Shambeda Captures Third Acqquire Title!

WBC 2025 was more enjoyable, more relaxed, more appreciated than others. Maybe it's age, maybe it's outlook but I had a good time this year. This year's Acquire tournament had lots of linen and bling to give away. Renegade Games created a 60th Anniversary Edition of Acquire and sent me a copy, plus the base game, plus expansion games, t-shirts, pins, and stickers. What a bonanza!

I've commented before about making sure players be aware of a merger where a single player gets the first and second place pay out. Apparently Bill Burtless, Ryan Stanton and Susan Singer didn't get the memo because in their game, each of them were the single recipient of a merger payout. Not three different games. This happened in the same game. Oh, the humanity.

Acquire had 77 unique entrants and 34 Heat games. Small size hotels dominated initial placement. Winning scores ranged from 36,200 to 62,800 with an average of 49,000. In a stunning reversal from previous years, the second and third seated player were more likely to win.

The Semifinal returned six past champions and three finalists from 2024. Jeff Wu was first to step into the Final circle winning against one past champion. Andrew Menard and Marc Gibbens each bested two past champions in their games. Steve Shambeda bucked the trend by being a past champion and winning his game. Who would've thought it?

In the Final, Andrew, seated first, started the small chain, Tower in the corner 11I-12I. Steve was more ambitious by starting the large chain, Continental in a central location 3B-3C. Marc and Jeff kept them honest by buying shares in each. On turn 2; Andrew started his second chain, Marc and Jeff started their own chains. On turns 3 through 7, rather than buying in blocks of three, players were jockeying for position by buying two shares of Hotel X and one share of Hotel Y or one share in three different chains. Being able to keep track of your stock standing in multiple chains is Acquire's true challenge.

Turn 8 saw the first merger giving Steve first and Jeff second place bonuses. With the new found cash, Steve bought Imperial and Jeff bought Worldwide the two chains most likely to be involved in mergers. On turn 13, Worldwide took over Imperial, giving Steve first and Marc second. Although starting locations were scarce, each kept their shares. Marc's very next action was to restart Imperial. The founder's bonus plus buying three Imperials gave him a solid first place.

The following action had Jeff merge Festival into Worldwide giving him the first place bonus and Steve second. He also had to decide what to do with his shares first. With Worldwide sold out, Jeff sold his Festival shares. Steve sold one and kept two because on his next turn he restarted Festival.

With the other players flush with cash and having gone seven turns without a transaction, Andrew moved the game toward the finishing line by merging Imperial into Worldwide. Steve merged American into Worldwide but didn't end the game when Worldwide's size was 41+. Strategy or miscounting? On Marc's turn, he played a tile, bought three Festivals giving him second place in that chain and called the game.

Final amounts: Steve $58,200, Jeff $40,600, Marc $32,800, and Andrew $32,500.