By Hook or Crook
Theme: Pit your art collection against your friends
Company: Avalon Hill 
Type: Board Game
# of Players: 2 - 5
Rating: 
 

Ken says: The bellwether of the German game invasion, By Hook or Crook places you in the role of an antique collector. The goal is to obtain the best collection of antiques and show them in the Gallery. If yours is the best, you advance your pawn the required number of spaces around the board. The player whose pawn is in the lead at the end of the game, wins. 

There are two places to go in the game. The first is the auction where the biggest check wins the item that's up for bid. However, a thief may steal this check from the cash register and add it to your opponent's bank account. 

Each antique has a letter (A to F) that is important when you go to the Gallery to display your collection. Because the collector with the most items wins the show and advances his or her pawn. All displayed antiques must have consecutive letters or groupings of letters to be counted towards the show. For example, a six item collection may consists of A, B, C, D, E, & F or A, A, A, B, C, C or A, B, C, D, D, D. The thief may make an appearance here as well, stealing from your hard earned collection after it has been displayed. However, if a detective has been played, the thief goes to jail. 

Pros:  This is a really nice game that's perfect for the family or when non-gamers come over. The production values are quite good and the game flows very smoothly. The system is basic "rock, paper, scissors" in resolution and is easily understood.

Cons:  As always (at least with my finicky tastes), the game wears a little thin during repeated plays. It is best suited for the occasional play, but certainly worthy of anyone's collection

Addendum:  This game has gone through some name changes in the recent years.  "Adel Verflictet" (sic?) is the original German name.