For a certain sort of board gamer, 18xx games are the pinnacle of tabletop excitement. Trains, stocks, and hard player vs player negotiation drive these titles, which are colloquially called 18xx as the majority kick off their names with a nineteenth century year, like the genre’s starter, 1829.
They’re a unique style, frothy, often long, and full of broad swings driven by player action. If tabletop gaming were wine, they’re the tempranillos or Albariños: special, different, and absolutely worth a try.
What are 18xx Games?
Labeling 18xx as a ‘train game’ or an ‘investment game’ sells the genre short, though you’ll be laying track and trying to convince others to pay for it with 
investments in almost all of these titles. To illustrate, let’s look at Wabash Cannonball. This is technically a ‘cube rails’ game, but comes close enough to 18xx to illustrate what’s going on without diving in too deep.
Here, you’ll start off with four train companies on the US’s east coast, with a fifth company lurking in Detroit’s wings for some late game spice. Every player gets a bundle of cash at the start. Note, you’re not getting a company. When your turn comes up, you have three options:
- Develop a hex on the map to make it more profitable
- Auction off a share of a railroad company
- Have one of the railroad companies build track
Most of the time, you’ll start with option 2, putting up a company’s share for auction. Any player can bid on it, and the winning bid puts money into the company’s coffers. That cash can then be spent on option three in a future turn by any player to build track and, thus, earn the company more money on its own. The companies that build the best rails as they race westward towards Chicago repay their investors, and good stewardship will see you earning back your share price and plenty more.
Play here and in other 18xx games will zip along in ‘operating rounds’, where you’ll take actions to run your trains, build stations, and potentially merge companies, culminating every so often in a stock round where those same companies establish their value. Shareholders can then potentially get a dividend, or the managing player can horde the cash in the company for use later. It’s a capitalism tango that’s enticing, in part because your progress is always so clear:
The piles of cash are right there in front of you.
Smart play in 18xx revolves around gauging a company’s relative worth. Piling cash that could go to your coffers through dividends into a company’s account makes sense if their trains, track, and station upgrades will pay off. On the other hand, if there’s few routes left or the company has maxed out its potential, it might be better to raid its coffers for your own benefits and stick the leftovers to other players stuck with crummy shares. Tabletalk abounds here, as you cajole and are cajoled in turn to spend your actions and cash. Heads-down play simply isn’t a thing in 18xx.
Until the winnings get tallied, anyway.
Victory in 18xx is, almost always, a pure money (or ‘holdings’) race, so you’re incentivized to invest in good companies that’ll pay out a strong dividend, or, in bigger games, merge, crash, or otherwise tilt the market in your favor. There’s usually a round limit too, in case everyone runs their trains into the ground. The end game often spits out calculations on share value, cash, and company assets, providing sneaky opportunities for surprise victories and hilarious, tycoon-style blowouts.
Take 1830: Railways and Robber Barons – here you’ll have both private and public companies, with players selling one to the other, mutually investing in rail routes to
gain passive income, and timing dividends to ensure enough money for major investments, like new trains, stations, and so on. It’s a significant jump up in complexity, largely from the possible choices a player can make on any given turn, and the diabolical plays, from blocking to forcing companies into bankruptcy, that can be foisted on one another.
Because 18xx games are a money race, end games will often be triggered by the bank running out of cash, or a player going bankrupt. I’m personally a fan of end games that are player-controlled, and manipulating a faster conclusion because you’re rolling in it, or keeping another player afloat just a little longer to secure your own win is a thrill many games won’t offer.
That said, 18xx is a money and math genre. They’re interactive, but always with a shark’s eye towards maximizing your own profit. If you want a knives-out, day-long battle of pure capitalism, 18xx is your genre.
How to Get Started With 18xx Games
First and foremost, 18xx isn’t an easy jump from, say, Carcassonne. It’s also not a direct port from train games like Empire Builder or Steam. You’ll want a gaming group that’s comfortable with heavy player interaction, including negative outcomes, and number crunching. Much like hex and counter war games, heavy euros, and dexterity games, 18xx is a specific style that’s best enjoyed with a clear view of what you’re getting into.
Once you’ve corralled a few players, and these games are generally best with at least 3, then you’ve got a plethora of neat options. The aforementioned Wabash Cannonball is a decent entry, though you’ll want to advance into more full-fledged 18xx titles soon. 1846: Race for the Midwest stands out as a great start, hitting the 18xx highs while avoiding some of the lows by making it harder to knock out opponent’s companies and keeping train maintenance on the simpler side. It’s also broadly available at a reasonable price. While it’ll take 3-4 hours for four or five to play, that’s still on the shorter side for 18xx, viable for an evening session rather than a whole Saturday.
Shikoku 1889 stands out as another great entry, with its fun setting (Japan!) and beginner variants to help welcome newer players in. The map, full of mountains, actually makes decisions easier (and more impactful) by limiting routes rather than the usual sprawl over a great plain. Recently republished with beautiful components, Shikoku looks great on the table, a factor that should never be underestimated when drawing people into complex board games.
If those hit home, then you’re off to the races, with a huge selection of titles with similar structures but different wrinkles. Like worker placement euros or card-driven war games, there’s a massive world to explore here. You might jump right into 1830 and embrace a whole-hog approach, or dig deep into cutthroat auctions with 1822: The Railways of Great Britain.
I’ll note, too, that aside from rare titles, the majority of 18xx games are easy on the wallet and the shelf. These aren’t giant crowdfunded boxes nor stuffed with miniatures and extra chrome. Instead, these are crammed with good gameplay and not much else, giving you great bang for your buck.
A smart investment, if you will.
Games Similar to 18xx
Okay, so you’re reading this and finding yourself intrigued, but split one of two ways: either you love trains but find the stock market element icky, or you want all that cash and conniving without laying down track. Guess what? You’ve got options.
First, for the chill train lovers out there, Ticket to Ride and its ilk remain easy wins. Scoffing at these games as entry level misses the dastardly plays available when the gloves come off. Cornering a city or blocking key routes is as sinister as anything you’ll see in an 18XX title. Other options that’ll have you merrily running routes include Railways of the World and the durable delight of the crayon rails games, like India Rails and Iron Dragon. Age of Steam sits at the more difficult end of
this branch, but doesn’t quite push you into a financial maelstrom.
Stock market games are a broad genre, ranging from rapid party pleaser Pit to, well, the 18XX games. You can, though, dip into Splotter’s catalog for some cunning delight with Food Chain Magnate and Indonesia, as both reward smart play and savvy negotiating. Drive up a bid for a merger in the latter and watch as your opponents realize they’ll never make their money back, handing you the victory. City of the Big Shoulders gets you an almost pure stock market setup, with a few cards and stacks of cash standing between you and immortal wealth. Pure, distilled capitalism.
And if you’d like more middle-ground options, there’s a slew of fun train games that touch on investments without making their manipulation the core focus. This both shortens the playtime, eases the rules load, and keeps players from brawling in the streets after a sneaky short play. Irish Gauge and Iberian Gauge both land square in this spot, while turning back the clock to Dr. Knizia’s Stephenson’s Rocket gets you a classic experience, all for great price points.
All told, 18XX is, like hex-and-counter war games, heavy euros like On Mars, or massive dungeon crawlers like Frosthaven, an experience worth trying at least once. It’ll be unlike anything you’ve played before, and you might fall absolutely in love with those trains and the companies behind them.
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