Overview
Acquire is a hotel-chain investing game for 2–6 players on a 9-row × 12-column grid (rows A–I, columns 1–12). Each player starts with $6,000 cash and a hand of 6 tiles. There are 7 hotel chains organized in three price tiers:
- Cheap — Worldwide, Sackson
- Average — Festival, Imperial, American
- Expensive — Continental, Tower
Each chain has 24 shares in the bank. On your turn you place a tile that may create, grow, or merge chains; then you may buy up to 3 stocks. You win by having the most cash after all shareholder bonuses and stock sales at game end.
Stock prices and shareholder bonuses scale with a chain's size (number of tiles). Both are looked up in the on-screen price chart — cheap tiers are cheapest, expensive tiers pay the largest bonuses at the same size.
Setup
- Determine turn order. Each player draws one tile and places it faceup on its matching space on the board. The player whose tile is closest to 1A (reading across each row: A1, A2, …, A12, then B1, B2, …) goes first; play continues in that closeness order. These starting tiles remain on the board as lone tiles and may later be absorbed into a chain.
- Deal starting hands. Each player draws 6 tiles from the pool.
- Distribute starting cash. Each player receives $6,000 from the bank.
Turn Order
Players take turns in order. On each turn:
- Play a tile from your hand onto the board. A tile is unplayable if:
- It would create an 8th chain (all 7 already on board), OR
- It would merge two or more safe chains (safe = size ≥ 10).
- Resolve what the tile does (one of four outcomes):
- Lone tile — no neighbors on the board. Nothing else happens.
- Grow — adjacent to exactly one chain. The new tile (plus any lone tiles it connects) joins that chain.
- Found — adjacent to at least one lone tile but no chain. Pick an unused chain from the available list; all connected tiles form the new chain; you receive 1 free founder's share (if any remain in the bank).
- Merge — adjacent to two or more chains. See below.
- Buy up to 3 stocks total, from any combination of chains currently on the board, provided you have the cash. Price is set by the chain's current size and tier.
- Discard any permanently unplayable tiles in hand (tiles that already touch 2+ safe chains — they can never be played), then draw back up to 6.
- Optionally declare the game end (a button appears when the end condition is met — see the last section).
Mergers
A merge triggers when a tile connects two or more chains. The mergemaker (the player who placed the tile) drives all decisions.
Choosing the survivor:
- The largest chain survives and absorbs the others.
- If two or more of the largest are tied for size, the mergemaker picks which one survives.
- Defunct chains are then processed in order from largest to smallest.
For each defunct chain, in order:
- Shareholder bonuses are paid from the bank based on the defunct chain's size and tier:
- Sole shareholder — receives Primary + Tertiary bonus.
- Majority holder — receives Primary; runner-up receives Secondary; if a third holder exists behind them, they receive Tertiary.
- Tie for majority — Primary + Secondary bonuses combined, split evenly (rounded up to $100), and the next tier receives Tertiary.
- Tie for runner-up — Secondary + Tertiary combined, split evenly (rounded up to $100).
- Tie for third — Tertiary split evenly (rounded up to $100).
- Stock actions — each holder of the defunct chain, starting with the mergemaker and going in turn order, chooses how to dispose of their shares. For every share you can:
- Keep it (it will eventually be worth $0 since the chain disappears — but see game end).
- Sell at the defunct chain's current price.
- Trade 2 defunct shares for 1 survivor share (subject to survivor stock availability in the bank). Trades must be in pairs.
- All remaining tiles of the defunct chain flip to the survivor, and the defunct chain returns to the "off board" pool for future use.
After all defunct chains resolve, the mergemaker continues to the buy phase.
Game End & Winner
How to end the game: On your turn, after resolving your tile, you may declare the game end if either condition is true:
- Any chain has reached size 38 or more, OR
- Every chain currently on the board is safe (size ≥ 10).
The game finishes at the end of that player's turn.
Final scoring:
- For every chain still on the board, pay full shareholder bonuses (Primary/Secondary/Tertiary) as if each were being liquidated — same tie rules as in mergers.
- Every player then sells all remaining shares of every on-board chain back to the bank at that chain's current price. (Shares of chains that have been defunct throughout the game are already worth $0 — only currently on-board chains cash out.)
- Add each player's final stock proceeds to their cash on hand.
The player with the most cash wins. The end-of-game modal lists bonuses, stock sales per player, and the final standings, with the winner highlighted.
