January 3, 2009
Fun with Corporate Mergers
So, to ring in the new year, we tried a lot of my new board games on New Years Eve, so I suppose I should write some impressions of them, hm?
Apparently, there are only 7 hotel chains, ever. Did you know this? It’s true. And Business Magnates? Well, they are all up ons these hotel chains.
That’s what Acquire told me.
The game itself is pretty awesome, honestly. It’s really simple. You don’t do a whole lot over the course of the game. You just lay a tile, buy up to three stocks, and draw a new tile every turn. But it’s very much a mind game. You have to think about what all the other players are trying to do so you can maximize your investment. Do you want to invest in Festival because it’s growing to be the biggest chain, and thus your shares will be worth more in the end? Or do you want to buy much stock in a cheaper chain like Worldwide, hoping that the much bigger Imperial acquires them in a merger, letting you trade in your stock for the more valuable Imperial stock? And is any of the other player’s plans going to screw this over? Is player two going to screw you out of the bonus you get for being the Majority stockholder?
But seriously, the game always seems like there should be more to it, and it’s odd that you can only cash out stocks during mergers (though that seems to be a balance thing to help encourage people TO create mergers, which is where most of the action is) but in general, from one playthough, this is a game with a shite-ton of strategy in it’s simplicity. That’s an awesome thing.
I honestly can’t wait to play it again, now that I understand how things work a little better. I’m probably going to try investing mostly in one company next time. This time I really spread out my investments and got second place, but Jonathan won by investing heavily in Festival early, and then working to make sure Festival was the biggest chain out there, whereas I focused on buying little stocks and getting them bought so I could spend my Majority Stockholder bonus on more stocks. I mean, I suppose either could be a viable option? We’ll see, though.