So you’ve said before, “I can do it better, if only I was given the chance. I’d show then how to manage building a thriving landscape.” Well now is your chance to put your money where you mouth is, because you’ve only got $10 to your name. Can you prove that you are the business tycoon you claim you can be if given the opportunity?
Overview
Raccoon Tycoon is designed by Glenn Drover and published by Forbidden Games. In Raccoon Tycoon, you are a savvy tycoon with your eyes set on building the land of Astoria into an economic powerhouse. Town, railroads, and various buildings are being constructed and auctioned off but they need the right person to make them successful. Compete against other tycoons staking their claim and as the right man or woman for the job. Tasked with producing commodities and selling them when the market is right to maximize your profits. With the money you earn, you can purchase towns, buy buildings, and attempt to win auctions for the rights to railroads. Your hop is that at the end of the game you have acquired enough victory points from the your towns, railroads, and buildings to be declared “Top Dog” in the land of Astoria.
"The game is easy to teach, but the layers of strategy that is created by players as the game goes on makes this a hit. "
Setup
To set the game up, place the game board in the center of the table and create a supply of the 6 different commodity tokens off to the side of the board. The commodities are wheat, wood, coal, iron, goods, and luxuries. Place one of each commodity token on the lowest valued space of the commodity market for their matching commodity. These are the starting prices. The market for each commodity will fluctuate in price during gameplay. Shuffle the Price & Production decks and deal 3 cards to each player. The remaining cards are placed near the game board creating a draw deck. Each player is given $10 and the rest of the money is placed off to the side creating a bank. Next create the “Railroad Deck”. Depending on the number of players some cards will be removed from the deck. There are a total of 24 railroad cards, 4 of each railroad. Place the created deck onto its draw space of the board and reveal 2 railroads face up creating an auction market. Now create the “Town Deck”. There are 16 town cards with values 2,3,4, & 5 victory points. There are 4 of each card values, in a 2 player game you will randomly remove 1 of each card value in the game. When creating the Town Deck place all 5 value cards face down in a stack, then all 4 valued card on top of those, continuing until the value 2 cards are placed face down on the top of the deck. Flip over the top card revealing the first Town available for purchase during the game. Then create the building tile deck. To do this first remove the 6 double sided commodity building tiles and randomly discard 2 from the game. The remaining 4 are placed into the 4 available building market spaces on the board on their ‘+1 side’. Shuffle all remaining tiles and place facedown onto the building drawn pile space of the board. Last select a starting player and they chose 1 commodity of their choice to start the game with. Now going around the table in player order players take 1 commodity more than the player before them (ie. 2 for player 2, 3 for player 3, and so on). Players taking more than 1 commodity must select different commodities (ie. 1 wheat & 1 wood and not 2 wood). You are now ready to play.
Gameplay
The gameplay is easy, as players on their turn choose 1 of the 5 available actions to them. These actions are production, sell a commodity, start a railroad auction, purchase a building, and purchase a town. When producing players play 1 of the 3 cards in their hand choosing 3 commodities pictured on the bottom half (red portion) of the card. They collect these commodities, adding them to their personal supply. The top half of the card (blue portion) shows commodities who’s prices must be increased on the market section of the board ($1 increase per picture of commodity). Players can only hold a max of 10 commodities. To sell a commodity players choose one type of commodity from their personal supply and sell it at market value, collecting the money from the back. Sell 5 coal when the market for coal is at $5, take $25 from the bank, then reduce the price of coal $1 for each commodity sold. So coal would reduce back to it’s original starting price of $2. If a player chooses to attempt to purchase a railroad, they indicate what railroad they want to start an auction for and declare it to the other tycoons. The starting bid must be at least equal to value at the bottom of the railroad card. Players then take turn in player order raising the bid or passing. Once you pass you can no longer bid. Once all players pass leaving a highest bidder, they acquire the railroad placing it face up in front of them. If the play to open the auction does not win the bid, they get to perform another action, which can very well be another auction for a railroad. The turn ends if they win the auction or choose a different action. IN a 2 player game to player starting the auction places their highest bid and player 2 either gets to outbid to acquire the railroad or passes awarding it to player 1. To purchase a building on your turn, pay its cost in money and add it face up in front of you. Building offer bonuses such as producing addition commodities, increasing your hand size, increasing the amount of commodities you can hold, selling more than 1 type of commodity, and other bonuses. The last action is purchasing a town. These are purchased paying a set number of commodities or a larger amount of any type of commodities. For example 3 wheat vs 8 of any commodity. Add the town face up in front of you after you purchase. One thing to point out is that al of the things player acquire or own is open information except for money. This allows for the auctions to be tension, yet fun.
The Game End
The rulebook states that the game ends when either all railroads are auctioned or the last town card is purchased. There is also an option for a longer game, but I have found that this is actually the official rule according to the games BGG page, when either 2 of the following are owned the game ends: railroad cards, town cards, or building tiles. When this happens proceed to scoring.
Scoring
Calculate the victory points on all of your Town Cards and Railroad Cards. Railroad cards are worth more for sets of the same type (ie. 3 points for 1 Big Bear Railroad card, but 7 points for 2, 13 points for 3, and 21 points for all 4). Players then get 1 point fo each building they own (some buildings have additional end game scoring). Lastly, each pair of Town & Railroad gives you an additional 2 points. The player with the most victory points is the ‘Top Dog’ Tycoon of Astoria.
There are other optional rules in the rulebook and optional Mission Cards that come with the Deluxe version and not the retail edition.
Overall Thoughts
All I can say is that this game is easily one of my new gateway favorites. The game is easy to teach, but the layers of strategy that is created by players as the game goes on makes this a hit. The game moves quick which is great for new and casual gamers to keep them fully engaged, even when it isn’t their turn. Having a market that fluctuates depending on the strategies and choices of the players makes every game different. This is one game that I will gladly be looking to get to the table during the holidays with family. When I think gateway games to introduce someone to the hobby Raccoon Tycoon will now be on that list, especially when introducing economic stock market style games.