1817
Craig Bartell and Tim Flowers https://18xx.guide · v1.0.0| Players | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start cash | $420 | $315 | $252 | $210 | $180 |
| Cert limit | 21 | 16 | 13 | 11 | 9 |
The bank is unlimited. Twenty companies, each started as a 2-, 5-, or 10-share company, and eleven privates. A round is SR → OR → M&A → OR → M&A.
StartPrivate auction
- Subsidized with $200 of seed money.
- In turn, auction a private or pass.
- Bid in $5s, up to face. The winner pays their bid and the seed pays the rest. Passing drops you from that auction.
- Popular Variant: bidding may exceed face.
- A full round of passes ends the auction. Anything unsold leaves the game.
- Privates pay players nothing and are never sold—they are spent at face on an IPO.
SRBuy/sell shares
- Sell any, short one, then buy one—or take loans, then buy back shares for one of your companies instead.
- Hold at most 6 of 10, 3 of 5, or 2 of 2 shares. The cert limit counts shares, not privates or shorts.
- Selling never moves the price, and the pool has no limit.
- No selling a 2-share company, or one in its IPO round. No trading one in gray acquisition zone.
- At the end of the round, a 5- or 10-share company 100% held by players moves →1, then ←1 for each share in the pool.
SRShort selling
- Short one share per turn of a 5- or 10-share company: take a share and a short, then sell the share.
- You must hold no shares of the company.
- At most 5 shorts a company; none in its IPO round, in acquisition, or from the first 8.
- A short is a negative share. Pay the bank its dividends, and its share of any sale. Buy a share to close it, even at the cert limit.
SRIPO
- In place of buying: put a new company's home token in any open city but Toronto, and auction its president's certificate from $100 to $400 in $5s. Passing drops you out.
- Its price is half the bid, rounded down to a market space. Its size is the winner's choice, as the phase allows.
- Incremental capitalization. May pay with privates.
- Before the round ends, a 5-share company must buy one more token for $50, a 10-share three for $150, or go into liquidation.
OROperating round
- Mail contracts pay, then companies by price.
- Track → token → run → dividends → trains → interest → repay loans.
- A train is exported after every OR.
ORLoans
- $100 each, up to the company's share count—2, 5, or 10—and 70 in all. Taken in an SR company action, in its OR turn except between interest and repaying, or in M&A.
- Each loan moves price ←1, each repaid →1.
- Interest on every loan is set before each OR: $5, rising as the bank's 70 run out. A company that cannot pay with all its loans taken is liquidated, and its president pays.
ORLay track
- Two tile operations, the second for $20: at most one upgrade, never of the tile just laid.
- Cities upgrading to brown take the most exits that fit.
ORTokens
- One an OR, free. None in Toronto.
- 1 for a 2-share company, 2 for a 5-share, 4 for a 10-share, 8 at most.
ORRun Trains
- A route may visit only one of New York's cities.
ORPay dividends
- Pay, half pay, or withhold. A 10-share half pay rounds the shareholders' half up to $10. Treasury shares pay the company.
- Pay $0 ←1 · a total < price 0 · ≥ price →1 · ≥2× →2. Acquisition zone counts as $40.
ORBuy trains
- Never required, and presidents never pay—but a company that ends its turn trainless is liquidated.
- From another company at $1 or more, but never one in liquidation.
M&AConvert and merge
- In order, companies in the white zone may convert—2 to 5, or 5 to 10 shares, new shares in its treasury, buying tokens at $50—or merge with another its size: two 2-shares into a 5-share at 2:1, price the sum; two 5-shares into a 10-share at 1:1, price the average.
- Then its president may buy shares and other players may buy one or sell.
M&ACompany sales
- In reverse order: the red zone is liquidated, the gray offered for acquisition, and any other company its president offers sold as a friendly sale.
- Presidents bid for companies in $10s. The buyer takes trains, tokens, and privates—and, unless liquidated, cash and loans, ←1 per loan kept.
- Liquidation opens at $0 from the bank, so it always sells. Bid and cash repay its loans, the president covering any shortfall.
- Acquisition opens at $10. A friendly sale opens at price × shares, and its treasury shares go to the pool at price.
- Shares paid the bid ÷ shares; shorts pay.
ENDEndgame
- A player short of cash sells shares one at a time, never losing a presidency. Still short, they are bankrupt and out, their holdings pooled and companies liquidated.
- The first 8, bought or exported, leaves three more ORs with an SR after the current set.
- Subtract shorts from score at the current price. Privates count for nothing.
| Train | # | Cost | Limit | IPO | Scraps | Brings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | ∞ | $100 | 4 | 2 | Yellow · first OR only | |
| 2+ | 4 | $100 | · | · | The rest of the 2s leave · runs once more when rusted | |
| 3 | 12 | $250 | · | 2 or 5 | Green | |
| 4 | 8 | $400 | 3 | 5 | 2, 2+ | |
| 5 | 5 | $600 | · | 5 or 10 | Brown | |
| 6 | 4 | $750 | 2 | 10 | 3 | |
| 7 | 3 | $900 | · | · | Gray | |
| 8 | ∞ | $1,100 | · | · | 4 | No shorting · end |
| Private | Face | Power |
|---|---|---|
| Minor Coal Mine | $30 | Lay 1 coal mine with a yellow mountain tile for free next to a city or off-board: +$10 to routes through it. It never upgrades. |
| Coal Mine · Major Coal Mine | $60 · $90 | The same, with 2 and 3 coal mines. |
| Pittsburgh Steel Mill | $40 | Its company may lay the X00 in Pittsburgh as a yellow lay, unconnected. |
| Mountain Engineers | $40 | Its company takes $20 for each yellow tile it lays in a mountain. |
| Ohio Bridge · Union Bridge | $40 · $80 | 1 · 2 bridges. Its company lays river tiles free. May put a bridge on Louisville, Cincinnati, or Charleston: +$10 for everyone. |
| Train Station | $80 | One more token for its company. |
| Minor Mail · Mail · Major Mail | $60 · $90 · $120 | $10 · $15 · $20 to its company each OR, if it has a train. |