Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
18Svea is one of the smallest and fastest 18XX games around with less than two hours playtime taking place on a map with only ten hexes in total. Designed for two or three players.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Auction/Bidding
Bid against other players to determine who receives an item, action, or priority.
Market
Buy and sell through a shared supply whose availability or prices can change.
Network and Route Building
Create connected routes that improve reach, delivery, control, or scoring.
Stock Holding
Acquire shares whose value depends on companies, assets, or player actions.
Tile Placement
Place tiles to build a shared or personal spatial arrangement.
Connections
Create meaningful links between locations, pieces, or concepts.
Read the full game description
18Svea is one of the smallest and fastest 18XX games around with less than two hours playtime taking place on a map with only ten hexes in total. Designed for two or three players. The players are railroad entrepreneurs who foresee an opportunity to make money by establishing and running railroad companies developing a railroad network centered around the middle part of Sweden from 1850 and onwards. The game contains five fictional train companies based in different Swedish cities on the map. A game of 18Svea follows a fixed set of rounds. Four Stock Rounds (SR) when players manage their private shareholder investments in available train companies mixed with seven Operations Rounds (OR) when train companies expand their rail network, establish train stations, run trains, and generate money to its shareholders. The game also contains twelve strategy cards which ensures that every game will be different. When the game ends, the player with highest combined wealth in money and company shares wins the game. 18Svea is heavily inspired by the fantastic 18XX train games originally developed or inspired by Francis Tresham and do not normally involve dice rolling or other random events during play. Apart from shuffling the deck of strategy cards and potentially rolling one die once when determining the placement of an off-board connection, players must rely on their own ability to outwit and outmaneuver each other while playing. In 18Svea the luck factor is small, and the player interaction factor is very high already from round one.