Acquire

Acquire is an economic strategy board game designed by Sid Sackson and first published by 3M in 1964 as part of the 3M bookshelf game series. It is played by two to six players who build and expand hotel chains across a grid by placing numbered tiles, then buy stock in the chains they help create. When two chains come into contact through further tile placement, the smaller chain is absorbed into the larger one in a merger, and the players holding the most shares in the absorbed chain receive cash bonuses before the remaining shares are sold or converted. Play continues until one chain grows beyond a set size or every surviving chain is too large to be acquired, at which point all stock is cashed out and the richest player wins. Acquire outlasted most of its 3M bookshelf series companions, remaining in print for decades under later publishers including Avalon Hill and Hasbro, and it has been inducted into both the Games Magazine Hall of Fame and the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Hall of Fame.