With Alan Sugar back on our screens, it’s the perfect time to celebrate games that unleash your inner Apprentice. From building wealth to negotiating deals and going head-to-head, these picks have it all.
Monopoly by Sophie Jones
How could we not kick things off with this classic banger? It’s probably the only board game Apprentice candidates would recognise, and it covers all the fundamentals needed to survive in Lord Sugar’s boardroom.
Most people are familiar with this family-favourite staple. Players take turns moving around the board, snapping up London properties, and building houses before upgrading to hotels. The goal is simple: create a property empire that makes your rivals go broke. Land on someone else’s space? Pay up or watch your fortune vanish.
Monopoly is a game of risk, strategy, and hustle, just like the Apprentice. When times get tough, players can sell houses or even mortgage properties to stay afloat. And then there are those dreaded Chance cards. One moment you’re cashing in, the next you’re facing hefty bank payments or landing in jail. Classic Monopoly chaos.
Ultimately, the game is about buying, selling, and making money as you race around London. If that doesn’t capture the Apprentice spirit, I don’t know what does. Monopoly, you’re hired!
Startups by Dan Street-Phillips
When it comes to business, perhaps the most common phrase that pops up again and again on shows like The Apprentice or Dragon’s Den is ‘start up’. Defined as simply a ‘new business venture’ it is also the name of Oink’s 2017 hit small box card game.
Designed by Jun Sasaki, Startsups is a game about buying stocks in new companies in order to have the share majority by the end of the game. On your turn you are essentially drawing a card and playing a card. You may take the card from the shared discard row or blind from the deck. However, if you draw from the deck, you must pay one money for each card you are opting not to take. Then you must play a card. You can either play to the shared discard row or in front of you to your ‘portfolio’.
Once a card is in front of you it is locked and cannot be given away or discarded. If you have more of that type than anyone else then you gain monopoly. If at the end of the game, you still hold the monopoly then everyone else with a share in that company has to pay you for every share they have. The best thing is that this will include cards in your hand at the end, so no one has full information. You might be comfortable that you have the monopoly and sit smugly waiting for the game to end and then someone reveals a whole hand of that type. It is a great game. Fun but with a whole lot of stress going on, much like starting a business I imagine.
BIG BOSS by Favouritefoe
Liza Minelli would have been a fan of the Apprentice. When she sang Money makes the world go round, I’m sure she was predicting Lord Sugar’s passion for making those pounds and pennies! Luckily for you and your fellow spiritual entrepreneurs, there are a bunch of board games that make finance a priority. And BIG BOSS is one of them.
Recently reprinted by Funko Games, this 2-6 player game by Wolfang Kramer (the often partner of another design powerhouse, Michael Kiesling) is all about learning the art of building up businesses and making investment decisions like, er, well, a boss! It’s based on an older 1960s game (Acquire) but brings in some fresh twists to make it even better.
Growing your companies, taking over weaker ones, merging for leverage, and generally becoming the boss of all bosses, your success (or failure) is visually represented as businesses expand out. And, somewhat unusually for an economic game, the rules and turns are pretty simple and easy to learn. Based on drawing and playing cards which represent the companies, and trading stocks in established businesses, it also moves at quite a pace. The art comes in how you manage your stock. Deciding when to sell and when to buy for maximum advantage.
With super impressive 3D buildings that get taller over time, this game definitely has BIG BOSS table presence.
Art Society by Tim Evans
The joy of each series of The Apprentice for me is watching how each team undertakes the challenges of breaking into a market or spending resources wisely, picking their moments to impress with each task, and no game says high culture wheeling and dealing to me than Art Society.
Beyond the high production value exterior, where even the box is lined in a felt like material which makes it so easy to set up and play with ease, is a game around amassing an art collection through a series of auctions. Like in all tasks on the show, every player starts out equal, same resources (a series of cards valued 1-20), same grid to hold your collection, and even a token piece to begin with.
From this point onward you progress round after round choosing to collect a single work of art, but being careful of two factors which will greatly influence your success:
1. Every round has a spare piece which isn’t sold. This is donated and adds points to its category value (meaning art of that category is worth more in your collection at the end of the game). But points are only scored at the end of the game, so this becomes a tactical market to manoeuvre around and adjust the value of your, and as importantly your opponents, collections.
2. Tile placement rules which add both bonuses for good placement, and penalties for often being forced into breaking them. These points can be essential in keeping pace with your rivals, and as the role of auctioneer rotates each round, you have plenty of opportunity to give yourself advantageously shaped prizes, or offer game breaking selections for your opponents as well.
Despite all of this crunch, it is still a fairly light weight tile placement, set collection, auction style game for 1-4 players which can be taught in a matter of minutes, and I have enjoyed this with seasoned board gamers or players who are only vaguely aware there is more to this hobby than monopoly, and I would recommend it for all.
Kutna Hora: The City of Silver by Sophie Jones
What I love about Kutná Hora is its clever mini stock market. Equipped with two cardboard calculators, the game tracks fluctuating prices of metal, meat, ale, and more as players make strategic moves. Build too many ale buildings and the price crashes, leaving you with little to collect when you take the income action. On the flip side, invest wisely and you can manipulate the market in your favour. Success means carefully balancing expansion with maintaining a steady cash flow, something Apprentice fans will understand.
But the challenge doesn’t stop there. Other players can shift the stock market with their own actions, creating an ever-changing economy that forces you to adapt. Along the way, you’ll use multi-use cards to send workers into the mines and contribute to the construction of St. Barbara’s Cathedral. Both actions help you profit but can also increase the population, which brings its own economic consequences. The game brilliantly captures the idea of a closed economy and the battle to monopolise it while ensuring your Guilds don’t collapse under their own weight.
If you love The Apprentice, this game is for you. It’s all about making money, maximising profit, and even paying taxes at the end of each round, unless you choose to forgo them and take a penalty. Kutná Hora has one of the most intricate economy systems I’ve seen in a board game, yet it remains surprisingly fun and engaging. Each player has their own guilds, so direct competition isn’t always necessary, but your actions; whether mining, building, or investing, can still disrupt opponents. Paired with metal coins and a deep sense of strategy, it’s an immersive experience from start to finish.
If you enjoy the show for the business buzzwords, stock market shifts, and profit-chasing, this game is basically The Apprentice set in the historic Czech Republic.
Whether you love The Apprentice for the boardroom showdowns, the ruthless deal-making, or the thrill of watching candidates scramble to prove their business acumen, there’s a board game out there that captures that same energy. From classic property empires in Monopoly to high-stakes art auctions in Art Society, each of these games offers a taste of the wheeling, dealing, and calculated risks that define the show.
The best part is that, unlike the candidates, you won’t have to face Lord Sugar’s infamous “You’re fired!” at the end of the game, unless, of course, your strategy backfires spectacularly. So, gather your fellow entrepreneurs, sharpen your negotiation skills, and get ready to bring the boardroom to the board game table. Who knows? Maybe after a few rounds, you’ll be ready to take on the real thing.
