18EU: Railroading in Europe From the 1830s to the 1930s

18EU — Summary

Capitalization type

• Incremental capitalization: the company collects its Starting Value each time one of its shares is actually sold, both when founded and in later share issues.

Floating percentage and per-player share limits

• Floats once 50% of shares are sold (a single threshold for all major corporations)
• No player may hold more than 60% (the default cap) of a single corporation, with no exceptions
• Certificate limit per player: 2 players — 28; 3 players — 20; 4 players — 16; 5 players — 13; 6 players — 11

Starting cash by player count

• 2 players: £750 starting cash
• 3 players: £450 starting cash
• 4 players: £350 starting cash
• 5 players: £300 starting cash
• 6 players: £250 starting cash
• The bank always starts with £12,000, regardless of the number of players

End game triggers

• The bank runs out of money: the current full operating round set is finished
• A president can't cover a mandatory payment even after selling every share he's allowed to sell: he goes bankrupt and is eliminated from the game (this generally ends the game immediately if only one solvent player remains)

Number of phases

• 6 phases (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8), triggered by the purchase of the first train of each type
• Minor Companies' train limit drops from 2 to 1 starting in phase 4
• Phase 5 enables free corporation formation ("normal_formation") and triggers the final Minor Company exchange round; phase 8 unlocks grey tiles

Train list and prices

• 2 train — £100 (15 available; rusts once the first 4-train is bought)
• 3 train — £200 (5 available; rusts once the first 6-train is bought)
• Pullman (P) — £100 (5 available, from phase 3 onward) — doesn't count as a normal train or against the train limit; doubles the revenue of one chosen stop when run alongside a normal train the company already owns; at most one per company
• 4 train — £300 (4 available; rusts once the first 8-train is bought)
• 5 train — £500 (3 available; buying it triggers the final Minor Company exchange round)
• 6 train — £600 (2 available)
• 8 train — £800 (unlimited)

List of private companies

• 18EU has no classic private companies: instead there are 15 Minor Companies, each with its own 2-train, which always pay a Half Dividend and which a player can merge for one share of one of the 8 big corporations. They're auctioned starting at £100 (raised in £5 increments); if everyone declines, they're offered at a fixed, descending price down to free.
• 1. Chemin de Fer du Nord — A10
• 2. État Belge — C8
• 3. Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée — A10
• 4. Leipzig-Dresdner-Bahn — J7
• 5. Ferrovia Adriatica — H19
• 6. Kaiser-Ferdinand-Nordbahn — K14
• 7. Berlin-Potsdamer-Bahn — J5
• 8. Ungarische Staatsbahn — M16
• 9. Berlin-Stettiner-Bahn — J5
• 10. Strade Ferrate Alta Italia — E18
• 11. Südbahn — K14
• 12. Hollandsche Maatschappij — D3
• 13. Ludwigsbahn — G12
• 14. Ligne Strasbourg-Bâle — D13
• 15. Grand Central — B17

List of corporations

• Belgian National Railways (BNR)
• Dutch Railways (DR)
• Italian State Railways (FS)
• Royal Bavarian State Railroad (RBSR)
• Royal Prussian Railway (RPR)
• Austrian Imperial Royal State (AIRS)
• SNCF
• German State Railways (GSR)
• None of them has a fixed home on the map: they're born by taking over the position of a merged Minor Company (before phase 5) or by freely choosing any open city (from phase 5 onward)

Game-specific mechanics

• Founding by merger: the big corporations are built by absorbing a player's own Minor Companies, which are permanently retired in exchange for a single share
• Floats at 50% of shares sold, with the Starting Value chosen from five fixed spaces on the stock chart (70, 75, 82, 90, or 100)
• The president pays double the Starting Value into the company's treasury (not the bank); the company instantly spends £100 of it on four extra station tokens
• "Red to red" bonus: routes connecting two red (off-board) areas get an extra amount per own token present on the route, growing with the phase
• Two-tier operating order: all Minor Companies operate first (in a fixed order from 1 to 15), then corporations by share price
• Personal bankruptcy eliminates the player from the game; his companies pass to another shareholder with at least two shares, or close with no compensation

Emergency sell

For full corporations this mostly matches the 1830 baseline — treasury, then the president's personal cash, then a forced sale of any shares they hold — but minors, the game's smaller starting companies, are never forced into this at all. What replaces 1830's simple bankruptcy is more elaborate here too: if a player truly can't raise enough, their remaining shares are dumped to the pool, and any corporation left without a president either gets funded from what personal cash the former president has left, or — if that's not possible — is fully restarted, with its trains returned to the depot and the company reopened from scratch. Any minor solely owned by the bankrupt player closes outright.

Comparison with 1830

1. Setting, map and number of players
1830 covers the northeastern USA for 2-6 players. 18EU spans practically the whole of continental Europe -from France to Austria and Poland, and from northern Germany down to central Italy, with the Alps represented as high-cost mountain hexes- also for 2-6 players. It's regarded as one of the great "gateway" games of the genre, precisely because it keeps 1830's overall structure while adding a handful of highly influential new ideas.

2. No classic private companies: Minor Companies instead
1830 opens with six private companies that grant passive income and, sometimes, a small special power. 18EU has none of those at all: instead there are 15 Minor Companies with historical names, each owned outright by a single player, which start with their own 2-train and always pay a Half Dividend -tiny operating companies in miniature, not passive privates. They're auctioned with a mechanism very close to 1830's privates.

3. Big corporations are literally built by merging Minor Companies into them
In 1830 a company is founded simply by buying its president's certificate with cash. In 18EU, before Phase 5 a player can only start one of the 8 big national corporations by merging one or more of his own Minor Companies into it: he swaps its assets for a single share of the new corporation, and the Minor is permanently retired. This "merging up" from small to large is the game's signature idea and has no equivalent in 1830.

4. Floats at 50%, with a fixed menu of starting values
In 1830 companies float once 60% of shares are sold, and the founder picks a par value from a wide price table. In 18EU flotation happens with just 50% of shares in players' hands, and the founding president can only pick the Starting Value from five fixed, marked spaces on the stock chart.

5. Bankruptcy eliminates the player, not just the company
In 1830, an underfunded president covers the shortfall with personal cash and, if that's still not enough, the company ends up liquidated. In 18EU, if the president still can't raise the money after selling every share he is legally allowed to sell, he goes bankrupt and is eliminated from the game outright; his companies pass to the next eligible shareholder holding at least two shares, or close with no compensation if nobody qualifies.

6. Operating order splits into two tiers
In 1830 every company operates strictly in order of current share price. In 18EU all the Minor Companies operate first, in a fixed numbered order from 1 to 15, and only once every one of them has gone do the floated Corporations operate, in descending order of share price -a two-tier operating sequence with no counterpart in 1830.