General

18Wisconsin is set in the western part of Wisconsin, USA. The focus of the game is on the beer transport of the breweries in the area of Milwaukee. The breweries are the private companies but generate a variable income depending on the transported beer barrel by the railway corporations. There is also a variant where the private breweries merge to brewery corporations. The game contains little wooden beer barrels in order to spice the theme.  

For two players, there is a variant with an Investor dummy.

During the Starting Round, the players acquire the following certificates, depending on the number of participants: 6 to 8 private breweries, 2 to 3 director shares of railway corporations and 2 to 4 functional cards. The owner of the functional cards may use their special function when they act as director of a railway corporation. The private breweries have each a separate location on the map. These locations filled at the start of each set of operating rounds with wooden beer barrels. The railway corporations’ trains pickup one barrel per location that is on their route, up to a train’s transport capacity. The bank pays a revenue at the end of each set of operating round to each private brewery, depending on the number of barrels removed from their location. Each private brewery has an initial stock market value, which is equal to its printed value. The stock market value will change as a result of the beer barrels turnover. Players can sell owned private breweries to the bank at current stock market value during the stock rounds. They are forced to do so after the purchase of the first type 5-train.

The transport capacity of the trains increases according to the train type. In order to increase the transport capacity, railway corporations may buy beer wagons.

18Wisconsin ends after a complete set of operating rounds during the brown phase.

In the Brewery Corporation variant, players can merge owned private breweries with one of the two brewery corporations, instead of selling them to the bank.