| 👨👩👧👦 | Players: 2-5 |
| ⏳ | Time: 60-90 mins |
| 🎂 | Ages: 8+ |
| ⚙️ | Mechanisms: Market speculation, set collection, auction |
When I think of raccoons, I don’t usually associate them with big business, but apparently these little critters are surprisingly good at it!
We got Raccoon Tycoon from Forbidden Games to the table last weekend and had a lot of fun. It’s a game where you and your fellow animals compete for wealth and power, trying to become the best tycoon around
On your turn, you can do one of five things. Collect goods by playing a card from your hand, sell goods, or use all that cash you’ve collected from clever trading to invest in buildings, railroads or towns
Buildings give you special bonuses to help you on future turns, like increased goods collection or higher storage limits, as well as being worth points. Towns just get you points, but can only be bought with special combinations of goods, while railroads give points through set collection
We love that whenever you collect goods, you also have to push up the price of the goods showing on the top part of the card in the market area. Great if you’re selling that item, not so good if your competitor gets there first! It leads to some clever plotting and a bit of bluffing as you try to hide what you are really going for
At two players, there is one issue that we will have to house rule to solve, regarding the railroads. You are meant to auction them, with the player who wants them naming a price they will pay and the other only needing to outbid by a dollar to get it. It just doesn’t work, unless you are willing to overpay a heap for them. At higher player counts we’re sure it’s just fine and we’re sure we can find a solution.
The production is also top notch for a game that isn’t that expensive. Linen finish cards, thick cardboard tokens and the best plastic notes we’ve ever seen. So much fun to stack up in front of you!
While we haven’t played it much yet, we’ve enjoyed it every time. If you’ve got family or friends that will only play Monopoly this could be the game that gets them to move on, as it gives a similar ‘hey I’m the richest’ feeling in a much more enjoyable package
You can see this post on Instagram here and if you are interested you can find out more about the game from Forbidden Games.
The Boardgame Detective 