Heavy Ions in 2018

The last month of operation in 2018 will be devoted to lead-lead (Pb-Pb) physics, while no protons will be available from the injectors. In the history of the LHC this is only the 4th Pb-Pb run, but the initial 10 years LHC design goal of 1 nb $^{-1}$ of Pb-Pb luminosity in ALICE, ATLAS and CMS is already in reach. At this early stage, studies and discussions are still going on and it is not yet possible to decide all details of the run configuration. This contribution presents the current status and possible options as of the end of 2017. The choices of machine configuration and optics, levelling strategies, beam parameters from the injectors and luminosity estimates are discussed, taking into account the requirements of the experiments as presently known.