Railways of the Lost Atlas

Railways of the Lost Atlas — Summary

Capitalization type

• Incremental capitalization, explicitly listed in the rulebook as one of the game's features.

Floating percentage and per-player share limits

• No traditional float threshold: a minor company launches immediately when a player wins its auction (the winning bid funds its treasury and the winner takes the president's certificate); a major corporation forms immediately when a merger vote between two minors succeeds — not applicable in the classic "% of shares sold" sense
• No player may own more than 60% of any company or corporation (president's certificate plus one regular certificate for minors, or president's certificate plus four regular certificates for majors) — the same percentage for minors and majors
• The standard rules (Micro, Short, and Full/Long game) explicitly state there is no certificate limit at all; only the optional "Bank Break" variant imposes one: 3 players — 16; 4 players — 12; 5 players — 10

Starting cash by player count

• 2 players: 450 (Short Game only)
• 3 players: 300
• 4 players: 275
• 5 players: 220 (Long Game only)
• Micro mode (2 or 3 players): 225 each, with only 4 cycles and no train export
• The rulebook doesn't specify a currency symbol; all figures are bare numbers

End game triggers

• The game ends after a fixed number of cycles: 4 in the Short Game, 6 in the Long Game (a cycle = a stock round + 2 operating rounds + a merger round)
• At the end of the final cycle, all shares are liquidated at market price and whoever has the most money wins (company treasuries don't count toward the final score)
• If a company's president goes bankrupt, it's common to end the game immediately; alternatively the bankrupt player can be removed from the game and the rest continue

Number of phases

• 4 phases named after the available tile color: Yellow (starting), Green, Purple, and Grey
• The shift to Green and to Purple is triggered when the first train of the matching color is bought or exported; the automatic export of a train at the start of each cycle can also trigger this
• Cross-referencing the train and tile supply data (55 yellow tiles, 43 green, 27 purple, 5 grey) with the rulebook text, Green appears to begin with the first 3-train, Purple with the first 5-train, and Grey with the first 7/∞-train — this exact train-to-color mapping isn't given as a single table in the rulebook and was reconstructed by cross-referencing sources; double-check manually if you need absolute precision

Train list and prices

• 2-train — 100 (7 copies) — rusts when the first 4-train is bought — limit 2 (minor) / none (major)
• 3-train — 200 (5 copies, +1 extra in 5-player games) — rusts when the first 6-train is bought — limit 2 (minor) / 4 (major)
• 4-train — 300 (4 copies) — rusts when the first 7-train or ∞-train is bought — limit 2 (minor) / 3 (major)
• 5-train — 450 (3 copies) — never rusts — limit 1 (minor) / 2 (major)
• 6-train — 550 (2 copies) — never rusts — limit 1 (minor) / 2 (major)
• 7-train — 750 — never rusts — limit 1 (minor) / 2 (major)
• ∞-train (Diesel) — 1,000, or 800 by trading in any non-rusted train — supply intended to be unlimited — never rusts — limit 1 (minor) / 2 (major)

List of private companies

• The game has no classic "privates": instead there are 12 minor companies, each with a permanent power, acquired through auction (minimum bid 120, in increments of 5) rather than a fixed price
• AD Adaptive — establishes its home at any empty basic city spot, chosen by the founding president
• AG Agricultural — may lay an extra yellow tile after upgrading a tile
• BR Bridging — may lay bridge tiles over water hexes instead of normal yellow track (not included in the Short Game)
• EM Eastern Mining — home on a special tile with its own set of upgrades
• EA Expansive — has an extra hub token it can place by paying 40
• ER Express — boosts a train by one stop while it owns only one train
• NP Northern Port — home on a special tile with its own set of upgrades
• OV Overnight — may skip over fully tokened cities when tracing a route (not included in the Short Game)
• RE Resourceful — its rusted trains get to run one more time before being discarded
• SP Spacious — always has one extra train slot beyond the current limit (not included in the Short Game)
• SU Suburban — comes with 2 suburb tokens, each generating +10 revenue
• TU Tunneling — gains 60 into its treasury each time it pays a mountain-digging cost (net gain of 20)

List of corporations

• 6 "major" corporations, each with two name/identity options: Conglomerate, Experiment, Federation, International, Syndicate, and Unlimited
• They have no fixed home city: they're born from the merger of two minors and inherit their location and special powers
• Each major has 9 certificates (1 president's share at 20% + 8 regular shares at 10%) and 4 station tokens

Game-specific mechanics

• Modular map built from tri-hex tiles during setup; no fixed printed board
• 12 minors, each with its own permanent power, mergeable into 6 majors via a dedicated Merger Round (MR) within each cycle
• "Project" tiles that, instead of being placed on the map, upgrade an existing city to "capital"
• "Lead" trains a newly launched minor can buy at the start of its first operating round
• Three formats in the same box: Micro, Short (4 cycles), and Full (6 cycles)
• Optional variants included in the rulebook: Bank Break (ends when the bank runs dry instead of after fixed cycles), Headquarters, share-vote hostile mergers, distant destinations with variable value, among others

Comparison with 1830

1. The map is built during setup, not fixed
Railways of the Lost Atlas has no printed board like 1830: the map is assembled from tri-hex tiles during setup, so every session is played on a different territory.

2. Minors, each with its own permanent power
Each of the 12 minor companies has its own special ability (for example, bonuses for building bridges or tunnels, or the ability to skip over full cities). In 1830, private companies have powers, but public companies have none that differentiate them from each other.

3. Minors physically merge into majors, in a dedicated round
Merging two minors is as simple as placing their cards next to each other and laying an available major's card on top: shares convert, treasuries combine, and the new major keeps the special powers of both original minors. This merger happens during a dedicated Merger Round (MR) within each cycle, after the two operating rounds. 1830 has no merger mechanic between companies at all, nor any equivalent round.

4. "Project" tiles that never get placed on the map
The tile deck includes special tiles that, when drawn, aren't placed on the board at all: instead, whoever draws one picks an existing city and upgrades it directly to a higher-value "capital." This way of altering the map without laying a physical tile doesn't exist in 1830.

5. "Lead" trains buyable at the start of a turn to catch up
A newly launched minor company can buy a special "lead" train at the start of its first operating round to catch up faster. 1830 has no equivalent mechanism to help companies that have fallen behind.

6. Multiple formats inside the same box
The game includes a "Micro" mode for newcomers, a short version (4 cycles), and a full version (6 cycles), adjusting length, table space, and difficulty. 1830 doesn't offer this kind of format variation within the same edition.

7. Fantasy setting, not historical
Unlike 1830 and the vast majority of 18xx titles (set in real historical moments), Railways of the Lost Atlas takes place in an invented fantasy world, with no pretense of simulating any real railroad.