18 India

18 India is one of those newer 18XX designs trying to put a fresh trick on the rails while keeping the journey shorter and kinder to newer players. The idea has real appeal: a train game that does not require the group’s designated banker to be summoned just to keep the evening alive. Then you open the rules.

You do not simply buy whichever shares you fancy. First you draft promissory notes, then a public IPO reveals the relevant papers in a fixed order. That is the game’s central twist, and it makes the table watchful straight away: you are choosing not only what you want, but what you permit everyone else to see after you.

At first it looks welcoming. It is not always. One careless draft can leave you stranded from your very first company, unable even to get it a train; suddenly the imaginary karate-film percussion begins. The rulebook gets a resit grade, because several crucial points are muddled or wrong precisely where the game’s development depends on them, and the ending usually arrives as sudden death rather than the more gradual finish one expects from a non-introductory 18XX.

We still had a good time, and I would happily play it again, particularly now that I know where the thorns are. 18 India has a clever hook and proper tension between players, but it needs clearer rules and a less punishing first step to become the game it could have been.