Avalon Hill HASC00960000 "Acquire" Game

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But what if there is no third player that has invested in that company? Even if the decision is to forget the third bonus when no players hold Third Majority, then the other players are still farther behind the "early jumpers" than in a traditional game of ACQUIRE. If the decision is to split the third bonus between the top majority holders, then the game has increased its long running problem of keeping the games competitive on a regular basis and attracting new players. Acquire, the classic 1960s board game considered by many as one of the best alternatives to Monopoly, will see a new edition later this year. I hope I have provided enough information so that you can make an informed decision on whether you too want to waste your money on the 2016 Hasbro game of ACQUIRE.

As much as Hasbro thinks that adding the Third Majority is going to "spread the wealth" in the game of ACQUIRE, it actually adds more wealth to those players who get the "early jump." Since the First Majority amounts remained the same in this edition as in earlier editions, it would appear that the players who hold Second Majority will gain more wealth than in previous editions. However, if there is a tie for First and Second Majority, then both players benefit from the extra amount. The compensation to this effect is that there can be a third player that gets the traditional amount of a Second Majority. Has inspired many computer versions such as “AcquireOnline” which revived interest in this classic game type again more recently (2004). Dated 1976 plastic tiles, yellow hard plastic board, redesigned money, no inner box (This edition was also produced in 1977, 79, 81, 82, & 86) Eskin, Blake, “Sold Separately,” The New Yorker, January 20, 2003, http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/030120ta_talk_eskin (accessed 1/4/2007). In a perfect world, Acquire would be sitting in everyone’s household with ten thousand variants and obnoxious intellectual properties, while Monopoly would’ve been left as an interesting footnote in board game history. Unfortunately, the reverse happened.

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As a small child, he worked on improving the games he received. His first effort involved modifying his Uncle Wiggily game until it became a war game with soldiers and cannon. He found the Lotto game dull, so he turned it into a solitaire game of historical empires. Players must manage their investments carefully; put too much into one company and you may find yourself bled dry when an opponent takes control and proceeds to merge that company with another one they have a majority stake in. There are other hazards to negotiate throughout the course of play such as hostile takeovers and price manipulation by other players but ultimately it’s all about balancing risk and reward while attempting to outperform your opponents

I’ll start with the easiest criticism: player scaling. Acquire technically works at the five or six player count, but a myriad of issues fester all over the experience. Downtime becomes far more significant and can lead to the game hitting the two-hour mark. I love Acquire, but this isn’t a two-hour experience. We have made a few minor changes between the production run of MEGAcquire and this next production run of MEGAcquire GOLD. The money has been changed to prepaid debit cards and the denominations have been raised to 1, 5, 10, & 50 million. Players can now become a billionaire in the game of MEGAcquire GOLD. Companies are considered "safe" when they reach 21 tiles. A "safe" company means that they can't be taken over by a larger company and will remain on the board until the end of the game. Tiles that would connect two safe companies cannot be played. Instead, those tiles are turned over on their designated spaces on the board and new tiles are drawn. Companies can increase in value up to the level of 101 tiles. Hasbro decided to reconfigure the range as 6-7 tiles, then 8-17, 18-27, 28-37, & 38 & Over, which makes the processing of information and flow of the overall game more cumbersome. This reconfiguration doesn't even allow for a price increase when a company becomes safe. This is one of those areas where I feel like design decisions are being made by people who have never played the game of ACQUIRE.A player during their turn may declare the game at an end if the largest chain exceeds a specified size (about 40% of the board), or all chains on the board are too large to be acquired. When the game ends, shareholder bonuses In 1976, the 3M game division was sold to Avalon Hill and Acquire became part of their bookcase game series. Four years later, Avalon Hill published the computer game Computer Acquire for the PET, Apple II and TRS-80. [2] Example of Acquire game play, Wizards of the Coast edition The tiles are a nice size, but the choice of font for the printing of the designations on the tiles makes them very cumbersome to use. It appears to be some type of italicized font and they chose to print the numbers smaller than the letters. The human brain can read two things together when they are the same size. When they are made as two different sizes, the human brain tends to have to process them separately. This causes a longer time to process what tile a player is looking at. MEGAcquire increases the size of the game of ACQUIRE. With the hexagon configuration of the playing tiles, MEGAcquire also heightens the level of strategy. Opportunities to create, merge, and grow companies are 50% more likely for each tile, compared to the traditional square shape (six chances to connect instead of four). The size of the board and the number of available companies allows for an ebb and flow of power throughout the game.

Acquire is one of those few old games that has aged far more gracefully than the finest of wines. I can easily point out that this game is easier to teach than Monopoly while still preserving a competitive edge that remains sharp to this day. The game’s inclusion in the 2023 event of the World Series of Board Gaming, the pinnacle of competitive board gaming, is a testament to its enduring appeal and strategic depth. Mastering the Deal Hasbro did decide to once again use plastic for the board and the tiles instead of the worthless use of cardboard in the 2008 edition. Yet this is probably one of the only positives to this new edition. Hasbro had a chance to bring the ACQUIRE franchise out of the pit to which it plummeted in 2008 but all they have done with the 2016 edition is take the franchise sideways. While the two games play very differently, Acquire is often described as a superior successor to Monopoly in its themes of ruthless money-hoarding capitalism and competitive property management. Rest assured, the game’s strategic tile-laying rules and careful investment choices make it a far more tactical and deliberate experience than Monopoly’s random roll-and-move turns. Has received several awards including being inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame in 1989.

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Here, you can play the Acquire board game. Many user interface and game play elements are based on Kensit's NetAcquire Windows application. Thank you Kensit for the great design! This booklet goes a long way to helping new players learn and understand the game of ACQUIRE. It is just a shame that they didn't give this much attention to the rest of the game. Hasbro has fully illustrated and explained how to play the game of ACQUIRE in this booklet but you still can't see the board or decipher the tiles. I am at a loss as to why Hasbro felt the need to make the board 10 x 10 instead of the 9 x 12 board that has been standard. I would assume that the square design of the overall board probably saved them money in mold costs for the board, the board itself, and the box. I certainly can's see any strategic advantage for having this reconfigured board. In the long run it shortens game play and reduces possibilities during game play. Unless you are a true ACQUIRE fanatic who wants this game for your collection, don't waste your money on this edition. It is not an edition that lends itself to everyday game play. It would be really nice, after 53 years, if someone who was in charge of designing the next edition of ACQUIRE would actually take the time to play the game of ACQUIRE. Hasbro released the 2016 edition of ACQUIRE in November of 2016.

It takes approximately two to three hours to fill the entire board of MEGAcquire GOLD, but shorter time limits can be set. If you only want to play for an hour and a half, just be sure to let all players have equal turns and end the game at the designated time. At that time, all companies are cashed out at the current market value, which is based on the number of tiles in the company. All players count their earnings and the player with the most money is the MEGAcquire GOLD Master.In 1995 Avalon Hill abandoned the “bookshelf” look and produced a bigger, flat board with cardboard tiles. It was a disappointing version in terms of the tiles being able to slide across the board, but it introduced the “Special Power Variants” to the United States.