18FB is a game based on the railroad development in Southern Italy in the period 1836 - 1905.

Everything started on 1995, when some friends of mine brought me a board game titled 1830 regarding railroads development. Never a game obtained so much success as 1830 did, becoming almost the only game played for a whole year. Then, during September 1996, after having bought 1856, I started thinking about my own design, based on 18xx game-system but adapted to the southern Italy history. The news about the production of a number of new 18xx titles and the encouragement from friends, strengthened my decision to proceed and I started my historical research.

I spent a lot of my spare time at the National Library in Naples where, thanks specially to Nicola Ostuni's books, I realized more or less clearly the situation: railroad developing in South Italy was slow and contorted. That because the bourbon monarchy, ruling over the whole southern Italy and Sicily, contrasted the development of new technologies for communication and transportation, in an area and in a period where free ideas circulation represented a potential threat to monarchies across all Europe. Moreover the heavy bourbon bureaucratic and administrative system, the eternal discussion between the public and private railroad management, discouraged private investments in the sector.

In a scenario where railroads were launched and then stopped, proposals presented and then rejected, projects left only on paper, the simulation of railway development looked hard and not reflecting the reality from an historical point of view. So, I had to reach a compromise between simulation and playability leading to a game about a potential railroad developments in the southern Italy rather than its historical reproduction.

Finally on 2001 I produced the first game set of 18FB and the playtesting activity started.