So after almost 6 months of wanting to get this on the table, I finaly played the latest installment in the 18xx series. Ben and Travis showed up around 1:30 we were still waiting on Derk.

Derk and I went to two parties and drank and smoked to excess. I figured that because he had gone home early he was going to be fine the next day for some trains. After setting up the game and starting through the rules Derk finally called to let me know that I clearly can't ever plan on going out for a hard night of drinking with him and expect him to show up by 2.

Ben was awfully chipper for the night worked up as well and the two of us worked through our hangovers with some delicious Sam Adams Cream Stouts, while trying to wrap our heads around mergers and conversions. Soon we were ready to go.

There were some new elements to this game that Ben and I hadn't seen before so we were on very even ground with Travis. There wasn't a lot of room for stock shenanigans which is a shame, but the track building was really fun.

While this game is much more forgiving than the previous versions that I'd played, there is so much chrome here that it just can't be considered to be the gateway 18xx game that I was hoping it to be. The minor companies are kooky and the first part of the game is spent scrambling for companies whose tracks will merge well.

One of my favorite parts of 18xx games is naming all of the companies. There were a number of laughs as Donut merged with the KKK and became White Donut. Spew and Righteous Organization formed a strong bond as Grrr! Mortal Kombat was a strong company which surprised me as Mortal Kombat Neo and Mortal Kombat Five seemed like they were going to be much stronger.

Sexy Waitress was really the powerhouse of the game, with GRR! coming in a close second. After I funneled a bunch of money into Sexy Eczema it went from being a real dog to a fine company.

The game came down to the wire between Travis and yours truly. I was invested heavily in NWA which wasn't strong in the market, but payed out a ton of cash. Travis was a real powerhouse, but I eeked out the victory leeching off of Ben's revenue.

Not the greatest in the series, but I had a great time and would play it again in a heartbeat.

Here is my geek review:

Compared to the other games in the 18xx series that I've played, this has a heavy focus on track building while the stock market remains pretty static. The first part of the game everyone is pretty poor and there are no stocks to be had. As opposed to other 18xx systems spending all your cash isn't always a good thing as there can be stock rounds from mergers in the middle of ORs. This leads to some engaging choices in money management.

I wasn't sure how I felt about the minor companies at first, but I soon found them compelling as you tried to set them up for proper mergers or conversions. This leads to a variable set-up which should allow for a significantly different game every time. That said it certainly feels like you are in the "set-up phase".

The train rush wasn't as crazy here, but everyone was so poor that the threat of the Russian company added a sense of impending doom. I think it would be tough to accidently get sucked into the Russian Rails, but it does insure that you are on top of your game, and allows for some fun ways to liquidate companies that other players are heavily invested in.

Even with all the other stuff going on here with the towns nearly pointless, the lack of mobility on the stock market and the level of friction to get into the stock buying part of the game I felt that there is a bit of the game that is missing. That isn't to say that I didn't really enjoy it, but there is a certain dynamicism that is lacking compared to 1856 or 1860. Contrary to this though, I quite liked the map, and will gladly play this again.