Startups Strategy Game for Adults & Children • Become A Startup Investor • Best for Family Board Games Night • 10 Year Olds +

Startups, like many Oink games, gives you a pretty good value of fun-per-dollar in a small box. The box says 3-7 players, but I suggest playing with no more than 5 players most of the time, and 6 only rarely. There are simply not enough cards in the deck to regularly support 6+.The game comes with a deck of 45 cards in 6 "suits" representing stock in startup companies. There are 5 "5" cards, 6 "6" cards, and so on up to 10 "10" cards. The cards in each suit are identical and not ranked. The game also includes 70 "1|3" point chips, and 12 scoring tokens (4 each of +2, +1, and -1 for the highest scoring, second highest scoring, and lowest scoring player each round).The game is played over 4 rounds. Each round 5 cards are "burned" so no one can perfectly count the deck, and players get starting hands of 3 cards and 10 "1|3" chips (1-side up). So in a 3 player game there are 31 cards in the deck to play, in a 4 player game 28 cards, and in a 5 player game 25 cards.The basic gameplay is to take a card face up from the "market" or face down from the deck, and then play a card either to your own tableau or to the market. If you take a card from the deck, you must pay one of your 1|3 chips (1-side up) on each card in the market for which you do not have the Anti-Monopoly Chip. You can take a card from the market so long as you do not have the Anti-Monopoly Chip for that color, getting all "1" chips that are on it with it. Basically, having the Anti-Monopoly Chip for a color makes that color card invisible to you in the market.If you play to your own tableau and that gives you the most cards of that color (i.e., more than any other player has in their own tableau) you get the Anti-Monopoly Chip for that color. So the first player to play a color gets the AMC in that color, and cannot pick up cards of that color from the market (but doesn't have to put a chip on them either, to take from the deck).The round continues with each player in turn taking a card from the market or the deck and playing a card to their tableu or to the market, ending at the end of the turn of the last card being drawn from the deck. Players then play the remaining cards from their hands to their own tableaus and score the round.Here's where it gets interesting: at the end of the round, if one player has the most cards played of a color (and not tied), then all other players with that color card must pay that player one of their 1 chips per card of that color, flipped to the 3 side. So you really want to end up with the most cards of any colors you play, at the end of the round, and you want there to be plenty of other cards of that color played by other players - so you want to entice them into playing cards of a color that you can jump ahead with by the end of the round. And if you have cards played of a color that you cannot get the most in, you want either yourself or another player to be able to tie the player who has the most, so no one will have to pay anyone for having cards in that color.It's a surprisingly interesting interplay of bluffing strength (playing a color even when you're not sure you can end up with the most), feigning weakness (secretly holding on to the cards in hand to give you the majority in a color at the end of a round, to get other players to try playing for the majority), and baiting other players (putting cards in the market to tempt them into a color and/or drain players of their chips so they can draw from the deck).In some ways it reminds me a bit of Arboretum with the drawing from the deck or market/discard piles to get what you want or need mechanic, but is way less cutthroat. The "play a chip on card(s), or take a card with chips" mechanic is just like No Thanks!Recommended for 3P-5P. No text to read on cards, recommended for ages 10+ (which seems about right to me), supposedly 20 minutes (but 30 is more realistic). Very easy to teach and learn.

Minimal game here. Easy to setup at least

This game is nothing short of extraordinary. I don’t know what it is about it that leaves me so amazed. It’s incredibly simple to teach, boiling down to “take a card and play a card.” There’s only 6 different types of cards, numbered 5-10 with each number meaning the amount of that card in the deck. It really isn’t a complex game. But oh how we suffer Witt every decision we make. The game is agonizing in the best way possible. It’s so cleverly designed that it seems as if there’s never a right decision to make, never a perfect hand, it’s all about reacting to the other players’s actions, weighing out your risks, and pushing your luck a bit. The game is a pleasure to play and I just cannot recommend this game enough. Hugh quality components, very compact box that with careful packing fits perfectly, a large range of player counts, and an amazing game overall.

Great small, compact game from oink games about bluffing and push-your-luck mechanics.Best played with 4-5 (maybe 6) players, and easy enough to teach in 5-10 mins or less.

Easy to pull out and play. Kids and adults alike love the game.

Fun, quick.

No Thanks like mechanism (bidding, set-collection)

Its like someone decided to start up with this game... HA