18RoyalGorge → 18EU — A Learner's Comparison

The one-paragraph mental model

18RoyalGorge is a tight tactical knife-fight in one canyon: privates feed you, five companies fight over a bottleneck, and the game hangs bells and whistles (steel market, gold shipping, Doc, the Treaty) onto a small, fast frame. 18EU is a broad, classic economic 18xx across a continent, and it is lean where 18RG is baroque — no steel-per-tile, no gold, no debt. Instead almost all of 18EU's identity lives in one mechanic 18RG has no analog for: you personally own little operating railroads (Minor Companies) that you later feed into the big Corporations. If you understand that the 15 Minors are both your early income engine and the raw material for the 8 Corporations, you understand 80% of 18EU.

18RoyalGorge

2–4 players · ~90 min · 1 canyon · 5 companies · resource-market minigames bolted onto a small map · big 6-tile lays · you fight over space.

18EU

2–6 players · 3–4+ hrs · a continent · 15 Minors → 8 Corporations · lean "pure" 18xx · 1 tile per turn · you fight over the train rush & who merges what.

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Translation dictionary

Nearest 18RG concept on the left, the 18EU equivalent on the right — plus the catch, because none of these map perfectly.

18RoyalGorge you know…	…maps to in 18EU	…but the catch is
Private Asset cards (income + power)	Minor Companies (×15)	Minors aren't cards — they operate: lay track, run a 2-train, pay you a half-dividend. They're mini-railroads you fully own.
Private Asset Auction at game start	Minor Company Initial Sale Round	Sequential "you pick one, then it's auctioned." If nobody opens a ≥£100 bid, price ticks down £90→£10, then free.
Starting a company (set price, pay 2×)	Same — set starting value, pay 2× to Treasury	Before Phase 5 you must also feed in one of your Minors to do it. No Minor left = you can't start a corp.
"Buying a private into a company" (Green phase)	Merging a Minor into a Corporation	This is permanent and gives you a share, and it's gated by physical rail connection, not just cash.
CF&I steel — pay per tile lay	— (no direct analog)	18EU tiles are free except terrain: Rough hex £60, Mountain £120 (yellow) / £60 (to green).
Gold shipping (+$50 revenue)	Red-to-Red bonus + Pullman Car	Revenue boosters here come from long routes between off-map areas and from the Pullman doubling one city.
"Plus" trains & 6×2 diesels	Classic 2·3·4·5·6·8 trains + Pullman "P"	Hard rusting returns: 4s rust 2s, 6s rust 3s, 8s rust 4s. The train rush is real and brutal.
Build Station step (pay token cost)	Additional token placement	Corps pre-buy 4 tokens for £100 at formation; placing them later in an OR is free.
Revolver (priority marker)	Priority Deal card	Passes to whoever started the final round of passes — not "left of last actor."
Bank / stock-cap / game-end card	Bank breaks → finish the OR set	Classic 18xx ending: when the Bank empties, complete the current full set of two ORs, then score.

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Side-by-side comparison

Dimension	18RoyalGorge	18EU
Scale & feel	1 canyon in 1870s Colorado; tactical brawl over a bottleneck.	Continental Europe, 1830s–1930s; broad strategic route-building.
Players / length	2–4 · ~90 min.	2–6 · 3–4+ hours.
Starting cash	$800 / $550 / $400 (2/3/4p).	£750 / £450 / £350 / £300 / £250 (2–6p).
Cert limit	20 / 14 / 12.	28 / 20 / 16 / 13 / 11. Each Minor = 1 cert.
Ownership cap	70% (2p) / 60%. Pool ≤ 50%.	60% (temporarily higher via merges). Pool ≤ 50%, Treasury ≤ 80%.
The "private" layer	25 asset cards: income + special powers, mostly passive; some player-only (Doc).	15 Minor Companies: fully-owned operating railroads with a 2-train & half-dividend.
Operating companies	5 (Santa Fe & Rio Grande fixed + 3 random).	8 national Corporations, geographically flexible — you build them where your Minors are.
Capitalization	Set price, pay 2× to treasury; incremental as shares sell.	Dual-mode: pre-Phase 5 incremental (float at 50%); post-Phase 5 full-cap (Bank underwrites the last 50%).
Stock market	Dividend ≥1×/2×/3× price → move 1/2/3 right. Aggressive.	Dividend ≥ market value → 1 right; withhold → 1 left. Par-matters, gentler.
Dividends	Full or withhold (+ gold/CF&I payouts).	Full, Half, or withhold. Minors always Half. Half rounds oddly (up to owner, down to treasury).
Track per turn	Up to 6 tiles/turn — big lays on a small map.	1 tile/turn (Minor lays 2 in its first OR only). Patience game.
Tile cost	Every lay buys a steel cube (rising price).	Free except terrain: Rough £60, Mountain £120/£60.
Revenue boosters	Gold shipping, Ghost Towns, plus-trains, doubling diesels.	Red-to-Red off-map bonus (per token, scales by phase) & the Pullman (doubles one city).
Signature subsystem	Steel market + Gold + Treaty of Boston debt.	The Minor→Corporation merge and the two-stage Minor lifecycle.
Game end	Silver/end-card, red stock zone, or bankruptcy.	Bank runs out → finish the current set of two ORs, then score.

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The big new idea: Minor → Corporation

This is the part with no 18RG muscle-memory to lean on, so it's worth slowing down. The Minors live two lives:

As railroads (early game). You buy them in the opening auction. Each has a home city and a 2-train, lays yellow track, and pays you a half-dividend every OR. This is your personal income engine — the 18RG "privates pay me" phase, except these actually run trains.
As raw material (mid game). You spend Minors to create and grow Corporations. A Minor merged into a Corp gives you a share and hands the Corp the Minor's cash, trains, and (usually) its map position.

The connection rule is the whole game. A Minor can only merge into a Corp it is physically connected to — able to trace a legal route (imagine an infinite-length train) from its token to one of the Corp's tokens, or sharing a hex. So where you lay your Minors' early track quietly decides which Corporations you'll be able to build, and how strong they'll be. Plan the merge from turn one.

Three ways a Minor leaves play

Found a Corp (before Phase 5): buy the President's Cert (2× starting value), then feed in one connected Minor for a share; the new Corp buys 4 tokens for £100.
Merge into an existing Corp: in a Stock Round, in lieu of buying, exchange a connected Minor for a Treasury share.
Minor Company Final Exchange Round (Phase 5): the forced cleanup — every remaining Minor is merged (for a Treasury share, else a Pool share, else nothing) or, if unconnected, simply closed. After this, Minors are gone for good and Corps start with full Bank capitalization.

Coming from 18RG: think of it as if your income privates were also your only way to charter and capitalize the operating companies — and they had to be physically wired to the company to count.

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Gotchas coming from 18RoyalGorge

You lay ONE tile per turn, not six. The single biggest tempo shock. Every tile matters; wasted lays hurt for a long time.
No steel to budget — but terrain bites. Mountains cost £120 and can wall off a Minor that can't pay. Cash-plan your mountain crossings.
The train rush is a real threat again. 18RG's export/plus-train system smooths phase changes; 18EU has classic hard rusting (2s→gone when 4s arrive, etc.). Being caught trainless triggers Emergency Money Raising and can bankrupt a president.
Half dividends exist — a middle option 18RG doesn't give you, and Minors are locked to it.
Corporations aren't pre-placed. Unlike Santa Fe/Rio Grande, no Corp has a fixed home; its geography is whatever Minors you wire together. Two players' "Prussian Railway" games can look totally different.
Full capitalization only arrives at Phase 5. Early Corps float on player money (50%); the Bank-underwritten windfall is a late-game phenomenon. Timing when you flip a Corp matters a lot.
Connection gates everything. Merges, tokens, routes — if you're not physically connected, it doesn't happen. There's no "pay to ignore terrain" private to bail you out.
Pullman ≠ a train. It doubles one city on an existing train; it's always the first thing discarded on a train limit, and you can shed-then-rebuy it in one turn.

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Opinion: the 15 Minor Companies

My take — this section is judgment, not rules. In 18EU the value of a Minor is mostly its real estate: does it sit on (or reach) a multi-token hub — Paris, Berlin, Vienna — and can it reach rich off-map areas (London, Switzerland, the Mediterranean, the Balkans)? Hubs let several Minors stack into one powerful Corp; off-map access powers the Red-to-Red bonus. Rate the geography, not the name.

#	Minor (home)	Learner's read	Why
1	Chemin de Fer du Nord — Paris (NE)	Premium	Paris hub + a straight shot at London off-map wealth. A cornerstone for a French/northern Corp.
2	État Belge — Brussels	Premium	Dense Belgium, London links, high values. Note the consent-restricted hexes around it.
3	Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée — Paris (SE)	Premium	The other Paris circle + a spine toward the rich Mediterranean off-map. Pairs beautifully with #1.
4	Leipzig-Dresdner-Bahn — Dresden	Solid	Central Germany connective tissue; feeds a Berlin/Prussian Corp nicely.
5	Ferrovia Adriatica — Venice	Regional	Northern Italy + Adriatic off-map, but somewhat walled off from the core.
6	Kaiser-Ferdinand-Nordbahn — Vienna (N)	Premium	Vienna is a multi-token hub; strong seed for the Austrian Corp, good eastern off-map reach.
7	Berlin-Potsdamer-Bahn — Berlin (SW)	Premium	Berlin hub. Consent-restricted hex nearby. Prime material for a Prussian/DR powerhouse.
8	Ungarische Staatsbahn — Budapest	Solid	Anchors the east; strong Red-to-Red toward the Balkans, but a bit off on its own.
9	Berlin-Stettiner-Bahn — Berlin (NW)	Premium	Second Berlin circle — pair with #7 to token-stack Berlin and build a monster.
10	Strade Ferrate Alta Italia — Milan	Solid	Milan + Swiss-adjacent value; consent hex to the north. Best of the Italian group.
11	Südbahn — Vienna (S)	Premium	Second Vienna circle; stacks with #6 and bridges toward Italy/Balkans.
12	Hollandsche Maatschappij — Amsterdam	Solid	Netherlands + a port + London reach; a little cornery but genuinely lucrative.
13	Ludwigsbahn — Munich	Solid	Central connector Munich; links France–Germany–Austria and reaches Switzerland.
14	Ligne Strasbourg-Bâle — Strasbourg	Solid	The Franco-German seam with a doorway to high-value Switzerland (Basel/Bâle).
15	Grand Central — Lyon	Solid	Lyon bridges Paris and the Mediterranean; a great connective piece for a French Corp.

Pattern to notice: the paired hub Minors (Paris #1/#3, Berlin #7/#9, Vienna #6/#11) are the ones that let you token-stack a single city and build a truly dominant Corporation. If you can grab a matched pair connected to real off-map wealth, you're in great shape.

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Opinion: the 8 Railways & the geography

My take — unlike 18RG's fixed Santa Fe / Rio Grande, 18EU's Corporations are national flavor, not fixed geography: you place and shape them from the Minors you gathered. So "which Corp is best" is really "which region did I lock up." Think in regions and hubs, not names.

Corporation (English)	Natural region & why a learner cares
Société Nat. des Chemins de Fer Belges (Belgian National)	Belgium/NW: dense, cash-rich, London off-map. Small but mighty — great early revenue density.
Nederlandsche Spoorwegen (Dutch)	Netherlands corner + ports + London. Lucrative but space-constrained; loves the Belgium overlap.
Königlich-Bayerische Staatseisenbahn (Royal Bavarian)	South Germany around Munich; a central hinge reaching Switzerland, France and Austria.
Königlich-Preussische Eisenbahn-Verwaltung (Royal Prussian)	Berlin/north Germany. With the paired Berlin Minors this is often the game's heavyweight.
KK. Österreichische Staatsbahn (Austrian)	Vienna & the east; big Red-to-Red potential toward the Balkans if you hold the Vienna pair.
Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian State)	The boot: Milan/Venice. Somewhat isolated, so it rewards committed regional play over sprawl.
Société Nat. des Chemins de Fer Français (French National)	Paris + Lyon + the Mediterranean spine. Paris' multi-token hub makes this a premier Corp to build.
Deutsche Reichsbahn (German State)	A late, continent-spanning German railway; thrives on full-cap timing and long trunk routes.

Where the money lives (learner cheat-sheet):

Multi-token hubs: Paris (N & S circles), Berlin, Vienna. These hold several tokens and are where merges snowball into a dominant Corp.
Rich off-map areas (fuel the Red-to-Red bonus): London (NW), Switzerland (center, high value), the Mediterranean (S France/Italy), the Balkans/east (via Austria-Hungary), Scandinavia via Hamburg.
Build toward two red areas so long trains can run red-to-red and cash the escalating per-token bonus in the brown/grey phases — that's 18EU's version of "shipping gold."

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