Tips & Strategy

How to teach 18 India, a first game, the certificate draft, Companies and trains, player counts, and the published advice — with links.

Advice, not rules: where a video or forum post and the rules differ, the rules win.

How to teach it

• Teach the draft first, then one Stock Round and one Operating Round step by step; the rulebook’s detailed example of play (East India Railway from Kolkata to Nepal) is a good walk-through.
• Stress the 18 India differences for experienced 18xx players: one selling turn per Stock Round, hands of exclusive options, three IPO rows, Managed Companies, no rusting, all tile colours at once, the four-tile yellow build.

Host game

Keep a Company’s treasury separate from its Director’s cash. Before the first operation, ask the Director to name the track costs and the train they intend to buy from that treasury; personal money cannot top it up.

Rehearse one Company’s operation

Trace up to four contiguous yellow tiles in one direction, rather than splitting the lays between branches. Check terrain costs before placing them: the four-tile allowance does not make river, hill or mountain costs free.

Then follow the operation in order: track, station, run trains, handle revenue, trade trains, trade certificates. Run trains before buying trains, so a newly bought train does not earn revenue in that same operation. A Company can end without a train; there is no forced purchase, but its stock value moves one space left if it still owns none at the end of its operation.

At the next Stock Round, announce the Selling Turn before anyone buys: players get one selling opportunity at the start, rather than selling later to fund another purchase.

Your first game

• From the rulebook’s strategy tips: look at the IPO before keeping your hand — it tells you what the others can hold. Aim for about four options in one Company: enough capital for two 2-trains and to resist a takeover.
• Balance “offense and defence” in the draft: do not let an opponent collect most of one Company.
• Spending nearly all your money and passing early keeps you first in the next Stock Round — a cheap Private Company is a good way to park money, since you get it back later.

Companies and trains

• There is still a train rush even without rusting: there is not enough money for every Company to have good trains, so decide which Companies will be your earners.

• Company-owned shares earn dividends, can be sold for train money, and add 10% of their value to the Company at the end — the rulebook notes this can be worth over ₹150 per share.

• Start the GIPR early if you can: it can open anywhere, even on others’ track, and late Royal Bond conversions bring it lots of capital.

• Concession bonuses are not multiplied by ×2 and ×3 trains; the designers note most of the fight is “playing chicken” over who reaches a commodity first (BGG thread).

• Concessions reward speed: the designers’ Building Track in 18 India (InsideGMT) shows four yellow tiles a turn racing to a commodity, and upgrading a Town to a green City to give a 2-train a legal end.

• Private Companies are recyclable money: income every round, and the full price back when used or sold (18 India Unboxing and Corrections, Wheel Tapping).

Player counts

• 2 players: playable as is; the designers suggest two variants to hide information.
• 3–5 players: the standard game; fewer options per hand as the count rises.

Videos versus the rules

• Recorded plays such as Bankruptcy Club plays 18 India buy from the IPO in the first Stock Round; the official F.A.Q. forbids that for players.
• Some players treat Nepal as an OO city a train can visit twice; the official F.A.Q. says neither Mumbai nor Nepal can be entered twice by one train.
• Wheel Tapping’s unboxing lists the first printing’s component fixes: a replacement tile sheet (one 544 tile has the wrong back), larger gauge change discs, a tile-upgrade reference card, the market board’s “3×3/3E×3” label and the Royal Bond card text.

Sources

• GMT Games’ 18 India rulebook (strategy tips and example of play).
• YouTube: 18 India Unboxing and Corrections, by Wheel Tapping; TDG: 18 India, by The Discriminating Gamer; Bankruptcy Club plays 18 India, by Bankruptcy Club.
• InsideGMT: Building Track in 18 India.
• BGG: the Official Living F.A.Q. and the designers’ answers linked in the FAQ.