Rowan Tree and Red Thread

We had friends over last night for board gaming for the first time in ages. When our friend Ken was living in Cork we played regularly, but since his departure to parts Belgian we've been increasingly lax about scheduling board game nights. So I was glad to get things organised to play last night. The request was for Acquire by Sid Sackson, a well-known stocks and shares themed game of getting control of corporations and maximising your investment as they grow and merge.

I've enjoyed the game in the past, but I think last night confirmed my worries about it. One of the other players overspent early in the game and had no way of liquidising his shares to get back into the game. For more than half the game he was stuck picking and laying tiles without any chance to change his position. Okay, I can see that it was his fault for buying too much too early but the game is unforgiving (and worse, boring) if you let yourself get into that position. I placed third of five and can see why I didn't make the running for victor: I didn't invest enough in shares of the largest corporations while they were growing and lost out in the big pay out at the end of the game. Extra annoying as I was top for cash throughout the game and should have spent more of it to strengthen my position. I hesitated to pay out though, as I had suffered the cash-choke problem I described above in an earlier game and that left me wary of overspending.

I suppose playing that balance between ready cash and short-term stock purchased to win mergers and the long-term investments to grab the big payouts at the end of the game is the heart of Acquire and the source of the major, soul-searching questions that make for a good game. Nonetheless, I think the problem of an early overspend leaving you out of the running for the entire game but still requiring you to sit there and fulminate about your luck and stupidity is a bad one and one that should be addressed in the rules.