Brutal But Not Mean: A Tasty Tidbit from Food Chain Magnate

boardgamequest.com:

Chris from the excellent “Board Game Hot Takes” podcast recently asked me about Food Chain Magnate (FCM) and the sometimes-expressed feeling that it is a “mean” game. I understand where that is coming from, because it is a game that punishes the slightest disparity in strength between two would-be magnates of the food-chain variety, meaning that even a slight nudge on the scale can upset one player’s plans, sending all the sales to another player, possibly requiring the person on the losing end to fire workers or suffer some other serious long-term setback. And the difference between the two competitors can be tiny—having one fewer waitress than your competitor, or advertising one pizza to the houses someone planned to sell burgers to, making those burgers go cold, unpurchased.

Despite that difficulty, my response to Chris was yes, the game is brutally punishing at times, but nothing anyone does to you is out of the blue. It is all telegraphed and when people are good at the game (and I do not include myself among that tier, at least not yet), every move offers a countermeasure of some sort, at least until you make a mistake that throws you hopelessly behind. In other words, the game is only mean for those who fail to foresee trouble.

Here is an example from a game I am playing with a college buddy on onlineboardgamers.com, which is a nice place to play Food Chain Magnate. On turn 5, during my turn, I placed an airplane to do some aerial marketing.

Now just to explain a few game things so this all makes sense, the goal of FCM is to make the most money over two bank cycles. The bank starts with $50 per player, and when that money runs out (in game terms, when the bank “breaks”), the first cycle is done. You refill the bank based on a secret vote the players take at the start of the game, and then when that second slug of money is used up (the bank “breaks” for a second time), the game ends. In the picture above, from a two-player game, we are in Turn 5, and the Bank