Acquire is one of those games with simple rules but lots of strategy.
Each player in their turn, simply plays one of the six tiles they have onto the board, buys up to three shares and then draws a replacement tile.

However, that simplicity belies the depth of strategy that this game has and the reason it is still so popular all these years later

Each tile represents a hotel block. Adjacent hotel blocks form hotel chains. As a hotel chain grows it will eventually come into contact with another hotel chain at which point the larger chain takes over the smaller chain and becomes one large chain. Dividends are paid out to the two players who have the most shares in the smaller chain.

Grasping this idea of needing shares in smaller chains to generate more money to buy more shares is fundamental to becoming a good player at this game.
However, as the game progresses and hotel chains become too big to be taken over, it then becomes necessary to have shares in these larger chains. When all possible chains become safe or a chain has 41 or more tiles in it the game is over and the players with shares in the last surviving chain then reap extra dividends. The richest player wins.

SUMMARY:
Knowing what tile to play where and when to maximum advantage is what seperates a seasoned player from a new player. Quite often, newer players will be unable to win against someone who knows the game in depth, no different to those great classic games like Chess, Backgammon, Othello and Go, so no bad thing.

Review by Brian