Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Easier to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
More strategic control
How it plays
How does it play?
Auction railway shares, extend colorful lines across Ireland, upgrade towns, and time dividend calls around a bag of uncertain demand cubes.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Network and Route Building
Create connected routes that improve reach, delivery, control, or scoring.
Auction / Bidding
Bid against other players to determine who receives an item, action, or priority.
Income
Receive recurring resources according to your position, assets, or development.
Investment
Commit resources now to improve income, control, or value later.
Random Production
A random result determines which players or areas produce resources.
Hexagon Grid
Use a hexagonal map where each space connects evenly in six directions.
Read the full game description
Irish Gauge is a lean railway investment game in which track ownership and company ownership are deliberately separate. On your turn, choose one consequential action: auction an unissued share, build a company’s rails, upgrade a town into a city, or call dividends. Revenue depends on which cities a company reaches and which colored demand cubes are drawn from the bag, so every new connection can help several shareholders while changing what a future payout may be worth. Auctions reveal how much the table believes in a network; track builds can enrich an ally, block a rival, or make your own shares attractive enough to sell dearly. With just one sheet of rules and a volatile shared economy, Irish Gauge delivers sharp negotiation, timing, and route-building in about an hour.
