Try Stockpile at The Hidden Lair
Stockpile is a Kickstarter funded game of stock manipulation created by Seth Van Orden. In Stockpile, the objective is to get as much out of your stocks as you can, manipulating them to your favor, while your opponents are all attempting to do the same thing for their own. Stockpile is based around resource management, risk taking, wagers, and a fair bit of hidden information.
The game is for 3-5 players who are all out to get the most of five different stockpiles, while each stock starts that game in the middle of a slide bar in terms of how much it is worth. There are forecast cards which set different changed to occur at the end of every round, stock cards, and market cards which are drawn turn by turn which allow players to manipulate the stocks each turn.
Each player starts with a stock that will serve as the main stock they are trying to get the most out of. This is kept hidden from the other players, as you do not want them to know what one you are most after. This brings in a level of misdirection to the game, a whole new side of game-play that has more to do with player choice and interaction than it does any sort of mechanic. At the beginning of each round a Forecast is played, which consists of a company (stock) card and another card detailing what happens (moving up or down in the stocks, paying out, or various other things). This is revealed at the beginning of each turn but does not resolve itself until the end. Then, one stock card is flipped face up for each of the stockpiles (one card per player). Each player is then dealt two market cards. One of these must be played face up while the other can remain secret and be played face down so that other players do not know what you have set in motion just as you do not know what they have.
After the cards have been played, but not all revealed, its time to place your bids. Players can bid against one another to try and gain shares in various stocks. Each player starts with $20,000 and bids can be anywhere from 0 (just placing your piece on a stock that no one else wants) to $25,000. Once everyone is paid up, they take the cards that have been placed under that stockpile, including the hidden cards, and that becomes you hand. Now, using your hand, you can manipulate your stock as you will. If a stock gets too low, it hits Bankruptcy and all players holding that stock must discard it. Alternatively, if a stock gets high enough, that indicates a split where your stock pays out to you and earn you more money. There are also options of selling stock, further ways to manipulate the board, and overall a lot that players can do to make things swing in their favor. Stockpile is a really interesting game that requires a great deal of careful planning, manipulative skills, and even a bit of luck to carry you through.
We here at The Hidden Lair are looking to hold a demo of Stockpile on Friday, November 14th with creator Seth Van Orden himself for anyone interested in trying out this great new game. We are also looking to get out own copies sometime in December. For more information, feel free to give us a call at (217)864-1851 or stop by and we will be glad to tell you more or check out our Facebook Event. Come December, we will also be adding Stockpile to our Demo-Shelf.
