I have played 18EU serveral times, with my most recent pair of games being at GenCon.

Notable differences from 'standard' 18xx:

Minor Companies: Minors in 18EU are auctioned off at the beginning of the game. All 15 have starting bids of $100 each. Due to the starting cash, some of these will need to sell for less than $100. After everyone 'passes to intiate an auction', then the minor goes up for sale at $10 less. After it passes around the sale price drops $10 each time, eventually someone will flinch and purchase the company.

The major companies form by merging at least 1 minor company into the new corporation with each minor being traded in for a 10% share of the major. [60% maximum holdings for a major]. The final routes in the game are basically set up by these initial minors. Routes occur quickly as the minors lay 2 yellow track in their first OR (that's 30 yellow track total for the first OR!... board fills fast.)

Trains: Trains are 2,3,4,5,6, and 8. There is also a Pullman car that will double the value of any 1 city it hits. The Pullman is discarded if the company runs out of trains, AND the Pullman counts as a train for limits purposes. However, it can be discarded voluntarily (unlike trains). Whistle stops do not count against train limit, so hitting the whistles becomes increasingly important. Late game runs we've seen have been 65-85 / share for a single train.

Map: Map is of central Europe. There are no tile city shortages, as everything can upgrade to Brown (minor starting cities) or Grey (other major cities).

There are 'red to red' bonus' for each token hit during the run. The tokens are prespent for $100 when the major is formed, so tokening occurs often. For each token the bonus is $0/10/20/30 depending on yellow/green/brown/grey phase. With the initial minor merged company, this can be up to +$15/share for the run.

Tiles are 'strait line' tiles, so routes will happen quicker than with 'curved' 1830 tiles.

Shares and Stock: When a company opens, 1 minor is merged in and the president's share is purchased; which leads to 30% immediate ownership. The company floats for operation at 50%, and minors can be traded in if they connect directly to the company or if stations occupy the same city (Paris, Berlin, Vienna).

Stock value increases only if the total operation is >= existing stock value.

Overall: I like the feel for the game, but it will come as a first game shock regarding how final routes are planned during the yellow and green phases. (Even more so than other 18xx). Since Whistle stops do not count against train limits, then this is more plausible, as a route can simply bypass a tokened city.


Length: Game play is about 300-360 minutes with experienced 18xx players. I own the game through a kit purchase.

It's nice to hear about all these 18xx games, even though, unfortunately, I will never get to own or play them all.

www.deepthoughtgames.com has quite a bit of the kits. 18AL and 18GA are also available from kits. (forget the site offhand, but I know it's on the BGG listing)

Of all the kits, the following are 'shorter' games that finish in 3hrs or less: 18AL, 18GA, 18VA, 18Scan, and 18FL.

There are a couple more that are in playtest mode (yahoo 18xx group) that could be available later this year.

Even the presumably longer 18XX games like 1830, 1856 and 1870 can be played comfortably in under 3 hours with Lemmi's moderator.

I have heard great things about the moderator, and have a copy somewhere on my old comp. However, I like to play with poker chips while waiting/thinking, and the moderator would take away from that tactile experience.

Even though I lost both of the games at GenCon, I really enjoyed this one. The initial auction and tile lays to prepare the red-to-red routes are crucial, so this one has a pretty steep learning curve, even for experienced 18xx players.

Also known as a Dutch auction. I'm surprised the mechanism isn't used more often in games, since in many ways it feels more tactical than traditional bid-raising systems, since a) it doesn't necessarily hand the win to whoever has the most resources/cash, and b) you cannot tell who is really interested until they jump for it - with bid-raising your bid declares an interest the others will react to.

http://www.agorics.com/Library/Auctions/auction3.html

During the rules explaination it is very important to explain the red-to-red routes. The more experienced players should pick it up there... New map sublties are always a bear, however, and leniency during the first game should be a given

Note that 18EU is a modified dutch auction, as there is the opportunity for a regular auction before the dutch auction begins. In a true dutch auction, the opening price would be wildly high, something like $200. In 18EU, it works like this:

Player A selects a minor company and decides to either pass or start a regular auction with a $100 bid. If Player A passes, then Player B decides to either pass or start a regular auction with a $100 bid. If Player B passes, then Player C decides to either pass or start a regular auction with a $100 bid. If Player C passes, then Player D decides to either pass or start a regular auction with a $100 bid. If Player D passes, then a dutch auction begins, with Player A having first opportunity to buy the company at $90.

If at any point during the first round described above, a player initiates a regular auction, the dutch auction does not start.

Note that Player A has nearly no incentive to start a regular auction, and is better off waiting to see if the dutch auction will occur.

The main kick in the modified dutch auction is that you must keep money back to keep players honest, otherwise the last two players collude to buy the minors for very small sums of money. I must say it is one of my favorite 18XX games with heaps of replay value.