Designers: Brett Sobol (CrossTalk, The Reckoners, Stockpile), Seth Van Orden (CrossTalk, The Reckoners, Stockpile)

Artist: Jacqui Davis (Colosseum, Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia, Ex Libris, Stockpile, Viticulture, Viticulture: Essential Edition), Ian O’Toole (Escape Plan, The Gallerist, Lisboa, Nemo’s War, On Mars, Pipeline, Railways of Portugal, Stockpile, Vinhos Deluxe)

Publisher: Nauvoo Games (Crosstalk, The Reckoners, Stockpile)

Genre/Mechanisms: auction/bidding, economic, card drafting, commodity speculation, set collection, stock holding, variable player powers

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Stockpile: Illicit Investments Expansion and Epic Edition is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total 22x the initial funding goal!

Player Count: 2-5

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About: Stockpile is an economic board game featuring insider information given each round, as well as bidding on piles of cards called stockpiles. The new Illicit Investments expansion adds in Investment Strategy Cards, a new Investor card, and an optional variant for determining player order.

How It Works: The number of rounds depends on player count, but each round consists of the following phases: Information, Supply, Demand, Action, Selling, and Movement. In the Information Phase, each player receives a Company Card and a Forecast Card. In the Supply Phase, players place stacks of cards representing company stock, trading fees, and/or action cards on “stockpiles.” In the Demand Phase, players bid on these stockpiles. In the Action Phase, players manipulate the market using Action Cards. In the Selling Phase, players sell shares of stock. And finally, in the Movement Phase, stocks move according to the cards dealt back in the Information Phase. After the specified number of rounds, the player with the most money wins.

Comparisons:  Acquire is probably the grandaddy of stock holding games, but Stockpile has really come to replace it as the most popular contemporary stock holding game. Other games with similar mechanics include Arkwright, Clans of Caledonia, Indonesia, Mombasa, Pipeline, Raccoon Tycoon, and many of the 18xx’s.

What Should I Pledge?:
$12 Leading Tier – New Expansion Only: just what the man said, plus the Investor Card Promo Pack and the Investment Strategy Promo Pack. No base game.
$25 Cosmic Tier – Both Expansions: it’s the Leading Tier, plus the Stockpile: Continuing Corruption Expansion.
$59 Epic Tier – Stockpile All-In Ever: everything in the Cosmic Tier, plus the Stockpile base game and 2 copies of the Original Investor Card Promo Packs.

Add-Ons:
$5 All-In Ever: the Original Investor 4-Card Promo Pack originally offered with Stockpile: Continuing Corruption. It’s already included with the Epic Tier.
$12 Stockpile: Illicit Investments
$25 Stockpile: Illicit Investments & Stockpile: Continuing Corruption
$50 Stockpile, Stockpile: Illicit Investments & Stockpile: Continuing Corruption
$35 Stockpile (just the base game)
$10 Crosstalk (U.S. & Canada only)
$70-120 The Reckoners (U.S. & Canada only)

KS Exclusives:
The Epic Edition of Stockpile, which features the base game, both expansions, and all promo content to-date collected in a larger box, is exclusive to Kickstarter. In addition, all of the Promo content from this Kickstarter and past campaigns may be sold at conventions or directly through the publisher, but will not be available for sale via retail or included in retail editions.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $59 for the Epic Tier plus $13 in shipping for a total of $72.

Stockpile: Illicit Investments Expansion and Epic Edition completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, June 27th and tentatively ships in November 2019.