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Railroad Barons

#82272BGG ↗

2010 · 2-2 players · 45min · weight 3.03 · 321 ratings

v2 v3 v4 wide v4 deep

BGG raw

ID
82272
Name
Railroad Barons
Year
2010
Rank
9988
Min players
2
Max players
2
Playing time
45
Min playtime
45
Max playtime
45
Avg weight
3.0294
Num weights
34
Bayes avg
5.58871
Average
6.21701
Users rated
321
Num owned
669
Wanting
32
Wishing
103
Num comments
141
Fetched at
Wed Apr 29 2026 05:34:56 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Mechanisms (2)
Open DraftingStock Holding
Categories (3)
Card GameEconomicTrains
Description (1231 chars)

Railroad Barons belongs to the family of 18xx games, but raised to the meta-level. Individual companies are no longer the focus, but large holding companies which add more and more new railways to their portfolios. At this abstract level there is no need for the game board and route tiles used in traditional 18xx games. The two players buy and sell stock in holding companies, and the holding companies they control buy railways to generate revenue. Corner the market in the best companies, and exploit the weaker companies, to edge out your opponent and gain any possible relative advantage. Like other 18xx games, there are no random elements, merely a battle of wits between two ambitious financiers. Assets that are profitable in the early game rapidly become obsolete, so you must always plan ahead for future growth and investment. Growth or Bust! This game is purely about the money, as there is no map or track tiles! Cards and tokens are used to represent: 5 Holdings (with a Director's share of 40% plus one share each of 30%, 20%, and 10%) Railroad companies (with a fixed income) which become obsolete as more modern Railroads come into play. 5 private Investor cards (similar to the 18xx Private companies)

LLM v2 (wide)

Not yet enriched at v2 (wide pass).

LLM v3 (deep)

Not yet enriched at v3 (deep pass).

LLM v4 wide (controlled-vocab primitives)

Not yet enriched at v4 (wide pass).

LLM v4 deep (archetype fit)

Not in the v4 deep-pass top-20% slice.