-
Lowell Kempf
United States
Chicago
Illinois
-
The highlight of my regular gaming group last night was Acquire. We ended up with six players unexpectedly, which is a number you usually have to plan for. I like to get a headcount so I can pack games accordingly and one extra head can throw things off.
Luckily, in this case, we had the host’s copy of Acquire. I think it is strongest at four-players but it works with six as well. That just means you end up having to put your fate in somebody’s else’s hands at times.
There are some games that you play quite a bit for a while and then you dust off them off years later, you realize that the romance is over. Then there are games that never lose their sparkle, every time you go back to them, you are amazed and wonder why you haven’t formed an internet culture devoted to them, complete with a secret handshake.
Acquire falls solidly into the second category. I have played it for quite a few years but I have never played it enough. It is a game that never fails to impress me, a game that never fails to engage me and a game that always makes me have a good time. I could write about how Acquire is one of Sid Sackson’s masterpieces or about how it is the ur-euro and an immensely influential game. However, what makes it work for me is that it is so much fun!
The secret to winning Acquire is really quite simple. You just need to have the controlling shares of the largest corporation on the board, controlling shares of smaller corporations so you can get a steady flow of income when mergers take place and the ability to randomly draw the right tiles that will make those mergers.
Yeah, and it probably wouldn’t hurt to be able to play the other player’s turns for them.
Seriously, Acquire pioneered the idea of never being able to do enough on your turn. You always want to buy one more piece of stock, play one more tile, have just a little more money. Acquire gives you a lot of options and control. The problem is, it gives them to the other players as well. No plan is ever going to go smoothly or survive contact with the enemy.
On top of that, you can never go it alone in Acquire, even if you want to. Somebody else is going to jump on board any bandwagon. On the one hand, this means you will be fighting for control of any corporation you are a part of. On the other hand, that means you (hopefully) won’t be the only one trying to grow that corporation.
So Acquire comes down to a balance of managing money, board control and gauging/using your fellow players, plus a little luck in the tile draw.
Last night, I managed to pull off a win, in large part because the corporation I founded at the start of the game managed to grow to take over the board. However, that took having someone else come on board and also nurture the company as well as having other players fail to build up the corporations around it fast enough.
Acquire is a game that looks like a spreadsheet from an Economics 101 course but feels like a roller coaster ride.
|
|
I wasn't convinced. Still am not entirely, but your blog post pushed me closer to trying it out.
