21Moon

21Moon has the familiar modern-18XX package: an attractive production, crisp graphic design, and a clear determination to finish within a heavy-Euro evening while retaining a twist worth thinking about. More importantly, it is not merely another 18XX in a space helmet. Its fresh ideas have been considered, and they interlock well. The rules are a shame, though: excessively terse, nearly devoid of examples, and sometimes written in English that leaves even experienced players asking questions.

Each company has two bases. Trains may run to the central base and produce dividends, or to the remote one and leave the money with the company; once a company has more trains, it can of course split those routes between the two. It is a modest device, but one with real consequences for the financial shape of a route, and it noticeably speeds up the operating rounds.

Companies also conduct their own miniature stock round, buying and selling securities themselves. That gives the game's five stock rounds proper life: movement is not confined to the players, and corporate decisions can cause a gratifying amount of disturbance. The interesting decision is when a company portfolio is building the company and when it is becoming an instrument for unsettling everyone else.

On that basis, I think 21Moon takes Chesapeake's place as the quick 18XX, with replayability to spare. Had the rulebook received the same care as the mechanisms, it would be an even cleaner success.