Shaul Tzuar, the 3-d ACQUIRE-like game is called BIG BOSS; it was designed by Wolfgang Kramer and published in 1994, and then re-implemented as ALCAZAR in 2009. Copies of BIG BOSS are quite expensive, but ALCAZAR is more affordable.

Oh and no there shouldn't be a bunch of blank tiles. There may be 1 or 2 included to use for a wild tile variant, but there shouldn't be more than that (if any).

This is a great game. Not too complicated, yet strategic enough to do well with some planning. Enough luck to allow less strategic players a chance to win.

Any chance you could add snap points for the board so the tiles snap in place nicely? That plus a higher quality scan of the board pieces would make this a great mod.

Regarding the 3D version, I own a physical copy of the Avalon Hill version of this game (released quite awhile ago). It had hard plasic cubes instead of flat cardboard chits for board pieces and each company flag was a different shape and color 3D building that stacked on top of the board pieces. Quality production, but a really big game box. Lots of fun to play, though.

I have yet to play this, but it is on my list of 'to play'. I have seen a grail version of this game that has small building tiles instead of flat cardboard i think which allows you to build three dimensionally which would make this game more visually interesting. Do you know what I'm talking about and do you have any plans for creating something similar?

are there supposed to be many blank tile cards?

Lovely; a real surprise. Thanks!