Horseless Carriage is great. SoPac is one I still need to try. There was a copy at DoamCon last weekend, but I didn’t get a game in. I did get West Riding Revisited in, which is excellent. It’s one of the few cube rails to have minor and major railways. I’d like to see it licensed, but it’s a little unlikely
My list looks similar. Splotter is at the top. I did preorder Horseless Carriage back before we had much info about it and don’t regret it. John Bohrer would be up there as well, but though various connections I’ve played enough Winsomes to know they aren’t an instant buy. (Iberian Railways, Italian Railroads, and 1836)
Tangent, but I’m very split on 1836. The opening is incredible, but once you get past the first stock round all the interesting decisions have been made.
It’s hard to say. You definitely don’t want to be too specific, but you do want to hit the high notes. What parts of the movement are important later, even if “later” is only a sentence or two away?
I haven’t played many, but it does lead to some interesting cases of board games being adapted to video games and back to board games, like Civilization and Europa Universalis.