gameplay
18Mag: Hungarian Railway History
Hungary with every train available from the start and no rusting at all: trains can only be scrapped voluntarily, and companies always split earnings 50:50.
0 finished gameplays
18MEX
Classic 18xx based on Tresham's 1829: mail contracts, a national railroad formed by merger, and delayed train obsolescence.
0 finished gameplays
18NewEngland
From Massachusetts to New York: draft with no auctions, partial capitalization at par, and a great entry-level game.
0 finished gameplays
18NL
1830 transplanted to the Netherlands, with the same classic spirit on a Dutch map.
0 finished gameplays
18Rhl: The Railways of the Rhineland
Railway companies compete to build profitable lines across the Rhine, in a financially-focused and highly strategic 18xx.
0 finished gameplays
18SJ: Railways in the Frozen North
Sweden and Norway with nationalization and a philosophy where personal wealth is all that matters.
2 finished gameplays
18Svea
A Swedish micro 18xx with just ten hexes, playable in under two hours.
0 finished gameplays
18Tokaido
An 18Chesapeake expansion set on Japan's Tokaido corridor, with no auctions and exported trains.
0 finished gameplays
18USA: The Railways of the United States of America
1817's financial engine (loans, short selling, mergers) applied to the whole USA map, with random setup every game.
2 finished gameplays
18ZOO
An 18xx starring anthropomorphic zoo animals, with an innovative stock market design and games of about two hours.
0 finished gameplays
21Moon
Lunar mining in the year 2117, with temporary permits and an end-of-game fixed by the calendar.
5 finished gameplays
1817
An aggressive, finance-heavy 18xx for large groups, with loans, short selling, and hostile mergers between companies.
14 finished gameplays
1817NA
The same shortened take on 1817 for 3 players, now focused on the original North America map.
0 finished gameplays
1817WO
A shorter, tighter version of 1817 designed for games with as few as 3 players, set across the whole world.
0 finished gameplays
1822: The Railways of Great Britain
The full 1822: all of Great Britain in constant auction of privates, minors, and major company concessions.
0 finished gameplays
1822: The Railways of Great Britain — Medium Regional Scenario
Medium regional version of 1822: England and parts of Wales and Scotland, in a shorter format.
0 finished gameplays
1822: The Railways of Great Britain — North Regional Scenario
North regional version of 1822: from Birmingham northward, the shortest scenario in the family.
1 finished gameplay
1822CA
The 1822 engine spread across the full width of Canada: the longest, widest game in the family, built for 6-9 hour sessions.
0 finished gameplays
1822MX
1822 evolved and shortened for Mexico, with a collectively-managed national railroad (NdeM) and builder cubes.
1 finished gameplay
1822PNW
1822 without concessions, with merging associated minors and a lumber market unique to the Pacific Northwest.
0 finished gameplays
1825
The modular successor to 1829: maps split into Units (1, 2 and 3) that can be combined depending on player count.
0 finished gameplays
1829
Francis Tresham's original 1829: the design that started the whole 18xx genre, set in southern England.
0 finished gameplays
1830: Railways & Robber Barons
The classic reference 18xx: Northeastern USA, stock market, trains and bankruptcy.
7 finished gameplays
1836Jr30
A short, kid-friendly 18xx built from 1830's components, set in the Netherlands and Belgium.
0 finished gameplays
1836Jr56
The same short, kid-friendly 18xx, this time built from 1856's components.
0 finished gameplays
1840: Vienna Tramways
Vienna trams with no train rusting at all: every line is a "diesel" from the start, and obsolescence is replaced by ongoing fees.
0 finished gameplays
1841: Railways in Northern Italy
Northern Italy with the most intricate stock market in the genre: companies can invest in other companies, and even found new ones.
0 finished gameplays
1844: Schweiz
Switzerland with mountain railways, tunnel-building companies, and two clearly distinct generations of locomotives.
1 finished gameplay
1846: The Race for the Midwest
A fast entry point into 18xx set in the US Midwest, with incremental capitalization and drafted minors.
10 finished gameplays
1847: Pfalz
The German Palatinate (Pfalz) on one of the smallest 18xx maps (52 hexes), in the 25th-anniversary edition of Wolfram Janich's original design — the same designer behind 18Rhl.
0 finished gameplays
1848: Australia
Australia with three track gauges and the Bank of England as a public company that bails out railways in receivership.
2 finished gameplays
1849: Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Federico Vellani's 1849 taken further south, to the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in a revision by Scott Petersen.
0 finished gameplays
1849: The Game of Sicilian Railways
Sicily with three track gauges, terrain that always costs money, and trains that count hexes, not cities.
3 finished gameplays
1856: Railroading in Upper Canada from 1856
Upper Canada and the risk of being nationalized by the government if loans aren't repaid in time.
0 finished gameplays
1858: The Railways of Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula with 22 privates that eventually convert into shares of the operating companies, dual track gauge, and both 5- and 10-share companies.
0 finished gameplays
1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight in an 18xx designed for 2 players, with no bankruptcies and progressive nationalization.
18 finished gameplays
1861: The Railways of the Russian Empire
The Russian Empire, with minors that grow into majors and a state railway that can absorb them.
1 finished gameplay
1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties
British East Anglia flips classic 18xx conventions with three train types and subsidy maneuvers.
17 finished gameplays
1867: The Railways of Canada
1861's Canadian twin: the same grid stock market engine, now crossing Canada from east to west.
0 finished gameplays
1868: Wyoming
Wyoming with coal mines and oil fields developed in their own dedicated rounds, in a modern and highly tactical 18xx.
0 finished gameplays
1870: Railroading Across the Trans Mississippi from 1870
The Trans-Mississippi with a huge map and the richest stock-market game in the whole 18xx family.
8 finished gameplays
1877: Stockholm Tramways
Trams (not trains) through Stockholm, built around the risk of losing control of your own companies.
0 finished gameplays
1877: Venezuela
Venezuela in a 1817 compressed to 2-3 hours, with short selling, arbitrage and financial sabotage.
0 finished gameplays
1880: China
19th-century China with fixed operating order and personal foreign investors for each player.
0 finished gameplays
1882: Assiniboia
Assiniboia, in western Canada, with neutral tokens, a rebellion zone, and a parasite company.
10 finished gameplays
1888-N
Northern China (the Beijing area): the first of a Chinese trilogy (1888-N, E and S) that can be combined to expand the map and companies.
6 finished gameplays
1889: History of Shikoku Railways
Shikoku, the compact and mountainous version of 1830 in Japan, with one fewer company and a shorter game.
12 finished gameplays
1893: Cologne
Cologne, with a Rhine crossable at only four hexes and minors that merge by shareholder vote, in a short 18xx for 2-4 players.
0 finished gameplays
Harzbahn 1873
Mines and railways in the Harz mountains, in a two-player classic with explicit technological progress.
0 finished gameplays
Railways of the Lost Atlas
A modular map built during setup, minors with their own persistent powers that physically merge into majors, and a fixed cycle-based length.
0 finished gameplays
Rolling Stock
A card-based auction and trading game with the spirit of 18xx, with no map or tiles at all.
0 finished gameplays
Rolling Stock Stars
A standalone reimplementation of Rolling Stock, with variable-power companies and valuation abstracted into stars, spanning from Prussian railroads to airports.
0 finished gameplays
Steam over Holland
A Dutch 18xx designed to be lighter and more sociable than the classics, set in the Netherlands.
0 finished gameplays
The Old Prince 1871
Prince Edward Island and the PEIR, a ghost network that turns into a company live at the table.
4 finished gameplays