Acquire

Sixty years old and still one of the sharpest games ever designed.

Sid Sackson's 1964 masterpiece. You place tiles to found hotel chains on a shared grid, buy stock in the ones you think will grow, and cash out at exactly the right moment when two chains merge and one swallows the other.

Everyone builds the same board, so the game is entirely about reading what other people are invested in. It has been in print almost continuously since the Johnson administration, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Perfect for: economic game fans, players who like a shared board, and anyone who enjoys profiting from someone else's collapse.