Raccoon Tycoon is a commodity speculation, auction game.
Title: Raccoon Tycoon
Year Published: 2018
Designer: Glenn Drover
Publisher: Forbidden Games
Players: 2-5
Game Time: ~90 minutes
Set-up Time: ~5 minutes
Ages: 8+
Theme: Anthropomorphic Industry
Mechanisms: Auction, Commodity Speculation, Set Collection
How to win: Score the most points by building Railroads, Towns and Buildings.
Game Description
Astoria is a land bustling with productivity and growth! New towns, factories, and railroads are springing up across the land. A few savvy business tycoons (you and your opponents) are determined to make your fortunes on the crest of this wave.
How to play Raccoon Tycoon
Round Up
So this is an engine builder, it’s fairly light and has quick turns so there are a few games to compare this to.
Splendor is the first. Although that is much more basic with only one thing to do. Get gems, trade gems. Eventually, you’ll get points and build from there. Good game, but not as much going on as Raccoon Tycoon.
The next is Century: Spice Road which has a little bit more to it than Splendor. It’s still a bit bland though, trading a thing for a thing to get a thing.
The next game up would be Saint Petersburg which is more involved, and better, but different enough.
This is an easy teach with just 5 actions:
- Play a card (gain commodities, adjust values)
- Sell Commodities (adjust values)
- Start a Railroad auction
- Trade commodities for a Town card
- Buy a building
That’s it. It was very easy to teach as you can teach them in the order they come on the board. There are no intertwining things to complicate it.
The components are nice. The commodities look nice, except for the crates which are just cubes. The money is paper, well, plastic… and it’s actually quite nice. It’s easy to use and easy to keep hidden.
The art is cool. The style is really nice and different from what you usually see. I like that the town is full of animals too. All too often we get dry themes in fairly dry games.
If this wasn’t an animal theme, something fun, I wouldn’t have given it a second look.
Rating
I give it 6/10
Raccoon Tycoon First Impressions December 2018
Jesta ThaRogue