I’d be fine with other modern variants, their cost and distribution makes them impractical for me. Since 1830 is a classic game that has previously been reprinted by major publishers, I just assume that it will be reprinted again eventually.
The only other 18xx games that I can get my hands on in my region are 1844/54 and 1853, all of which seem lower rated. Though who knows, 18xx fans on BGG tend to be pretty elitist know-it-alls (cough jc lawrence), so those games might still be worth checking out.
So I bought the iPad version of Though the Ages 2 months ago off of Tom’s recommendation. I 2nd his opinion and put it into the same category as Sentinels of the Multiverse: a good game that I will never again play the physical version of because it was made to be run by an app.
The only problem is that I’m terrible at the game. 2 months and 50 games played and I don’t think I’m getting any better at it. I can consistently beat a 4 player game against easy AIs but that’s it. I get crushed by medium AIs and human online opponents.
Ouch. Avoid the Masks of Nyarlathotep expansion for Eldritch Horror at all cost. It’s a total a con job.
It’s a $50 large box expansion that should have been a $25 small box expansion. The only reason it’s not is because they put in one large cardboard punch sheet instead of 2 smaller ones. Everything could have fit into a smaller box otherwise. This is the first big box expansion where they don’t show all the new components laid out in mock play on the back. Gee I wonder why. Incredibly deceptive.
One of the big selling points on the back is a new campaign mode where you can play a series of games. It is implied on the back that they are linked and include variant rules on the ancient ones that ramps up the difficulty as you progress. This is a lie. All campaign mode is a simple house rule that essentially says “Play 6 games, win them all, use a different ancient one each time, 2 preludes instead of 1, defeated investigators stay dead.” That’s it. I’ve seen over half a dozen fan made campaign rules with more thought put into them.
I couldn’t tell you about anything else because at that point I put everything back into the box and returned it to the store, something I’ve never done with a board game before. Just terrible.
Ok so understand that the game I’m going to suggest was, for years, my favorite board game ever.
Railroad Tycoon/ Railways of the World
It’s great because it engages people the whole game. The problem, to me, with a lot of the railgames like the 18xx stuff is that a player can become irrelevant/ unable to do anything. And given the gaming groups I play with it can be frustrating. In RRT there is always some way forward, something you can do productive. Some rail you can build.
It is highly strategic, with almost all randomization at the beginning of the game, and rewards long term planning with the Major Lines and the points bonanza for players who set up their end game with multiple 6+ length deliveries. Plus it has a vibrant map, much more than most rail games, and many expansion maps. Unfortunately the pack in Eastern US map is the worst. It was still my favorite game even when I only had that.
But Railways with the Western US map (the best 5-6 player map), England and Wales (best 2 player, good 3-4), and Europe (good from 3-5 players) is fantastic, and a highly recommended game.
Excellent! It’s a well-established scientific fact that trains and railroads are the best possible boardgame themes.
I’ll fight to the death for Age of Steam over Steam. Even if you end up disagreeing about that, they’re at least different enough that it’s worth owning both. And there’s way more Age of Steam expansion maps around, which usually change the game in pretty fundamental ways.
It’s probably worth owning a couple of the Winsome railway games, though you’d go for the reprints from other companies rather than the original editions going at collector’s prices.
The ones I’d most genuinely recommend are Continental Divide and either of TransAmerica or TransEuropa. Lokomotive Werks is an interesting deconstruction of the 18xx into just the train rush part, where you’re not playing as railroads but as train manufacturers. I didn’t really like LW the first time around, but all of the subsequent plays were pretty great.
I personally don’t really get into the cube railroad genre, but Chicago Express is useful to play from the game-history perspective. And it’s not bad at all. While I absolutely despise the action selection system in German Railways, I have some friends who consider that a “10/10, would play any time” game.
If you’re really willing to get into the weeds with the definition of what a “railroad game” means, then Trick of the Rails is a hilarious concept (railroad share management implemented as a trick taking game). On the other end of the spectrum Indonesia is much more of an actual railroad game than some of your list, except for the small problem of not actually having any trains. But it’s absolutely brilliant, and totally worth owning for any 18xx fan.
Don’t forget Iron Dragon, the fantasy train game with elfs and dwarfs and dragons and magic and whatnot! It’s from 1994, however, so it can’t possibly be any good. It also uses crayons. No joke. Crayons.
I have probably played a hundred games of Iron Dragon. A hundred! It solved the imbalance problems in Empire Builder and British Rails by finding a historical situation in which the various routes were actually balanced. Big step forward in crayon games.
There was a computer version of Iron Dragon many years ago. A few years ago you could still download the game from somewhere but a cursory search from work turns up only this:
