It's a 2-6 player game, but the 2 player game is kind of lame, I wouldn't recommend it. You need 3-6. Says 90 minute play time, but we typically play in 45 minutes (then again, we are all very familiar with the game). The game has very little luck. There is just enough randomness to change the game from game to game.
In today's modern strategy games, you often have rules "manuals", 10 pages or more, even 20 pages. I play games with friends that have taken 45 minutes or more to just have one player go through the rules to explain to the others. The rules for Acquire are on one single sided page. Many board game people consider Sid Sackson one of the best game designers ever and also feel this was his best game.
The game involves laying tiles (drawn randomly by players) to start, grow, merge, up to 7 hotel chains. Players buy stock shares in any active hotel chain. You have a limited amount of money and have to consider your investment direction, based on how the hotels are growing. Every time a hotel gets bigger, it's worth more money. Every time two (or more) hotels merge, all players owning shares in the the hotel being taken over have three options; cash out, keep shares (in hopes the hotel chain gets started up again), or trade 2-for-1 to the surviving hotel. This is the crucial decision and goes a long way into determining the outcome. When a hotel gets large enough, it can no longer be taken over in a merger and will therefore be there at the end of the game.
You have the choice, based on the tiles you have drawn, which hotels to grow, which to merge, which to start.
What makes the game great is the constantly varying strategy. A decision that is best at one point in the game is a bad decision at another. There are several decision circumstances like that. You have to decide which is best based on the game progress at that time. The pieces you play and decisions you make constantly evolve over the course of the game and likewise, those same decisions other players make impact you and you need to respond properly to have a chance at winning.
There is no one best strategy, no one best right way to play. You have to evaluate each game based on the tiles you and others lay down and how the other players decisions impact your money and stock. Game can end when all hotels on the board are "safe" (can no longer be merged) or when any one hotel reaches a very large presence. That's even another great game item. They player himself determines when to call the end of the game. Just because all hotels are safe, the player on his turn can keep the game going. It's up to the next player if he wants to end the game or not, and so on.
It's a great game, I highly recommend it if you can get at least a 3 player game. It's one of those games this if/when you lose, it's difficult to blame it on luck, so you just get so aggravated that you just want to play again to prove your skill is good. It came out in 1962 by 3M and then by Avalon Hill and still survives today as a great strategy game. It comes in many versions. You can get new ones in the store/internet or on ebay. But I'd highly recommend an older version, anywhere from $10-$30 on ebay. Anything with this format type box:
ebay.com link: Vintage Acquire High Adventure in High Finance Board Game 1962 3M
ebay.com link: 1962 Acquire 3M Bookshelf Board Game Replacement Parts Cards Tiles Incomplete
Give it a try. Way too long of an answer and way too much information, I know.
Joe (joemagiera at ameritech dot net)
[email protected]
Humble, TX
Alcona, ON
Bermuda Triangle
Bogotá
