[wheresvic3]

Funny to see this pop up on HN! Another avid 18xx gamer here and I can highly recommend 1817 as I find it to be the best boardgame of all time!

One of the reasons that 18xx games appeal to engineers is that they are deterministic, most game do not have any random events. What they do feature though is auctions which induce variances in the game. Players are investors looking to make money. Everyone starts out with an equal amount of cash and you invest in companies. The majority shareholder of a company is its president and gets to decide what the company does. Generally, a company will build out its network and then buy equipment (trains) which will service (imaginary) passengers and make money. This money can be re-invested into the company itself or paid-out to the shareholders.

Another reason for the appeal to engineers is the track (network) building aspect. Some games offer quite a variety of network building and some games are more focused on the financial aspect.

Quite a few titles can be played online @ 18xx.games - feel free to message me (wheresvic) if you'd like a teaching game.