
Quacks of Quedlinburg Deserves Its “Board Game of the Year” Win - Tomte
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/quacks-of-quedlinburg-review-brewing-bogus-potions-never-felt-better/
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seniorsassycat
I've enjoyed my games of Quacks but I grew fed up with it quickly. RNG plays a
huge role in this game, it is a push your luck gambling game first. If you
play enough you will play a round where the first three chips drawn from a bag
of twenty are white and add up to 8. You've lost the round and probably the
game.

RNG overshadows the strategy of ingredients you buy. I can't tell if the
ingredients I bought worked well together or I just got lucky. Some
ingredients are strictly overpowered and others are strictly worse. The blue
birds in set 1 that allow you to look at 1/2/4 tiles from your bag and choose
to play 1 is incredible and you should _always_ buy it.

The catch up mechanic is interesting but favors experienced players. First, if
you go bust and create a potion with more than 7 cherry bombs you must pick
between getting money to buy ingredients or getting points (instead of both).
At the beginning of each round players with fewer points than the lead player
will get a boost to their potion. Experienced players will bust during the
first 1-3 rounds in order to get more money to buy ingredients, and get a
boost to their potion the next round because of the catch up mechanic.

It's a fun game and it has been getting a lot of play time because it is fast,
but I'm not sure how much longer that will last.

~~~
popmatrix
Along the same lines in theme with crafting potions for sale, you may find
Alchemists [1] enjoyable as it's a game of deduction however you can still
press-your-luck once you've reduced possible solutions into a tolerable risk.
This allows for very methodical play to be rewarded but still allows those who
are willing to gamble for leg up which can be a fun dynamic to balance.

One recommendation if you do play is to download the companion app. The game
in essence requires a third-party player to validate potions with hidden
solutions for the other palyers. The app takes care of role so everyone
involved can be playing the game.

[1]
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/161970/alchemists](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/161970/alchemists)

