I'm an avid boardgamer and have played my fair share of 18XX games over the years, most notably 1830, 1856 and 1870. There's a lot to like here. Stock manipula

I'm an avid boardgamer and have played my fair share of 18XX games over the years, most notably 1830, 1856 and 1870. There's a lot to like here. Stock manipulation, cross-company collusion, dumping, obsolescence, griefing and so on. Each 18XX has rule variations, perhaps for variety or perhaps trying to resolve some downside of earlier versions. Like some variants effectively forbid pump-and-dumping stocks. Later games allowed you to build 2 yellow tiles in a single build turn. 1830 did not allow this and it's unfortunate because it effectively makes everything but New York, Boston and Baltimore irrelevant. Some variants included Diesels. Diesels could make unlimited stops. Other trains were limited. This could lead to some truly enormous runs and was generally positive. Other variants (eg 1870) do not have Diesels (1870 tops out at 12 trains) and the last third of the game essentially devolves into an accounting exercise as there's no real difference between any of the companies and it largely comes down to who didn't have their stock dumped so they could build a good share price. 18XX is pretty tedious. It really does need a good computer version with a decent AI. Back in the 1990s, Avalon HIll released a DOS game that was actually pretty decent. It only implemented 1830 too (but also with random maps). I wish there was an iPad version of this updated to include more variants. Train games are a popular genre for board games. Despite all the 18XX variants for me it's not the best of the genre. That honor belongs to Age of Steam (IMHO). Age of Steam does not have a stock market element but it is a very deep game with a mix of tactics and strategy, the ability to effectively control areas of the map, the need for planning on future expansion, debt that can cripple you and a bonus action auction mechanic that can be brutal if you don't plan carefully for how much you're willing to spend and what you need. It also has many maps with rule variants.