Andy's 18xx Page

The 18xx family of railroad games is very popular, at least on the net. One of the big drawing points (for me, at least) is that there is no luck (except for the initial seating order), only the uncertainty of what the other players will do. No dice, no cards, no spinners. There is also a lot of choices to make, from which companies to invest in, to chosing short term profits or long-term viability for the companies you do run.

18xx Resources on the Net

I will keep some information on my pages, but several other people already have extensive collections which I see no need to duplicate. The listed sites are mostly information about the 18xx system(rule clarifications, strategies, variations, trivia) as opposed to histories of particular games. Those get their own section.

The Depot A site dedicated to 18xx games, maintained by David Reed.
Bill Ingram maintains a Railroad Games site which has a section devoted to 18xx, as well as information on Mayfair Games' International Rails series (aka Crayon Rails).
There is a US 18xx FTP site with a lot of useful information - it's often very busy. Sometimes has status and maps from PBEM 18xx games. (Update, April 96 - the previous maintainer doesn't have as much access to this server, so it may be getting out of date)
Another 18xx FTP site is in Germany. This is the primary distribution point for ps18xx (PostScript 18xx maps) and an 18xx moderator program.
Some selfless readers of rec.games.board collected A Comparison of 18xx Rules which helps the transition between games.
The newsgroup rec.games.board There are usually at least a couple of threads discussing 18xx rules, strategies, variants, or availability of games, many of which are imported or 'amateur' productions.

Web games

Listed below are all the 18xx play-by-play histories I know of available on the web, sorted by maintainer. Currently, they are all of play-by-email games. If you know of any I've missed, please let me know.

As a public service, I will provide web space for your game if you can provide summaries of each stock and operating round. I will not add the fancy HTML formatting that some of the other games have, but if I ever get a (semi-)automatic tool to generate nice summaries than may change. If you want to show off a game (whether pbem or ftf) email alange@rahul.net to make arrangements.

Maintained by Andy Lange

These sometimes get up to a week or so out-of-date, but rarely more than a few days.

1835 Kappa: A 5-player standard-rules 1835 game moderated by Bill Stoll. Started Winter 1995-96.
1837 (No Name): A 6-player, no-moderator game of 1837 (Austria-Hungary). Started March 1996
1853 Haathi: A 5-player modified-bid game with moderation by consensus. Started March 1996.
1856 Alpha: Moderated by Paul Work. Started Winter 1995-96
1856 Beta: This is another game moderated by Paul Work. It only gets updated when I get sent summaries, as I am not playing.
1870 Josh: A 5-player no-moderator game started early in 1996

Maintained by Rob Stimets

PBeM 1856 Game

Rob is recording this game for posterity (well, maybe not that long), and in fact was the inspiration for me to start putting some of my games on the web.

1856 B (Stimets)

Rob is showing dedication to the cause by moderating and maintaining the web page for yet another game.

Maintained by Peter McCarthy

One Page, Three Games

1835 Kappa (same game as mine, above, but sometimes more current, and a different spin on the presentation)
1856 B (Rob's second game, above)
1870 Alpha (moderated by Peter, started March 1995)

Maintained by David Reed

1835 Sigma: Another game moderated by Bill Stoll. This one is being played with the alternate rule 'BY always floats after the first stock round'.

Other games

Anything listed in this section is a game I've heard of but don't have a URL or other information on. If you can help out at all, please let me know.

1835 Beta
1835 Delta - a Bill Stoll moderated fast game (almost done, 18 Apr 96)
1835 Omega - Paul Work moderating (almost done, 18 Apr 96)

Play by E-Mail (PBEM) 18xx

The lack of random chance in 18xx means the system lends itself well to playing by email, assuming the players are willing to spend months to see a game to completion. I am currently playing in several games, and I am not alone. As a service to the PBEM 18xx community (as well as personal interest) I'm keeping a list of people interested in PBEM 18xx. It includes names, email addresses, games being played, and which games (if any) people would like to play. It is a simple HTML table - sorry, no text-only version.

Full list, Sorted by last name (table)
Players interested in particular games
I am using a database to maintain the list, but currently I have to update the data and generate the HTML file manually, so send additions, changes, and deletions to alange@rahul.net, and they will show up on the web in a day or two.
Sorry, but my database doesn't know what the game 'ANY' is, so please list numbers - there are some really obscure games out there, and I wouldn't want to get people's hopes up for a game when half the people 'interested' in a game have never heard of it. If want, check my list of different 18xx games first, and let me know if I missed any.
(Potential) future enhancements:
- Text-only version, if there's any demand
- Have versions sorted by first name, email address (so you can find your name easier, or check for old addresses
- Make the HTML version 'live' (pull data from the database directly)
- Figure out a secure way to let people update their own data
- Add another page with 'rankings' to make it easier to find opponents with close to the same skill level. (Maybe use TGA 'Puffing Billy' scoring?)
- Auto-generate mail when 'enough' people want to play a particular game
- Add URLs for individuals, if they want
For those of you who PBEM games other than 18xx, check out the PBEM Gamers' Directory maintained by Eric Pass.
[Andy's Home Page] [Andy's Game Page]
Author: Andy Lange email: <alange@rahul.net>
Last Updated: Thu, May 2, 1996 8:19 PM PST