18xx glossary

The round in which players take turns buying and selling shares. It alternates with operating rounds and sets the rhythm of the whole game.

The round in which companies act: laying track, placing stations, running trains, paying or withholding income, and buying trains. Early on there is one after each stock round; as phases advance there are two or three in a row.

The stage the game is in. Each phase sets which tiles may be laid, how many operating rounds follow each stock round, and which trains become obsolete. Phases advance when someone buys the first train of a new type.

The marker showing who starts the next stock round. It passes to the next player whenever someone buys or sells, and it is worth a lot when only one good share is left.

How the private companies are handed out at the start, usually by bidding or by a descending price. Many modern titles replace it with a draft to shorten the opening.

The order in which companies operate within an operating round: highest share price first. Raising your price is not only value, it is also acting before your rivals.

A stake in a company. Ordinary shares are usually 10% and the president's certificate is worth two of them. Every certificate counts towards the certificate limit, private companies included.

The double certificate (normally 20%) that carries the presidency. You cannot simply sell it: another player must hold enough shares to take over, or it is exchanged for ordinary shares.

The maximum number of certificates a player may hold. It varies by game and player count, and it is the brake that stops an early leader from hoarding everything. Per-title figures are in the comparison table.

The price at which a company's shares go on sale when it opens. Whoever buys the presidency picks it from the options the game allows, and it determines both what filling the company costs and how much ends up in its treasury.

The percentage of shares that must be sold before a company starts operating and receives its capital. It is 60% in many games; others need only 20%, or a full 100%.

Distributing a company's income among shareholders in proportion to their shares. Paying out pushes the share price up, but leaves the treasury empty.

Keeping the income in the company treasury instead of distributing it. It funds track or a train, but the share price falls and shareholders get nothing.

Where shares sold by players end up. Anyone may buy them, there is often a 50% per-company cap, and their dividends go to the bank or to the company depending on the game — never to a player.

How a company's token moves on the stock market: up or right when it pays a dividend, down or left when it withholds, and down one space for each share sold. In many games it also rises if, at the end of the stock round, every share is in players' hands.

When a president cannot cover a mandatory expense — almost always buying a train — even after selling everything. Depending on the game, play ends immediately or that player is out.

What decides the winner: your personal cash plus the market value of every share you hold. Company money does not count.

A small holding handed out at the start that pays a fixed income every operating round and often carries a special power (a free tile, an exemption from a rule, the right to open a company…). It closes at a set phase.

A small company with a single certificate and a single train, halfway between a private and a corporation. It operates like a corporation but its income goes entirely to its owner.

The railway company proper: shares, a president, a treasury, trains and station tokens. This is where most of the game happens.

How a company receives its money when it floats. Full capitalisation hands over the value of all its shares at once; incremental capitalisation pays in only as shares are sold, so the company starts far shorter of cash.

A company's money, kept separate from the players'. It pays for track, trains and station tokens, and only reaches your pocket as a dividend.

Whoever holds a company's president's certificate: they make every decision for it and, if it is short of money for a mandatory expense, they must cover it personally.

When a company leaves the game, usually because a set phase has been reached (for privates) or because it has no train and no way to pay for one.

Combining two companies into one. Some games build their whole design on it (1817, 1841, 18MEX); it is also how you free up certificate slots or rescue a trainless company.

A single space on the map. Empty hexes take tiles; those printed with track, a city or mountains carry their own building rules and costs.

The hexagonal piece of track laid on the map to build the network. Each type exists in limited numbers in the box, and when they run out, they run out.

Replacing a tile with a higher-colour one that preserves every existing connection and adds capacity or revenue. It is the other way to spend your build action besides laying a new tile.

Yellow, green, brown and grey, in that order. Each colour unlocks at a phase, so the colour on the table tells you immediately how far along the game is.

The three kinds of stop. A city has token slots and can fill up; a town pays revenue but takes no tokens; an off-board hex at the edge of the board pays a figure that grows with the phase.

The marker a company places in a city so it can stop there — and, once the city fills up, so rival companies cannot. Each company has a limited supply and placing them costs money.

The path a train takes through the network during an operating round. It must touch one of the company's stations, may not reuse track, and has a maximum number of stops set by the train.

What the company earns, adding up the values of the stops on all its routes plus any bonuses. It then decides whether to pay out or withhold.

What lets a company earn money. The train's number is how many stops it counts: a 4-train counts the four best stops on its route.

The maximum number of trains a company may own at once. It usually shrinks as phases advance, and a company over the new limit must return trains.

Forced obsolescence: when the first train of a given type is bought, smaller trains vanish from the game across the whole board, including other players'. This is the game clock and its main source of tension.

A train nothing rusts. Getting one first — or being left without — decides a lot of games.

A company that begins its turn without a train must buy one, like it or not, as long as it could run a route. This is the rule that turns rusting into a real problem.

When the treasury cannot cover a mandatory purchase, the president must sell shares and add personal cash until it is covered. If that still is not enough, it is bankruptcy.

Selling exactly enough shares to push the presidency onto another player, usually handing them a company with no train and no money so they pay for the party.

Extracting value from a company at the other shareholders' expense: selling it an overpriced train from another company you run, withholding systematically, or stripping it bare before you leave.

Deliberately speeding up train buying to advance the phases and rust your rivals' trains before they are ready.

Emptying the bank, which in most games triggers the end: the current round is finished and net worths are counted.

The standard way to explain any 18xx: assume 1830 is known and describe only what changes. It is exactly what each entry in the explained catalogue does.