A review of the game 'Acquire,' in which you can expand your hotel chain and increase your assets with the stocks.

Acquire , a board game created in the 1960s with the theme of hotel chain investment and mergers, is still popular today despite minor changes to the rules. In Japan, Arclight Games has released a deluxe version with plastic board and pieces, which was provided for

The target age is 12 years and over, the number of players is 2 to 6, and the estimated playing time is 90 minutes.

Open the box and check the contents. First of all, there is a rule manual and a plastic game board.

6 stock boards, with classic mode stock charts on the front and tycoon mode stock charts on the back.

Banknotes used in the game. Four denominations: $100, $500, $1000, and $5000.

And then there are the stock certificates that can be bought and sold in the game. There are seven different types.

The hotel's monument, the headquarters top.

There are a total of 108 building pieces. Each piece is labeled with a number and alphabet that corresponds to the game board.

The headquarters banner was an orange translucent plastic part attached to the runner.

Cut out the HQ banner and attach it to the HQ piece as shown below.

One quick reference card that lists moves and procedures during the game.

This time, we played Tycoon mode with four players. To prepare for the game, first place the game board in the center of the table, then place the building pieces face down next to it and shuffle them.

The headquarters pieces and stock certificates will be stored in the box as shown below and become part of the supply.

Each player is given a stock price board and bills. The bills are 5 x 100 dollars, 3 x 500 dollars, and 4 x 1000 dollars, for a total of 6000 dollars in initial funds.

Now you're ready to go. This time, four players will play. One of the players will act as the banker, who will manage the stock certificates, headquarters pieces, and banknotes.

At the beginning of play, each player draws exactly one face-down building piece.

Place the building pieces you draw on the game board so that the numbers and letters match. The player who places the building piece closest to '1A' becomes the first player. 'Closest' here means the lower the alphabet, the closer it is. In this case, '12A' is the closest, so the person who drew the '12A' building piece starts.

Next, each player draws six building pieces as their hand, which must be hidden from view by others.

The game is very simple. On your turn, you take three actions: place a building piece, buy stocks (optional), and draw a building piece. The player who has earned the most assets at the end wins.

In 'Place a Building Piece,' you can place one building piece from your hand on the game board. In this case, the first player placed a building piece on '11A' next to '12A.'

When two or more building pieces are adjacent to each other, a hotel chain will be established there. Choose your favorite headquarters piece from the box.

The hotel chain 'Tower' was established by placing a yellow headquarters piece on top of the building piece. 'Hey, what a little hotel chain in a corner,' 'Can you survive in this ocean of the economy...' and other harsh comments from investors are showered on the first hotel chain.

The player who establishes a hotel chain will first receive one share of stock in that hotel chain.

Stock certificates have a set share price. In reality, stock prices can go up or down, but in Acquire, as the number of hotel chain building pieces increases, the stock price goes up, never goes down. In this case, the Tower was established in two building spaces, so the stock price per stock certificate is $200.

After placing the building pieces, you can then 'buy shares' in an established hotel chain. You can purchase up to three shares per turn, and you can choose any combination of shares. In this case, you will purchase three 'Tower' shares, so you will need to pay $200 x 3 = $600. Before starting the game, you must decide whether or not to reveal the shares you have obtained to other players. Revealing them makes the flow of the game easier to understand and reduces the gambling element, but the amount of thought required while playing increases dramatically, so the gameplay changes considerably.

At the end of your turn, draw a building piece and add it to your hand.

Each player connects building pieces to build a hotel chain. However, players are not hotel owners, but investors who buy stocks. They identify the hotel chains that are growing and investing in them, and buy up the stock certificates.

As building pieces are placed and the area of the hotel chain increases, the stock price rises accordingly. In other words, if you connect building pieces to the hotels in which you own shares and expand them, the stock price will rise.

However, as a hotel chain expands, it may collide with other hotel chains. For example, the red 'SACKSON' and the green 'Festival' below are quite close to each other and are connected by a single building.

If you place a building piece on the '10G' space, two hotel chains will be stuck together. When placing a building piece in a place like this where multiple hotel chains will be stuck together, first flip the building piece over and then place it.

The smaller of the two hotel chains will be absorbed by the larger one. In this case, the 2-square 'Festival' will be absorbed by the 5-square 'SACKSON', and the headquarters of 'Festival' will be removed.

The absorbed 'Sackson' expanded its floor space to 8 squares. In this way, hotel chains aim to continue to grow in size by repeatedly absorbing and merging other hotels.

When a hotel chain is absorbed, the headquarters piece disappears from the game board, but the stock certificates that were owned up until that point become meaningful. Shareholders are ranked according to the number of stock certificates they hold, and dividends are paid out to the second-highest shareholders in Classic Mode and the third-highest shareholders in Tycoon Mode.

The dividends available are listed on the stock price board. For example, if a 2-square corporation called 'Festival' is absorbed, the largest shareholder with the most stock will receive $3,000, the second largest shareholder will receive $2,200, and the third largest shareholder will receive $1,500.

In other words, it is important to make the hotel you are investing in bigger, but in order to earn funds to invest, it is very important that the hotel you are investing in is absorbed. If you don't have seed money, you can't buy stocks, so the key to playing is to 'invest firmly in hotels that are likely to be absorbed, while using the dividends to generously invest in other hotels.'

In addition, after receiving the dividend, it is possible to sell the stock certificates. Furthermore, it is also possible to 'exchange the stock certificates for the stock certificates of the hotel chain that was absorbed' without selling the stock certificates. The exchange rate is 2:1. In this acquisition, two 'Festival' stock certificates were exchanged for one 'SACKSON' stock certificate.

Hotel chains grow larger and larger by repeatedly merging and absorbing other hotels and connecting building pieces. When a hotel chain exceeds 11 spaces, it becomes a 'large hotel chain' and can no longer be merged or absorbed.

On the right side of the game board, 'SACKSON' is rapidly growing into a large hotel chain, while on the left side, the orange 'IMPERIAL' is busily absorbing and merging surrounding hotel chains to grow larger.

Bills fly across the game board. The number of hotel chain stock certificates is limited, so if you don't buy them early, you'll end up in a situation where you have a lot of money but can't buy them later even if you want them. Large hotel chains in particular are not absorbed, so it's possible that you won't have any way to buy them later in the game.

In that case, it is important to have a strategy of absorbing small hotel chains and earning the dividends to increase your assets as much as possible. One player had secured the only building piece on the game board where they could build a new hotel chain, and at the end of the game they suddenly decided to build it, buy stock certificates, and earn dividends.

The blue hotel chain Continental pays a high dividend, so I decided to try and increase my assets a little at the end.

Eventually, the game board became two hotel chains, 'Imperial' and 'SACKSON'. When one hotel chain has an area of 41 squares or more, or when all the hotel chains on the game board become large hotel chains, the active player can declare the end of the game at the end of his turn.

Once the game is over, you sell all of your stocks and calculate your total assets by adding the cash you have left.

The rules of 'Acquire' are very simple, and even people who are not familiar with board games can easily understand them. However, I felt that it was a very exciting game in terms of bargaining over which hotel chain to invest in and which hotel chain to expand. In addition to strategy, the luck of what building pieces you draw also greatly affects the flow of the game. The balance between luck and strategy is exquisite, and it is a satisfying game, so it is no wonder that it has been loved for over half a century. This time, I played in Tycoon mode with publicly held shares, but if you play in Classic mode with privately held shares, the game becomes more difficult and you can wage a more intense economic war. However, the process of 'checking the stock price board while checking the dividends and stock prices of stock certificates and exchanging money' is difficult, so you need to be careful as it puts a lot of strain on the player playing the bank role.

'Acquire' can be purchased at Amazon.co.jp for 5,645 yen including tax.

Amazon | Arclight Acquire (2-6 players, 90 minutes, ages 12+) Board Game | Board Games | Toys