Don’t let the box fool you. While there are some very cute dogs and cats in Victorian outfits in this game, it’s really just for show.
Designed by Glenn Drover and published by Forbidden Games, Raccoon Tycoon gives you a wide variety of commodities, companies, towns and structures in which you can invest, all set in a quaint but bustling countryside. While your stash of cash is a key to growing your empire, in the end it is Victory Points that determines the ultimate winner.
How to Play
The game starts with each player receiving three Production Cards and $10 cash. The board (below) is seeded with two railroads, one town, four buildings and the six commodities at various price levels.
On each turn, a player may do one of five actions.
Production
Play one of the three cards in your hand, executing both the top and the bottom. The top part of the card indicates which commodities should have their price raised by one dollar. The bottom part allows you to obtain the commodities; however, you are limited to three of those shown, so choose carefully based on the fluctuating prices.
Sell a Commodity
You may take all of your store of one commodity and sell it, receiving money equal to the amount times the current price. That price is now dropped by the number that you sold.
Initiate a Railroad Auction
Pick one of the two railroads currently on the board (Top Dog & Big Bear shown here) and place an opening bid that must be, at a minimum, the amount shown on the bottom right. Bidding goes around the table until all but one person drops out. They pay the amount in cash to the bank and take the card.
There are four of each railroad in the deck and, at the end of the game, you will score victory points based on the number of shares owned (shown at bottom of the card).
Purchase a Town
One town is available on the board for purchase (two are shown above for examples). To own the town, you must pay the amount shown on the left in a single commodity or a greater amount, shown on the right, in any commodities.
At the end of the game, you will score the victory points shown plus the bonus to the right of the main points if you can pair the town with a railroad.
Purchase a Building
Four buildings are available at any one time and can be purchased by paying the amount in the lower right corner with cash. Each building gives you an advantage such as increasing your hand size from 3 to 4 (Smuggler) or 5 (Black Market), allowing you to increase the number of commodities you can take (Factory) or allowing you to sell two commodities in a turn (Freight Company). There are many other special abilities among the buildings in the game.
Play continues until two of the three of the following are depleted: Towns, Buildings and/or Railroads. Note that this is NOT what the original rulebook said; however, the designer updated the rules after the initial printings.
Once this happens, play continues until everyone has had an equal number of turns. The Victory Points are then totaled to determine the winner.
Components
The components for the game are excellent. The cards are thick with a semi-gloss finish. Building tiles are a thick cardboard reminiscent of those in Quadropolis. The commodity chips are equally thick and printed on both sides.
The only complaint that will come from most seasoned gamers is the use of paper money; however, the money provided has a plastic coating so it will be much harder to wrinkle or tear as those found in many other games.
The insert leaves quite a bit to be desired. While there are two slots for cards, they walls are not high enough to keep them from sliding all over unless you store the game flat.
It should be noted that some versions of the game have wooden commodities and a huge, chunky wood raccoon for a first player marker.
In Conclusion
This is a really great game that is easy enough that most people should be able to pick it up after a couple of rounds but there are enough decisions that a seasoned gamer should also enjoy it. The box lists it as age 8 and up although the nuances of the economics may be a bit much for that age group and 12+ might be more appropriate.
The game also plays with up to five. While my primary plays has been at two, I can see where the greater number would make it even better, especially in the railroad bidding and the manipulation of prices. Yes, you can do some truly nasty manipulating, especially if you and your neighbor are both hoarding a certain commodity. You can easily sell off all your shares, tanking the price and making it almost worthless in the short term for the other player. It sort of reminds me of some 18xx railroad games I’ve played.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
