Food Chain Magnate

Capitalism, with the pleasantries removed.

Splotter Spellen's 2015 economic heavyweight, designed by Jeroen Doumen and Joris Wiersinga. You build a fast-food company upward from a single employee — hiring, training and restructuring — in a market where demand does not exist until somebody advertises it into being. The board is a grid of houses that want burgers, beer and lemonade, and not one of them wanted anything at all until you told them to.

Your company is a literal organisation chart, and each round you choose which roles to activate: a trainer lets you grow, a marketer lets you manufacture demand, and you cannot have everything. There is no luck whatsoever — no dice, no card draw — so a mistake in round two is still a mistake in round nine. The cruelty is in the milestones, where the first player to reach each one takes a permanent advantage nobody else can ever have. Expect 120 to 240 minutes, and expect the first game to be a write-off.

Perfect for: People who read the rulebook cover to cover before the box is fully open, and who hold firm opinions about pricing.

2–5 players | 120–240 minutes | Age 14+

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