Economic

Two to five players act as leaders of different peoples and command them to explore, send out fleets, build trading posts, and generate the highest possible profit. Poseidon contains most of the basics of 18xx games and due to the relatively short running time of two hours is as suitable for 18xx-newbies who want to explore this wonderful world as it is for experienced train gamers.

The 18xx basics included are:
1) Instead of running a corporation, players control a country/people
2) The goal of the game is personal wealth, the wealthiest player at game end is the winner
3) Players create trade routes similar to railway lines in 18xx games
4) Trains are replaced with common modes of transportation at the time (i.e. ships) with varying types
5) 18xx type stations are replaced with trading posts

Game Contents: game board, eight "possession sheets", play money, lots of wood pieces, cards, 1 rule book

The first expansion to Dirk Henn's "Shogun".

From the publishers web site:

Expansion to the space exploration game HIGH FRONTIER, adds a fifth player (the UN), and adds an extension to the map that includes Jupiter, Saturn, main belt comets, centaurs, and Trojan asteroids. The expanded rules include slingshots, radiation belts, piracy, combat, solar flares, and space politics and governments. There are also 48 new patent cards, representing reactors, generators, and radiators. The expanded scenarios include alien invasions, the solitaire game, and two short games.

Comment: There are in fact 24 new cards, giving 48 additional patents.

Reiner Knizia's auction game about producing movies. In four rounds, players bid on chips representing genuine directors, actors, camera, effects, music, guest stars and agents. These all get placed on players' film-strips, to complete the movie production. So one movie might need 2 actors, but no music or effects and so on. As films are completed, the points value is marked and another film-strip taken. There are two parties each round where players get to pick from offers without paying anything. There are bonus points for first films completed and best films, best directors, even worst film.

The auction is a basic rising offer with passing until one winning bid remains. Players pay into the pot with contracts as money, and the rest of the players share the pot each turn. So it's a closed economy with players trying to time to bid on what they really need to complete films.

See Movie Comparison - Traumfabrik for listings of movies and actors in each version.

With a bright Peep from the whistle, a full Chuff from the pistons and a powerful Clank from the drivers, America's first steam locomotive moves down the steel rails of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Baltimore in 1830. This strategic railroad game extends from the first of America's railroads through the golden age of steam, where pioneering rail barons knit together the fledgling United States with iron roads, realizing the full power of the nation's mighty heartland. Each player takes the roles of railroad presidents and their wealthy investors, betting that their capital gambles will pay off handsomely. Baltimore and Ohio is not a game of luck or chance, but a competitive struggle of wits, savvy and guile. With the resources at hand, should you focus on further expansion, technological breakthroughs or emerging markets? This modern classic has all the challenges faced by the empire building capitalists that created a superpower.

Eddie Robbins' Baltimore & Ohio is a no luck, no auctions, 3+ hour, grand strategic economic slugfest of a train game, for 3-6 players. It was part of the Winsome Games' 2009 Essen Set, has been licensed to Eagle Games and will be released by Eagle in 2010.

The railroads in the game are:
Baltimore & Ohio
Boston & Maine
Chesapeake & Ohio
Erie
Illinois Central
New York Central
New York, Chicago & Saint Louis (aka Nickel Plate)
New York, New Haven & Hartford
Pennsylvania
Wabash