Acquire

How to Win

You are a shrewd real-estate tycoon with an eye for investing in hotel chains. Each time a hotel chain gets acquired, big money will be paid out to the top shareholders. The player who makes the most money by buying and selling hotel chain stocks wins!

Game Contents

• 1 Gameboard
• 108 Building Tiles
• 7 Headquarters Buildings
• 11 Headquarters Banners
• 175 Stock Cards (25 each of 7 Hotel Chains)
• 6 Stockholder Info Cards
• 1 Player Aid Card
• 1 Money Pack (30–$100; 40–$500; 50–$1000; 35–$5000)

The First Time You Play

• Remove all game components from the shrink-wrap, and discard the waste.
• Remove the headquarters banners from the runner. Insert the banners into the headquarters buildings as shown to the right, matching the numbers on the runner to the numbered image shown.

Game Terms

You’ll see the following terms used throughout the rules.

• Connected Building Tiles: Two or more building tiles that are orthogonally adjacent (not diagonally) to each other are considered connected.
• Independent Building Tile: A building tile that is not adjacent to another building tile and/or a tile that is part of a group of connected tiles in which none of those tiles has a headquarters building on it is considered independent.
• Hotel Chains: A hotel chain consists of two or more connected building tiles with a headquarters building on one of the building tiles.
• Active Hotel Chains: A hotel chain with its headquarters on the gameboard is considered active.
• Safe Hotel Chains: A hotel chain is considered “safe” when it is made up of 11 or more building tiles. A safe hotel chain can never be acquired.
• Acquired Hotel Chains: A hotel chain is dissolved when it is acquired by a larger chain and becomes inactive.
• Founding a Hotel Chain: The player who creates a hotel chain by joining two or more building tiles and placing a headquarters building on one of them is considered the hotel chain’s founder.
• Founder’s Bonus Stock: The founder of a hotel chain is given one free stock card for that chain as soon as they found it.
• Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Stockholders: The players who own the most, second-most, and third-most stock in a hotel chain are considered the primary, secondary, and tertiary stockholders, respectively. Games using Classic Mode only pay out stockholder bonuses to primary and secondary stockholders, while Tycoon Mode pays out to all three.
• Stockholder Bonuses: When hotel chains merge, the smaller chain is acquired and its building tiles become part of the larger chain. When this occurs, bonuses are handed out to the smaller hotel chain’s stockholders in the form of money. Stockholder bonuses are also handed out at the end of the game.
• Merger: When a player places a building tile that connects two or more hotel chains, a merger occurs.
• Mergemaker: The player who places a building tile that connects two or more hotel chains is considered the mergemaker.

Game Setup

1. Place the gameboard in the center of all players.
2. Place the building tiles facedown next to the gameboard and mix them well.
3. Choose a player to be the banker. This player will pass out stocks and handle money exchanges throughout the game. The banker places the seven headquarters buildings and the stock cards, separated by hotel chain, in the stock market tray as shown.
4. The banker gives each player the following bills for a total of $6,000 each:
   • Four $1,000 bills
   • Three $500 bills
   • Five $100 bills
5. The banker separates the rest of the bills by denomination and places them in four separate piles next to the gameboard.
6. Each player gets one stockholder info card and places it in front of them. As a group, decide whether stockholder bonuses will be paid to the top TWO stockholders (Classic Mode) or the top THREE stockholders (Tycoon Mode) during a merger. If this is your first game, we recommend Tycoon Mode. All players should flip the info card to the side displaying the chosen mode.
7. As a group, decide whether you will display the money and stocks you acquire so all players can see them or whether you will keep these a secret. If it is your first time playing, we recommend displaying stocks and money. The game becomes more challenging when stocks and money are not displayed because players must try to remember how much stock each player has purchased.
8. Decide who will go first. To do so, each player draws a building tile from the facedown pile and puts it faceup on the matching letter/number space on the gameboard. The player who plays the tile closest to 1A goes first, and play moves to the left. (9A is closer to 1A than 1B is.) Leave the tiles on the gameboard. (Note that if two or more of these tiles are adjacent to each other, they are considered independent. If an additional tile is added later, they may become a hotel chain.)
9. Each player draws six building tiles and stands the tiles up in front of them so other players can’t see the tiles.

Turn Overview

On your turn, you’ll perform the following three actions.

1. Place a building tile on its matching space.
2. Buy up to three stocks in any active hotel chains.
3. Draw a new building tile from the facedown pile.

You’ll find a more detailed description of each action below.

Action 1: Place a Building Tile

The tiles represent new hotels. Each turn, you will add one to the game board. Choose one of your building tiles, and place it on its matching space on the gameboard. For example, the 1A building tile goes on space 1A on the gameboard. When you place a building tile, one of the following things will happen:

You Add an Independent Building

If you place a building tile on a space with no building tiles adjacent to it, you’ve simply placed a building. Nothing else happens.

You Found a Hotel Chain

If you place a building tile next to any number of building tiles that aren’t already part of a hotel chain, you’ll found a new hotel chain. Those building tiles are now considered a founded hotel chain.

Immediately do the following:

1. Choose a headquarters building from the stock market tray, and place it on any of the new connected building tiles.
2. Take one stock card for that hotel chain. This is your founder’s bonus!

If all seven headquarters buildings are already in play on the board, you may not place a building tile that will found a new hotel chain. You may, however, be able to play that tile later in the game if a headquarters building becomes available or if the tile would add on to an existing hotel chain or cause a merger.

You Make a Hotel Chain Larger

If you place a building tile next to any tile that is already part of a hotel chain, you have simply added a tile to that chain, making it one tile larger.

You Merge Two or More Hotel Chains Together

If you place a building tile so that it connects two or more hotel chains, those hotel chains will merge and the smaller chain—that is, the one with fewer building tiles—becomes part of the larger chain. Remember, a hotel chain with eleven or more building tiles is safe and cannot be absorbed by another chain. Two safe hotel chains cannot merge.

When you merge two hotel chains, immediately do the following:

1. Count the building tiles in each of the hotel chains involved. Do not count the building tile that caused the merger. You may temporarily flip the merging tile over so it is not accidentally counted. Once the merger is complete, flip it faceup.
2. Remove the headquarters building from the smaller hotel chain and return it to the game tray. The smaller hotel chain has been acquired, and its building tiles are now part of the larger chain. If the hotel chains are the same size, the mergemaker gets to decide which chain survives and which one is acquired.
3. Distribute stockholder bonuses for the acquired hotel chain as described on the next page. Note that there are no payouts for stock in the surviving hotel chain, but the value of its stock may go up because the chain has grown larger due to the merger.
4. Starting with the mergemaker and moving clockwise, players with stock in the hotel chain that was acquired must do one or more of the following with that stock:
   • Keep it in hand with the hope that a new hotel chain with the same name will be founded later in the game.
   • Sell it back to the bank for the price indicated on the info card. The hotel chain’s name and size determine the selling price.
   • Trade it in. For every two stocks from the acquired hotel chain, you get one stock in the surviving chain from the stock market tray.

When you merge three or more hotel chains, the largest one survives and the smaller ones are acquired. The mergemaker breaks any ties. The smaller corporations are dealt with, one at a time, from largest to smallest. Stockholder bonuses are paid out as described on the next page. Stock in each acquired hotel chain is kept, sold, or traded, as described above. As usual, the mergemaker goes first.

Action 2: Buy Stocks

After you place a building tile and resolve any mergers, you may (you don’t have to) buy up to three stocks in any active hotel chains from the stock market tray. You can buy multiple stocks in the same hotel chain and/or buy stocks in multiple chains during the same turn. Stock prices depend on the name and size of the hotel chain. When purchasing stock, players must announce what they are buying and how much they are paying. This is to help ensure that players don’t make mistakes with stock costs. At any time during the game, a player may ask how many stocks are in the stock market tray for any hotel chain.

Determining the Price of Stocks

To determine the price of a given stock:

1. Find the name of that hotel chain on the stockholder info card.
2. Look down the “Hotel Chain Size” column for that hotel chain and find the numbered row that corresponds with the number of building tiles currently in that hotel chain.
3. Read across that row to find the “Buy/Sell Price Per Stock Card.”

Do this for each hotel chain you’d like to buy stock in; then, pay the appropriate amount to the bank.

Running Out of Money

It is possible to run out of money. If you run out of money, you may still place and draw building tiles each turn, but you may not purchase stock. You must wait until you receive a stockholder bonus or sell stocks in a hotel chain that has been acquired to get money. You can’t sell stocks in an active hotel chain at any point in the game, and no loans—either from players or the bank—are allowed.

Avoid running out of money by investing wisely. You don’t have to be the majority stockholder in every corporation in order to win the game.

Action 3: Draw a Building Tile

At the end of your turn, draw a building tile from the facedown pile.

At the end of your turn, you may also check your building tiles to see if you have any that are unplayable. An unplayable building tile is one that would merge two or more safe hotel chains (which is not possible). Set any unplayable building tiles you have to the side (faceup) so they are out of play. Then, draw that many building tiles from the facedown pile. If you receive new unplayable building tiles, you must wait until your next turn to discard them.

Note that building tiles that would form an eighth corporation are not considered unplayable, but cannot be played until there is a headquarters building available off the gameboard.

Distributing Stockholder Bonuses

When you are determining stockholder bonuses for mergers, the merging building tile does not add to the size of either hotel chain. To determine stockholder bonuses, do the following:

1. Determine who gets a bonus: Each player reveals the exact number of stocks they own in the hotel chain that was acquired. The players with the most, second-most, and third-most stocks are the primary, secondary, and tertiary stockholders, respectively. Players with no stocks in that hotel chain do not receive a bonus.
   

   A Single Stockholder

   • Classic Mode: If only one player owns stock in the acquired hotel chain, that player receives the primary and secondary bonuses.
   • Tycoon Mode: If only one player owns stock in the acquired hotel chain, that player receives the primary and tertiary bonuses.

   A Tie

   • Classic Mode:
     • If there is a tie for primary shareholder, add the primary and secondary bonuses together, divide it evenly, and pay the bonus (rounded up to the nearest hundred) to the tied players. The secondary shareholder gets no bonus.
     • If there is a tie for secondary shareholder, split the bonus among the tied players, rounding up to the nearest hundred.
   • Tycoon Mode:
     • If there is a tie for primary stockholder, add the primary and secondary stockholder bonuses together, and divide by two. Round up to the nearest hundred if needed. The tied players receive that amount as a bonus, the secondary stockholder receives the tertiary bonus, and the tertiary stockholder receives no bonus.
     • If there is a tie for secondary stockholder, add the secondary and tertiary stockholder bonuses together, divide by two, and round up if needed. The tied players receive that amount as a bonus, and the player/s with the third-most stocks receive no bonus.
     • If there is a tie for tertiary stockholder, the tied players split the tertiary bonus. Round up if needed.
2. The banker pays out bonuses from the bank according to the stockholder info card. Here’s how to read the info card:
   1. Find the name of the hotel chain that was just acquired.
   2. Look down the “Hotel Chain Size” column for that hotel chain and find the numbered row that corresponds with the number of building tiles that were in that chain.
   3. Read across that row to find the primary, secondary, and tertiary shareholder bonuses for that hotel chain and size.

Here are some examples of how to determine who gets what bonus. For the examples below, imagine that Festival and Imperial have merged. Festival was the larger hotel chain because it had seven tiles and Imperial had only five, so Imperial has been acquired and its tiles become part of Festival.

Merger Bonus Examples

A Standard Merger

To determine stockholder bonuses, the players now count how many stocks they each own in Imperial. Liz owns three, Charlie owns two, and Courtney owns none. Because Liz has the most stocks, she gets the primary stockholder bonus. Charlie has the second-most, so he gets the secondary bonus. Courtney has no stocks in Imperial, so she gets no bonus. According to the chart on the stockholder info cards, because Liz owns the most stock in Imperial and Imperial had five tiles, her primary shareholder bonus is 7000. Charlie’s secondary bonus is 5000.

Sometimes, multiple players will have the same number of stocks in a hotel chain that has been acquired, and there will be a tie. Here are some examples of how to determine stockholder bonuses for ties using the above example merger between Festival and Imperial in a Tycoon Mode game.

A Tie for Primary Stockholder

Imagine Liz owns three stocks in Imperial, Charlie owns three, and Courtney owns one. Liz and Charlie are tied for the primary bonus. Because Imperial had five tiles, the primary stockholder bonus is 7000 and the secondary stockholder bonus is 5000. Because they are tied, Liz and Charlie add the primary and secondary bonuses together (this equals 12000), and they split that value to get 6000 each. Courtney has the third highest stock count in Imperial, so she only gets the tertiary bonus of 3500.

A Tie for Secondary Stockholder

Imagine Liz owns three stocks in Imperial, Charlie owns two, and Courtney owns two. Because Imperial had five tiles, the primary bonus is 7000, and Liz gets that. The secondary bonus is 5000 and the tertiary bonus is 3500. Because they were tied for second, Charlie and Courtney add the secondary and tertiary bonuses together (this equals 8500), and they split that value to get 4300 each. If a fourth player, Amanda, owned one stock, that player would have the fourth highest stock count in Imperial and would not get a bonus.

A Tie for Tertiary Stockholder

Imagine Liz owns four stocks in Imperial, Charlie owns three, Courtney owns one, and Amanda also owns one. Liz gets the primary bonus of 7000. Charlie gets the secondary bonus of 5000. Because they are tied for the third highest stock count in Imperial, Courtney and Amanda split the tertiary bonus, which is 3500. So Courtney and Amanda each get a bonus of 1800.

Game End Conditions

The game ends when one player announces during their turn that either all active hotel chains are safe or that one active hotel chain is made up of 41 or more building tiles. A player does not have to announce that the game is over if it is to their advantage to keep playing—for example, to enlarge a hotel chain they own stock in. After making this announcement, that player finishes their turn as normal, then the game ends.

End of Game Resolution

As soon as the game ends, do the following:

1. Pay out primary, secondary (and tertiary, if playing Tycoon Mode) stockholder bonuses for all active hotel chains according to the stockholder info card, the way you would pay out bonuses after a merger.
2. Players sell all their stocks back to the bank at a price determined by the hotel chain’s name and size, as noted on the info card. Stocks in a hotel chain not on the board are worth nothing.
3. Each player adds up their money, and the player with the most money wins! If there is a tie, the victory is shared.

Playing a Two-Player Game

When playing a two-player game, follow the rules for the core game using the Classic Mode side of the Stockholder Info Card, but follow the rules below when mergers occur:

1. When determining stockholder bonuses, consider the stock market as an additional stockholder with a random number of shares. To determine how much stock the stock market holds in the acquired hotel chain, draw a building tile from the facedown pile. If 9F is drawn, the stock market owns nine stocks. If 2B is drawn, the stock market owns two. It doesn’t matter if the total number of stocks (the stock market’s plus the players’) exceeds twenty-five.
2. Pay out bonuses only to the two largest stockholders according to the stockholder info card. Any bonuses that would go to the stock market stay in the bank.
3. Return the drawn building tile facedown to the pile and remix the building tiles.
4. At the end of the game, the stock market competes in the same way for bonuses in active hotel chains.

Rare Cases

• Founding a Hotel Chain with Zero Stock Available: If a player places a building tile that would found a hotel chain, but all of that hotel chain’s stock is already taken, the founding player gets the founding bonus in cash payment equal to the value of the stock at the time of founding.
• Incorrect Building Tile Placement: If a tile is placed in the wrong spot on the board and discovered on the turn it was placed, then it’s moved to the correct location. When an incorrect placement is discovered from a prior turn, that tile will remain in its current location. If the correct tile is held by a player, then exchange it for the incorrect tile.
• Only Two Stockholders in Tycoon Mode: If there are only two stockholders when resolving stockholder bonuses in Tycoon Mode, the tertiary bonus is ignored.

Stock Market Tips

• Diversify! Receiving primary, secondary, and tertiary stockholder bonuses is an excellent way to make money.
• Keep an eye on the smaller active hotel chains. Try to have the most or the second-most stocks in these chains.
• You may not want to buy lots of stock in a hotel chain that is positioned on the edge of the gameboard or away from other chains. You may want to invest in hotel chains that are more likely to merge so that you may receive a stockholder bonus.
• Toward the end of the game, you may want to own stock in larger hotel chains as they will most likely survive to the end of the game, and you’ll receive stockholder bonuses for stocks you own in them.
• When a smaller hotel chain you own stock in is acquired by a larger one, it can be a good idea to trade in the acquired stocks for stocks in the larger chain as it may survive to the end of the game.
• Founding a “new” hotel chain that is already largely owned by other players (who held onto their stock after a merger) will benefit them much more than it will benefit you. However, if there are several places to start a new hotel chain, better you get the founder’s bonus stock than someone else!

Credits

Game Designer: Sid Sackson
Senior Producer of Board & Card Games: Dan Bojanowski
Director of Visual Design: Anita Osburn
Illustrator: Eric Hibbeler
Graphic Designer: Anita Osburn
Editor: William Niebling
Production Artist: Noelle Lopez
3D Artist: David L’Huillier
Expert Consultants: Thomas Haver & John Kaufeld

Renegade Game Studios

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Senior Producer of Board & Card Games: Dan Bojanowski
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Associate Producer, RPGs: Kevin Schluter
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Senior Game Designer: Matt Hyra
Game Designers: Dan Blanchett & Christopher Chung
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