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18GB

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Andy Pymont edited this page Feb 21, 2022 · 15 revisions

Table of Contents

General Information

Rules Highlights

18GB is a very different game to 1889/18Chesapeake/1830.

The game is especially notable for its use of restrictive tile laying: to lay or upgrade a tile, you must always be able to run some of the new track, even for upgrading city tiles.

Key differences include:

Setup

  • The corporations and private companies used depend on the player count

Simultaneous Auction

  • Minimum bid is the price of the private
  • Players may only pass if they have a winning bid or all items have a bid
  • When all players pass, items are sold to the highest bidder and any items without bids become £10 cheaper
  • Player order for SR1 determined by least cash remaining

Private Railways

  • Until Blue Phase, a Private Railway blocks tile lays unless closed
  • Owner may close it any time after SR1
  • From Blue Phase, it closes when a tile is laid in its hex
  • May grant special ability any time after it is closed
  • Pays income to its owner one last time when closed

Corporations

  • Corporations begin the game with five shares and 5x initial share price
  • May convert to ten shares during subsequent SRs or emergency money raising
  • Conversion drops the share price 2 steps and gives 5x new price in cash; director may buy one share during conversion
  • Ten-share corporations get extra station tokens
  • Non-started corporations have 10 shares from the start of the Brown Phase
  • Corporations float once 40% (Yellow Phase) or 60% (Green, Blue, & Brown Phases) sold
  • Non-started corporations are removed in the Grey Phase; each removes a grey train

Share Dealing

  • Share dealing is sell then buy (or, instead of both, convert to 10-share, as above, optionally including a buy)
  • In SR1, only the first tier (half of the corporations) are available to start
  • Players may only buy 60% of a corporation from the IPO; unlimited from the open market or if the corporation is in the yellow area of the market
  • No limit on shares in the open market, including that president's shares may be sold
  • Player order determined by order of passing; plays may re-enter the SR after a pass, giving up their place in the pass order

Station Markers

  • All station markers cost £50 (except the home station, and the CR's first non-home station token)
  • NBR, LYR & MSLR have 3 total station tokens; the other corporations have 4

Building Track

  • Track laying is restrictive: a corporation must be able to use some of the new track on the tile, even when upgrading a city tile
  • Corporations may lay or upgrade two tiles, but only one action may be in a city tile
  • It costs £50 to lay track pointing at a hill hex side - per side, so completing a hill connection will ultimately cost £100

Running Trains

  • M+N trains run M+N total stops, of which at most M may be cities and offboard locations
  • nX trains ignore all towns, count n cities and offboards, add a distance bonus of £10 per hex of distance traveled (as the crow flies) on the route
  • E-W and N-S bonuses may be connected by multiple trains
  • Shares in the IPO pay dividends to the corporation

Share Prices

  • Price drops one step for each share sold
  • In the Grey Phase, sales by non-directors do not affect the share price
  • No end-of-SR increase for sold-out companies (or decrease for shares in market etc.)
  • Up to 4 multi-jumps for dividends
  • Share price increases at least once if any positive dividend paid (i.e. do not have to at least pay current share price)

Train Purchases

  • Corporations may not sell their last train, unless the buyer has no train
  • Trains may be sold for between £1 and double their face value
  • Players may not contribute funds for train purchases
  • nX trains available after the first nX train of the previous rank is purchased
  • One train removed at the end of each OR if no trains were bought during the OR

Insolvency

  • Corporations without a train become Insolvent at the end of their operating turn (or, if no president, at the start of their turn)
  • Insolvent corporations may not lay track or station tokens and lease the cheapest train available in the bank, withholding income

Game Rounds

  • 2 ORs between SRs
  • Game ends at the end of the OR where either a corporation's share price reaches the top two spaces (coloured blue), or all trains have been sold or removed
  • The bank has unlimited cash

A Note About the Tileset

  • There are no tight curve yellow tiles for OO and XX cities; plan routes accordingly

Rules Clarifications

None at present

Implementation Notes

  1. This version implements the 2nd Edition rules - there are changes to some private company prices and revenues, and the GN and MC private companies grant the ability to lay a green tile directly in their hex after using the ability to token (and before the yellow phase) in the same manner as the corporations that may do this in their home city
  2. The president's option to buy a share in a corporation that converts in emergency money raising is presented after the corporation finishes its train buying step

Open Issues

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