Me and Luisa found a few new hits in boardgaming during our vacation.
## Lost Cities
Lost Cities is a two-player card game of exploring lost cities. A German design, without the use of language on the cards. Came with Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish translations of the short rules.
Learning the game was a 10-minute affair in a coffee shop.
Mastering the moves? After two or three full games I am a capable player, I think. But I still take chances that I have not calculated.
## Acquire
Acquire is: A plastic board. Plastic pieces with numbers that fit on it. Cards for stocks. Paper money.
Buy stocks, wait, play some pieces, buy more, play some pieces, buy… and you are out of money. The game actually has the venture capitalists run out of money. And they wait… and wait… and like an explosion, money is freed when a large corporation eats a smaller one. And the investment cycle begins again.
I found some smart rules for the 2-player game, where the stock market acts as a stock-holder as well. When counting the number of stocks to see who has the majority, the stock market randomizes a 1-12 number (by drawing a tile). Makes for different play.
Designed in the 1960s by Sid Sackson. Follow that link, and you can read more on Acquire: its history and development. They also have the best shots of its board in play as well.
## Bohnanza
Card game of simple German design (Uwe Rosenberg). Worked very well with only three players.
Stay away from additions to the game, they remove the focus on the trading of resources, which is a social affair at the heart of the game.
Review with some cover-art pictures.