Reviews, guides and articles of economic games such as Railroad Tycoon, Terraforming Mars and Brass.
The 18XX series has a reputation of being some of the most difficult board games you can play. Fortunately, it’s not true. Like all games by Francis Tresham, the rules are extremely simple. The difficult lies, not in understanding how to play, but in knowing what to do and how to use the tools provided by the game to your advantage.
In this guide, I’ll explain how to approach the series as a beginner and how to tackle its challenges part by part.
How do you win a game without taking a turn? This question lies at the heart of German Railways, the second entry in Winsome’s Historic Railroads Series. Like Chicago Express, it’s a simple, fast-playing game of investment and route-building but also one of the most counter-intuitive games I’ve ever played.
I did not expect to like Pipeline. Games that mix elements from economic and baroque eurogames have always felt like a compromise to me. But building an oil refinery was an appealing topic and the challenge ended up grabbing me.
Wealth of Nations is the only game where my degree in Commerce has felt like an advantage. No other title I’ve ever played does a better job capturing classical economic theory, from supply and demand to lesser-known concepts such as the bussiness cycle.
As representation of economics through play, Wealth of Nations has few rivals. As a game, though, I’m not as certain
Chicago Express is a game of alliances. But they are not the kind of alliances made explicit through negotiation. Rather, they are the kind that naturally arise from shared interests.
Set at the height of railroad expansion through the Appalachians, Chicago Express is a challenging game of stocks and manipulation. Quick and heavily streamlined, its simple rules hide a tremendous amounth of depth and a degree of tension that it’s often missing from many other train games.
