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1868: Wyoming

Designer: John Harres

Wyoming with coal mines and oil fields developed in their own dedicated rounds, in a modern and highly tactical 18xx.

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1868: Wyoming Contents

How it works

Setup

11 privates up for auction, out of the 21 in the catalogue
[P10] (Durant) brings the Union Pacific presidency
The other companies go in two random stacks: only the top one can be started
Each player has a coal company
From $1,100 (2 players) to $440 (5); the bank never runs out

Stock round ×1

Sell first, in blocks; then buy
Par price: $68-82 (green and brown later)
Each share bought from the company goes to its treasury
Floats at 20% (60% from phase 5)

Development round ×1 per OR

Coal companies (and oil from phase 5) place tokens
The hex's terrain is paid
Enough nearby tokens grow a boomtown into a city

Operating round ×2-3

Each company, by share price:
1. Issue or redeem shares
2. Track: 6 points (yellow 2, upgrade 3) + terrain
3. Station: $40, $60, $80
4. Run and pay out (up) or withhold (down)
5. Buy trains (mandatory)
6. Buy privates from players

BUST round ×1

Cities without enough development shrink back
The bank exports a train

↻ Repeats until the end

End

The first 7-train is bought (or exported): the game ends with a last stock round and a last set of operations
A player goes bankrupt: the game ends immediately
Most cash plus shares wins

Components

Players

Cash, shares and privates
A coal company and, later, an oil company

Railroads

10, with the Union Pacific at the centre
Incremental capitalisation: they collect each share they sell
Can issue shares to raise cash
Up to 4 stations

Coal and oil

No track, no trains
Place development tokens
Coal tokens expire two phases later

Bank

Unlimited money
Share pool
2 to 8 trains, each with a "plus" version for towns

Map

Boomtowns that grow, shrink or become ghost towns
Frontier forts that expire
Credit Mobilier and the Golden Spike
Uranium: booms in phases 5-6 and busts in 7

Where the money goes

Players Railroads Buying treasury shares: the price goes to the company
Players Bank Privates, pool shares and terrain for development tokens
Railroads Players Dividends and private purchases
Railroads Bank Trains, terrain and stations
Bank Players Private income and Credit Mobilier payments
Bank Railroads Shares issued to the pool

Phases

Start

2 · $80

4 trains per company

1st 3-train

3 · $180

Green par prices ($90/$100)

1st 4-train

4 · $300

2s rust; limit 3

1st 5-train

5 · $500

All companies available, float at 60% with full capital, oil, first uranium boom

1st 6-train

6 · $600

3s rust; limit 2

1st 7-train

7 · $800

4s rust; uranium busts; the endgame begins

1st 8-train

8 · $1,000

Coal companies close

Many cities have no fixed value: it depends on how many development tokens surround them.
The share price rises one row for each time the dividend matches the share price, up to 3.

A round, step by step

Illustrative example with the real rules (18xx.games implementation), 4 players with $550. We follow [PL1] and the [UP], based in Cheyenne, from the auction to the first set of operations.

Before starting Privates and stacks Phase 2

The privates are prepared: from each of the P2-P6 groups, two are discarded at random. The companies, except the [UP], go into two stacks; before phase 5 only the top one of each stack can be started.

[PL1] cash

$550

[UP] treasury

—

[UP] share price

—

[UP] trains

—
Private auction Thomas C. Durant Phase 2

[PL1] takes [P10] for $180. It pays no income, but comes with the [UP] president's certificate (20%). They pick a $76 par price and the [UP] receives double: $152. The [UP] has already floated.

[P10] closes when the auction ends. [P11] can be exchanged for the [UP]'s special 20% certificate.

[PL1] cash

$370

[UP] treasury

$152

[UP] share price

$76

[UP] trains

—
Stock round 1 Incremental capitalisation Phase 2

[PL1] buys a [UP] share at $76. Since it comes from the treasury, the money goes to the company, not the bank.

[PL1] cash

$294

[UP] treasury

$228

[UP] share price

$76

[UP] trains

—
Stock round 1 Another one Phase 2

On their next turn they buy another: they now hold 40%. The other players start the companies on top of the stacks, which float at just 20%.

From phase 5, those that haven't floated yet do so at 60% and receive all their capital at once.

[PL1] cash

$218

[UP] treasury

$304

[UP] share price

$76

[UP] trains

—
Development 1.1 A coal token Phase 2

[PL1]'s coal company places a development token near a boomtown, on a flat hex with no terrain to pay. When a boomtown has enough tokens around it, it turns into a city and is worth more.

Coal tokens "rust": they're removed two phases later.

[PL1] cash

$218

[UP] treasury

$304

[UP] share price

$76

[UP] trains

—
Operating round 1.1 Six track points Phase 2

The [UP] has 6 points: it lays the Cheyenne yellow (2 points) and another at Sherman, heading west (2 points). Sherman is a mountain: $40 terrain.

A yellow costs 2 points and an upgrade 3, plus terrain.

[PL1] cash

$218

[UP] treasury

$264

[UP] share price

$76

[UP] trains

—
Operating round 1.1 Credit Mobilier Phase 2

Yellow track heading west out of Omaha inside the Credit Mobilier region means the bank pays the terrain cost to the [UP]'s shareholders as a dividend: $4 per share. [PL1] collects $16.

It ends in phase 5 or when someone claims the Golden Spike.

[PL1] cash

$234

[UP] treasury

$264

[UP] share price

$76

[UP] trains

—
Operating round 1.1 No train, price drops Phase 2

No train: no revenue, and the share price moves left, from $76 to $72.

[PL1] cash

$234

[UP] treasury

$264

[UP] share price

$72

[UP] trains

—
Operating round 1.1 Two 2-trains Phase 2

A company must end its turn with a train. The [UP] buys two at $80.

Each train has a pricier "plus" version: a 2+2 ($120) visits 2 cities and 2 towns.

[PL1] cash

$234

[UP] treasury

$104

[UP] share price

$72

[UP] trains

2 + 2
Development 1.2 Before every operation Phase 2

Before the second operating round there's development again. [PL1] passes.

[PL1] cash

$234

[UP] treasury

$104

[UP] share price

$72

[UP] trains

2 + 2
Operating round 1.2 The trains run Phase 2

One 2-train runs Cheyenne (30) – Omaha (20): $50. The other runs Cheyenne – Sherman (10): $40. Total: $90.

Two trains can pass through the same city, but not along the same track.

[PL1] cash

$234

[UP] treasury

$104

[UP] share price

$72

[UP] trains

2 + 2
Operating round 1.2 Paying out Phase 2

The [UP] pays $9 per share. [PL1] collects $36 and the [UP] collects $36 for the 4 shares still in its treasury ([P11]'s 20% is separate). $90 matches the share price once: it moves up a row, from $72 to $76.

Withholding or not running moves the share price left.

[PL1] cash

$270

[UP] treasury

$140

[UP] share price

$76

[UP] trains

2 + 2
BUST round Closing the set Phase 2

At the end of the set of operations, cities that have lost development shrink back and the bank exports a train. Then it's the stock round again.

[PL1] cash

$270

[UP] treasury

$140

[UP] share price

$76

[UP] trains

2 + 2
Towards stock round 2 What now? Phase 2

[PL1] has $270 to buy more [UP] or get into another company. When someone buys the first 3-train, green arrives and the yellow forts disappear. The [UP] will need to push its track towards Promontory Summit for the Golden Spike.

[PL1] cash

$270

[UP] treasury

$140

[UP] share price

$76

[UP] trains

2 + 2

1868 Wyoming — Summary

Capitalization type

Incremental capitalization: each Railroad Company floats once just 20% of its shares are sold, and collects the par price each time one of its shares is actually sold, both during the IPO and in later share issues.
Starting in phase 5 (the "Full Capitalization" event), any Railroad Company that hasn't floated yet instead floats at 60% and receives all its remaining capital at once, as if it were full capitalization — a mid-game regime switch that 1830 doesn't have.

All corporations initially float once 20% of their shares are sold; once the "Full Capitalization" event triggers later in the game, any corporation that hasn't floated yet switches to needing 60%
No player may hold more than 60% of one corporation (default threshold, no exceptions)
Certificate limit per player: 2 players — 30; 3 players — 20; 4 players — 15; 5 players — 12

Starting cash by player count

2 players: $1,100 starting cash
3 players: $734 starting cash
4 players: $550 starting cash
5 players: $440 starting cash
The bank has unlimited cash (BANK_CASH: unlimited): the game never ends because the bank runs out of money.

End game triggers

A player goes bankrupt: immediate end; the bankrupt player's score is $0
The 7-train is bought or exported (phase 7): triggers the endgame sequence — the current operating round is finished (skipping its second OR if the train was bought in the first OR of the pair), then a BUST round, a stock round, a privates round, a development round, an operating round, and one more BUST round are still played before the game ends (see the "Endgame Sequence" on the Info tab)

Number of phases

7 phases, numbered 2 through 8, each triggered by the purchase of the first train of the matching type
Phase 3: green par prices become available ($90/$100); Frontier Forts of the matching color are removed
Phase 5: brown par prices become available ($110/$120); all Railroad Companies become available to start; full capitalization at 60% for any that haven't floated yet; oil companies begin developing; first "Uranium Boom" (uranium tokens at Jeffrey City and Shirley Basin, +$20 revenue); several private companies close
Phase 6: second "Uranium Boom" (Jeffrey City's bonus rises to +$40 cumulative)
Phase 7: the endgame sequence is triggered; "Uranium BUST" (uranium hexes turn into ghost towns)
Phase 8: coal companies close (stop developing, though their already-placed tokens remain on the map)

Train list and prices

2 train — $80 (2+2 variant for $120) — 7 copies; available from the start; rusts once the 4-train appears
3 train — $180 (3+2 variant for $220) — 6 copies; rusts once the 6-train appears; buying it triggers the green par price
4 train — $300 (4+3 variant for $360) — 5 copies; rusts once the 7-train appears
5 train — $500 (5+4 variant for $580) — 4 copies; never rusts; buying it closes remaining private companies and triggers the brown par price, full corporation availability, full capitalization, and the first "Uranium Boom"
6 train — $600 (6+5 variant for $700) — 3 copies; never rusts; buying it closes private companies and triggers the second "Uranium Boom"
7 train — $800 (7+5 variant for $900) — 2 copies; never rusts; buying or exporting it triggers the endgame sequence and the "Uranium BUST"
8 train — $1,000 (8+5 variant for $1,100) — unlimited supply; the last available type; closes the coal companies
Special 2+1 train (LHP) — free, 1 copy — replaces the P9 Laramie, Hahn's Peak & Pacific Railway private company once phase 5 is reached

List of private companies

P1 Hell on Wheels — $40, revenue $10 — closes at phase 5 or once the Golden Spike is driven
P2 Supplier — $45, revenue $10 — the buyer chooses one of: P2a Wylie Permanent Camping Company (+$10 bonus on routes to Yellowstone), P2b Trabing Brothers Frontier Fort Resupply (+$10 per fort served), P2c Midwest Oil Refinery (+$10 per train serving Casper)
P3 Developer I — $70, revenue $10 — the buyer chooses one of: P3a Union Pacific Coal Company (extra coal development token, phases 2-4), P3b "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Bonanza Oil District (extra oil development token, from phase 5), P3c Frémont Expedition ($20 discount per development token placed)
P4 Surveyor I — $90, revenue $15 — the buyer chooses one of: P4a Grenville M. Dodge (3 free yellow tiles ignoring terrain costs), P4b Edward Gillette ($15 discount per tile lay), P4c Frederick W. Lander ($60 discount, once per OR)
P5 Surveyor II — $100, revenue $20 — the buyer chooses one of: P5a John S. "General Jack" Casement (3 extra free tile-laying actions), P5b Credit Foncier of America (paid for every yellow tile placed), P5c Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864 (terrain costs halved)
P6 Developer II — $100, revenue $10 — the buyer chooses one of: P6a James E. Shepperson's Coal Strikebreakers (extra coal token per phase), P6b Teapot Dome Oil Leases (+$5 revenue per adjacent oil token), P6c Edward Ivinson (NO BUST token protects a Boom City from busting)
P7 American Locomotive Corporation 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" — $100, revenue $20 — token that extends a train by +1 city and +1 town
P8 The Pure Oil Camp — $120, revenue $20 — lets its owner place a Boomtown token anywhere track can be laid; closes at phase 7
P9 Laramie, Hahn's Peak & Pacific Railway — $150, revenue $40 (green phases only) — converts into a permanent 2+1 train at phase 5
P10 Thomas C. Durant — $180, revenue $0 — grants the Union Pacific president's certificate and twice its par price in cash; closes at the end of the private company auction
P11 Oakes and Oliver Ames, Jr. — $200, revenue $30 — exchangeable for the special 20% Ames Brothers certificate of the Union Pacific

Of the 21 private companies in the pool (P1, the 3+3+3+3+3 sub-options of P2-P6, and P7-P11), only 11 end up in play in any given game: 2 of the 3 options in each of the P2-P6 groups are discarded at random during setup.

List of corporations

Union Pacific Railroad (UP) — home M25; the only one that always floats right after the auction; carries the Credit Mobilier ability and the special Ames Brothers certificate
Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company (DPR) — no fixed starting hex; always sits at the bottom of the corporation stack and cannot start until a home token location becomes available
Bighorn Railroad Company (BH) — home C9
Cheyenne & Northern Railway (C&N) — home B16
Fremont, Elkhorn, & Missouri Valley Railroad (FE&MV) — home G27; purple home hex, no other corporation may run routes to Chadron
Laramie, North Park and Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company (LNP) — home M21; free home green tile
Oregon Short Line Railroad (OSL) — home J6; free home green tile
Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railroad Company (RCL) — home C27; purple home hex, no other corporation may run routes to Rapid City
Wyoming & North Western Railway (WNW) — home H10
Wyoming Central Railway (WYC) — home H18

On top of these 10 Railroad Companies, every player also controls a coal company and, from phase 5, an oil company — "minor" companies with no track or station token that only place development tokens. There are also two special development companies, Union Pacific Coal Company and "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Bonanza Oil District, tied to private companies P3a and P3b. These are described in detail under "Game-specific mechanics" since functionally they belong to the development system rather than being conventional railroad corporations.

Game-specific mechanics

Coal and oil development companies: every player controls a coal company (from the start) and, from phase 5, an oil company; in their own Development round (separate from stock and operating rounds) they place development tokens that raise the revenue of nearby Boomtowns and Boom Cities
Boomtowns and Boom Cities that grow, shrink, or vanish: a Boomtown turns into a Boom City once it has enough nearby development tokens, and can BUST back down to a Boomtown or even a ghost town if that development is later removed
Uranium as a high-risk, high-reward development track: it appears in phases 5-6 with growing revenue bonuses, but BUSTs in phase 7 and its hexes turn into ghost towns
Frontier Forts: grant a revenue bonus that depends on their color (yellow/green/brown) and are removed from the map as the matching phase passes, rewarding whoever gets there early
Credit Mobilier: not a private company but a Union Pacific ability that pays its shareholders every time track is laid in the Credit Mobilier region (extending west from Omaha or east from Ogden); it closes at phase 5 or once the Golden Spike is driven
Golden Spike and Northern Spike: bonuses for the first train to complete the Omaha-to-Promontory Summit route (Golden) and the first to run from an eastern point to Independence Creek, Montana (Northern); completing either permanently boosts revenue at the destination hex
Track points instead of a fixed tile-lay count: each corporation gets 6 track points per OR (a yellow lay costs 2, an upgrade costs 3), instead of the usual flat "2 tile lays per turn" rule
Two random corporation stacks: before phase 5, only the corporation on top of each stack may be started, controlling the order in which the 9 non-UP Railroad Companies enter play

Emergency sell

Follows the same order as 1830, but with one step inserted at the front: before the president is ever touched, the corporation must issue (sell) its own treasury shares onto the market if it has any left to sell. Only once that's exhausted does the president have to contribute personal cash, and only after that does a forced sale of the president's personal shares (of any corporation) kick in — with no more than one bundle of a given corporation's shares sold per emergency episode.

Comparison with 1830

1. Setting, map and number of players
1830 covers the northeastern USA for 2-6 players. 1868: Wyoming is a modern, highly tactical 18xx ("Hell on Wheels" meets classic 18xx) with 10 major railroad companies competing on a large map, offset by a much faster track-laying pace than a map that size would normally allow. On top of the standard game, it also ships a dedicated 2-player variant with adjusted certificate limits and starting cash.

2. Coal mines and oil fields as investments separate from the railroads
Absent from 1830, which has no resource layer at all. In 1868: Wyoming players separately manage and invest in coal and oil companies, whose development raises the revenue that railroad companies' trains can collect in that area — but that development needs sustained investment to hold, unlike a 1830 city's fixed, printed value.

3. Uranium as a high-risk development track
In 1830 every income source is static and predictable. 1868: Wyoming adds uranium as a further development type, with tempting revenue bonuses that then BUST in phase 7 — a resource with a bigger payoff but also more collapse risk than coal or oil.

4. Boomtowns that can grow, shrink, or vanish entirely
1830's towns and cities carry a fixed value on the map forever. In 1868: Wyoming, boomtowns can grow into cities if enough development happens nearby, shrink back down to towns if that development dries up, or even disappear as ghost towns for good — a genuinely living, reversible map.

5. Frontier Forts with a bonus that fades over time
1830 has no time-limited bonuses. 1868: Wyoming's Frontier Forts grant a revenue bonus to trains passing through, but that bonus declines over time (depending on the fort's color) and the fort is eventually removed from the map entirely, rewarding players who reach them early rather than late.

6. A huge, rotating pool of thematic privates
1830 uses the same fixed 6 privates in every game. 1868: Wyoming has 21, depicting real historical figures and events (surveyors, explorers, financiers, politicians, oil companies, small railroads), but only 11 are actually in play in any given game — the available roster changes from session to session.

7. Credit Mobilier: a Union Pacific ability, not a private company
Nothing like this exists in 1830. In 1868: Wyoming, Credit Mobilier is an ability of the Union Pacific itself (not one of the 21 privates) that pays its own shareholders specifically for building track in a particular region of the map, weaving the real historical financing scandal that gave it its name directly into the economic engine.

8. The Golden Spike and Northern Spike bonuses for completing historic links
1830 has no "first to connect X and Y" bonus at all. 1868: Wyoming has two: the Golden Spike rewards whichever train is first to run the full Omaha-to-Promontory Summit route, and the Northern Spike does the same for the first train from an eastern point to Independence Creek, Montana — both of which also permanently open up revenue in that area afterward.

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