What are 18xx games and why you should (or shouldn't) play them?
Like tension during the cold war, many hobbies have a tendency to escalate. If you decide you want to make your car better you will probably start with something easy. Maybe you replace the stock air intake with a cold air intake. Simple stuff. A few months down the line, you're replacing the seats. "This isn't too bad", you say to yourself, admiring the progress of your work. A year later you might find yourself with the engine hoisted out of the car, nuts and bolts scattered about, as you install a turbo charger. Now a year ago, if you suddenly found yourself in your garage with your engine out of your car, this would be a terrible situation calling for immediate panic, but now it's fine. So the same goes with board gaming. At first it's "I'll just take one hit of Resistance, it's fine, I can quit anytime I want." But after a year, you might find yourself two hours into a six hour game of 18ireland, knowing that the last decision you made will undoubtedly lose you the game but you still love it, albeit in a love-hate kind of way. That's 18xx. So why should you put yourself through that? The short answer: Because it's fun.
Train whistle (and friends) not included
What are 18xx games?
18xx is the nomenclature generally used to refer to a series of economic games set in the 19th century (e.g. 1846, 1889, etc). Now there are some exceptions to this rule (see 18Ireland above) but that is not important right now. Players will adopt the role of investors who will purchase shares in, and operate, railroad companies. Who ever has the most money at the end of the game wins. Easy. Each 18xx game can almost be split into two games, and it's the interaction of these games that provide the complex decision space that I love. The first is a variable stock market, the second is a hex grid map of some location on which railroad track will be built to connect cities. You're probably wondering what kind of map they use, maybe it's the Czech Republic, wouldn't that be exciting, or maybe it's all of fucking Europe (Image Credit: Marc Voyer). This was the most extreme example I could have used, don't worry. Not all of them are that large and unwieldy, it's going to be fine.
Typically, each investor will take turns purchasing shares in the available companies. Whoever owns the most shares is that company's director, the company is founded and will now interact with the hex grid map by laying track, with the initial goal of connecting their home station to cities located in nearby hexes. Ideally, that company will have a train that allows them to "run a route" to that city, bringing in money to the company. Typically, there are two choices of where this money can go, the first being the company itself, and the second being the shareholders. Simply put, this means that if the company brings in $10 dollars, and you own 5 shares, you only get 5 dollars. The player to your left who owns one share will also get a piece of the pie to the tune of $1. Excluding the obvious player interaction around the table this provides, something deeper is at work. The stock market will respond to your choices. Perhaps you're thinking about buying a new train and see a shiny new one in the offer that your company can't afford so you withhold the payout. No big deal. All of the money goes into your companies coffers. This results in angering your shareholders, not only your friends around the table, but the abstracted populace in 18xx land is now wary of your company, so the share price drops. For example, lets say your share price is $100 and you own 5 shares. That's $500, you're rich! However the share price just dropped to $90 a share, congratulations, the worth of your portfolio is now $50 less.
At this point I should mention that total money wins at the end, this includes all cash in front of you, but also the value of all of your held shares at the end of the game. You'll notice I didn't say anything about any money within the companies you control at the end of the game because this is worthless (it's the company's, not yours). Let's say you paid out that money instead, you're happy, your shareholding friends are happy, fictional 18xx world is happy, your share price will go up.
While these are two simple examples, many 18xx games implement rules to encourage a more variable stock market (who doesn't love tanking the value of their friends companies!). Add to this an asymmetrical starting position for every player, train obsolescence, shared train tracks on the board, and the possibility to block your friend out of their most valuable Chicago route, you got yourself a game!
Sounds great, why don't we play it after work? (or why you might not want to play it after work)
Unfortunately, despite the resurgence of board gaming as a hobby, these games are still a niche within a niche for some understandable reasons. While it's easy to count two cities, and add the value on each together (20 + 20 = 40). It gets more taxing when 8+ cities are connected, and oh shit, one of those cities just got blocked out and now I have to redo everything. These are math heavy games, but if you can tackle some basic arithmetic you'll be fine. However some people don't enjoy that kind of thinking after 8 hours of thinking (and that's okay).
The reason this might become an issue is these games tend to run long. I was looking at purchasing a new one and the description said that experienced players should be able to finish in a "brisk four hours" without sarcasm. They are also expensive and handmade to order in some cases. I recently checked the price and wait time for a ready to play copy of 1841 and it came out to $145 dollars with a mere 7 - 11 month wait. Seriously.
However this is getting better, GMT, a large mainly war-game publisher recently announced they would bring out 1862 at the low price of $55 for pre-order, and that's a steal! If you haven't panic shut this page down by now maybe you should think about giving one of these a try. I would recommend 1846 (GMT's other 18xx offering) which while complicated, is well suited towards beginners and swaying your euro-game playing friends into this train filled world. One final point that I feel is important to note, you do not have to have any interest in trains to like these games. I know I don't care about trains. But it does provide the designers with multitude of theme derived mechanics that result in a great game that I hope you try.
Two people I definitely didn't force to play