Westward Expansion is one our very favorite time periods to study in American History. There are so many great stories of adventurous people doing brave things in beautiful new places including John Jacob Astor, the New York investor and entrepreneur. His fur trade business established Fort Astoria and quickly monopolized the fur trade in the early nineteenth century.
For gameschoolers, Raccoon Tycoon is the perfect mix of history and fun, a game themed around this these business tycoons and entrepreneurs who created industry and wealth in early America. The game has a fun twist though…instead of men in business suits, the stars of the game are a variety of shrewd woodland animals.
Set up the game by placing one of the resource tokens in each resource column in the $1 spot. As Production cards are played, players gain the resources pictured in the bottom red section of the card and increase the price of the resources pictured in the top blue section of the card.
Players strategically wait for the prices of goods to rise and then sell all they have in their resource stock for top dollar. The price goes down $1 for each resource sold for the next player, until the price either increases again through playing a production card, or another player sells, further decreasing the price.
In an entrepreneurial game like this one, money is king. The game favors those with the most money, so gaining and selling resources strategically is essential. Be cutthroat if you have to…it’s okay, it’s just a game!
With money earned from resource production and sales, players bid for railroads in an auction with other players. The active player starts the bidding at a dollar amount equal to or greater than the number in the gold circle in the bottom right of the card. Every other player has a chance to bid or pass. The player with the highest big wins the railroad auction.
The chart at the bottom of the card indicates how many points each railroad is worth. Tycoon, for example, is worth 4 points for 1 Tycoon Railroad card, but 2 cards = 9 points, 3 cards = 16 points,, and all 4 = 25 points. Getting all 4 Railroad cards of one type is the quickest way to establish yourself as Top Dog and win the game!
Players can also purchase buildings (for benefits good for the rest of the game) or towns (worth victory points).
The winner is the player with the most victory points at the end of the game.
The auctioning is such a fun part of the game and makes it unpredictable and an excellent study in business and risk taking. Raccon Tycoon is THE BEST gameschooling game yet because of the memorable historical connection, the economic principles involved, and real-life experience it gives kids with markets and business. The artwork is gorgeous and is a game your family will love to play over and over again!
Thanks to Forbidden Games for sharing with us!
