18xoxo

Disclaimer: I am no #18xx expert by far. I have by now quite a few games under my belt but most of them spread out across different titles, as I love to explore new things. I am far from a great player. Still, as there's usually little information on all the different 18xx games, I would like to provide some insight into how the games felt (to me) and what made them special.

A great title for #18Korea that I think I heard somewhere else before is Unbalanced Privates – the 18xx Game and that hits the nail on its head. There are also other McGuffins, but this is its core identity. At the beginning of the game the players do a snake draft (e.g. 1-2-3-3-2-1-1-2-3 for 3 players) for the private companies which are split across 3 categories. Every player must have 1 of each category in the end. Then, you go away and earn ~500 in the first OR set. 🎉

Part 1 of these high earnings are because the privates seem crazy overpowered compared to your standard 1830-type private. You just want to sell your train for the full price whenever you want during your turn? There you go, draft this private. You just want 80 income for your company every turn? Also fine, take that private. Adding a whole new tile with new expensive destinations to the board? Yeah, i thought so, here you go.

Part 2 is that the game begins with the whole of Korea available to build track on. The north is very profitable (some offboards are 70 in yellow), but after the 3rd 4-train the Korean war happens and all tracks and companies (if they didn't manage to token in the south) are destroyed and you play the game on half of the map, if even.

Seems crazy? Yeah, crazy fun! Lets dig deeper:

📋 What's the game about

• Variable setup in
  • available companies (5 North Korean, 3 South Korean pre- and 3 South Korean post war)
  • (Snake) Draftable private companies (3 per player out of 75 total with expansion)
• Always 1 stock round followed by 2 operating rounds. Phases change when new trains become available, NOT when first train of new phase is bought. All 2 trains exported after first OR, so OR2 = always green phase
• 1 non-permanent train export per OR set
• 60%max shares, higher if bought from market
  • incremental companies, 20% to float
• Linear Stock Market:
  • Two sections (pre/after war) for IPO prices
  • up to double jumps
  • Stock loses value only when President sells

🛤️ The map

The map or rather its dynamics is one of the USPs of this 18xx. As mentioned above, the map is split into two parts. The second half of the game (after the Korean war) is only played on the lower part, and the north is completely removed from the map.

Moreover, the North also follows the logic that the further North off-boards are, the more lucrative they become. Offboards start from 40 up to 70 in the furthest north-east corner of the map. The reason is, that the more distance between the offboard and the south, the harder it is for a North Korean company to make it to safety, i.e. place a station marker in the south. City tiles are also worth more in the north, ranging from 30 in yellow to 50 in green. The south follows the usual logic of normal cities being worth 20 and 30 in green.

While all of the north can earn massive income during the first few OR sets, be aware that there's still a huge difference between companies from the middle area of Korea and, for example, the most north-eastern company with basically two routes to the 70 off-board and another off-board in the south of it with 60.

🏢 The companies

So what do you do, when one of these great north-east companies is in the game? Well, luckily the game also has a bidding mechanic for every company put up for auction during the stock round. This means that you have to make sure that the potentially very profitable company is not bought for cheap. And while you're at it, you're probably also advised to cross-invest into this company while they're cheap. By doing this you make sure you're earning a piece of the massive cake while at the same time making it harder for the owners late game, as there is no redeeming of sold stock into the company, so once the money's gone, it's gone. As an investor, you have to be super careful though to make sure that you sell these stocks in the stock round before the Korean war. Understanding how fast companies can push through the 3s and the first 3 of the 4-trains (remember the export) can be the difference between a good position for the win and a lost game.

However, there's another caveat: when buying from the stock market, you're allowed to exceed the 60% max stock limit that you may own of a company. So if you are able to make it to the south with your North Korean company, weather the midgame storm that is the war and the train rush and get your permanent train(s), you might have 80-100% of a very profitable company.

Now that i have talked a lot about the North Korean companies, lets turn our view to the other half of the map, because the South Korean companies are important as well. Since the 2nd half of the game is only played in the South, having tokens in the best locations can be crucial to make the best of your E-Train runs in the late game. You always have to balance earning money early in the north while making sure you get a company in the south in time. Also, you're only allowed to put your super powerful privates into companies from the north or the 3 pre-war South Korean companies, leading to a competition over the best South Korean companies as well and having the timing right, when to put up one of those while having enough funds to secure them in the bidding round is a necessary skill to play this well.

📈 Values

Understanding the puzzle of available companies, which player owns which privates and their individual potential is one of the most fun things about this game. Sometimes you follow the rules I lined out above and make sure to have enough shares of the very profitable north-eastern companies, while at other times you see that another player has a private to add a special tile to the map in the south, completely altering your most profitable routes there and therefore also the value of the available companies.

Just be aware that this is not a 18xx title driven by its stock rounds. Yes, you auction the companies, but apart from that there's not much happening. There's rarely any dumping (since you can't move the privates out from a company once you've put them in) and because of the stock price not being affected by non-chairman sales, there's little to do with the stock values.

🎲 Player Count

Having played this at 3 and 4, I am pretty sure that i prefer the 4 player game over 3 player. While totally fine at 3, it shines more at 4 because of the higher competition for token slots in the South, which is one of the key parts of the late game. For the same reasons, it might also work great at 5 but I haven't tried it.

📦 Production

I was totally unsure what to expect, but the production quality of this is great and on par with for example, All-Aboard Games. Map is nice, tiles are sturdy, fine charters and shares. My only complaint is that several of the companies have similar colours and the company logos are also sometimes hard to distinguish, but this might be a cultural thing of not being used to the letters. Yet, I often struggled looking from afar at the map to immediately be able to tell, which token belonged to which company.

And the big elephant in the room: the production in in korean. This is not a problem for the revenues of the offboards, companies, the market, trains etc. but all the rules are in korean and also all the text of the privates. To me this was not a major problem, as you'll also receive a translation of the rules and the privates, but it might turn off some people. To me, this was a non-issue in all of my players and my co-players.

Speaking of production, given that this is produced by a Korean guy, getting it might be a bit trickier that your normal webstore order.

As far as I know, right now there's only one way:

Contact Jack from Artnpiece through BGG (user kyungjung kim ) or mail him. He will ask for pre-payment but so far i heard nothing negative about it not working out. Our copies were brought by himself to Essen for a handover there. Total for main game + expansion was 126$ in 2024.

Clearly, all of this is at your own risk.

Apart from that there's a constant talk about a Kickstarter happening for the english version of the game, but this did not happen for a few times now already. Latest estimate was again Q1 2026, so keep your eyes open.

💭 Final thoughts

When I heard first about #18Korea it sounded like this obscure speciality which is hard to acquire but worth it. Given that i love variability and puzzles, it sounded like a great game for me. After i bought it, the first play was fun but not necessarily the great game i hoped for. After a few more plays, the game has definitely risen in my ratings and i really like it right now and am super happy to have it in my collection.

I think its an absolute novelty compared to what 18xx games usually do and i happily take this over one of the endless 30 clones out there. Also, it plays relatively quick and can be done in 3,5 hours. Full recommendation!

If you want to desperately play this game now, the game is also available on Steam but i never tried it and it has mixed reviews.

#18xx #boardgames