18Lilliput

EvEvanstar3.5

This game aims to take the 18xx game experience and boil it down to an evening length experience rather than a game you have to reserve a whole day for. It does this admirably well. It hits most of the 18xx beats. It also has a cute action selection system where each round players get to select two action cards in serpentine fashion with each card giving your company two action options. A few things made this experience feel rough to me. First, when a company gets floated, the starting share is 50%. Additional shares are 10%. This means that companies never change hands, and investing in someone else's work provides a pretty minimal return compared to what your opponent gets. Track is represented by square tiles, which makes going around anything pretty laborious. Especially since the most track you can lay with an action is 2 cards worth. No space has room for more than 2 stations either, which means things get blocked out, and fast which makes the logistical element feel a little stale. Additionally, new companies can start in any empty station spot on the map, which means they also serve to further box existing companies in. The length of the game is still significant. It's shorter than an 18xx but longer than your normal 90 min euro. It would have been good for the game to include a pricing chart that shows how much each company can make each turn so it wouldn't need to be recalculated each round, rather just adjusted on the track when something changes. Overall I don't mind this game, but I would have liked it to be a bit more dynamic in terms of the track and stocks and I would have liked it to be a bit more flexible in terms of being able to get around a situation where your opponents attempt to block you up. Maybe it's time to stop searching for a short 18xx and just be comfortable in the fact that if I want the 18xx experience, I should stick to just reserving a day for it. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ★ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ☆☆☆☆☆ Raw enjoyment

setropostar7.5

Si tienes curiosidad por los 18xx, quizás debas empezar por éste.