Intro

This year we got introduced to Quacks of Quedlinburg(Quacks) through some friends we play games with. We both instantly liked it so we picked it up during a trip to have something to play. In this game you try to brew the most impressive potion to score you both points and currency.

Theme and Components

Quacks of Quedlinburg really goes all in on it’s theme. You get components to represent your cauldron, you get a potion and small rubies. It makes for a nice setup when you have everything laid out in front of you since the cauldron has designated spaces for everything. The components are mostly made from cardboard, but the rubies are plastic and the droplet plus rattail marker are made of wood. Quality of the artwork gives it a feeling that amazing care was put into the designing and making of the game.

For the red, purple, blue and yellow ingredients there are different sets to play with offering a new experience for each of them.

Gameplay

At the start of the game you get some ingredients and a sack to keep them in.

Then you draw a fortune card that will add a positive effect each round. Purple fortunes make something happen right away while blue fortunes can affect the whole round or the end of it.

Each round consists of you pulling one ingredient at a time out of your bag and placing them in your cauldron to make a better potion. If you end up with “white markers” whose points total more than 7 points your potion explodes and you stop drawing ingredients.

If you draw a “white marker” you did not like and have not yet exploded you can use your potion to place that marker back into your ingredient bag. This is single use, but don’t worry there is a way to buy a new one later.

A player can stop drawing markers whenever they like, but if a player’s potion explodes they are no longer allowed to draw any ingredients.

When every player has finished drawing ingredients the evaluation phase starts. The evaluation phase have several steps all depicted on the scoreboard

First the player who got the most impressive potion gets to roll the prize dice for the day's best potion. The winner of the most impressive potion is measured in score, and if two players are equal the one with the highest victory points wins. If equal here as well both get to roll the price dice. If your potion exploded you’re not in the race for the most impressive potion this turn, better luck next round.

Then all special effect ingredients shown on the scoreboard are activated. What these effects are will be different depending on which set of ingredients you play with.

If you have stopped on a ruby space you get one ruby.

If the player's potion exploded, now it’s time for the consequence. The player will have to choose if they would like the victory points or get to purchase new ingredients for their next potion. If you showed restraint or just got lucky you will get to perform both actions.

Lastly a player can choose to spend 2 of their rubies to advance their droplet one space thus starting with a more impressive potion next turn. Also if you used up your potion now is the time to get it refilled for the cost of 2 rubies.

Now you draw a new fortune card and the loop happens all over again. Some turns have special events attached to them. For instance on round 3 you are allowed to start buying the purple ingredients and on round 6 you get an extra white marker added to your bag of ingredients.

The last round is special, now every player will draw ingredients simultaneously from their bag. If you do not wish to continue you show an empty hand. This makes it so that no player knows for certain if it’s safe to stop adding ingredients to their potion.

Nathalies thoughts

For a person who isn’t a very strategic player I found this game very fun (maybe because I kept winning?) and works well for two players and not only multiple players. If you are a strategic player I think that this game won’t appeal to you as much, but you can still have a great time playing it if you go into this game knowing that. It’s a fun game to play multiple times to explore different ingredient books and find out which combinations work well together. When you feel that you know the game well you can even choose different “chapters” to make the game more suitable for you and your preferences. One thing that we noticed while playing Quacks is that one person often takes an early lead, and it can be hard for the other player to catch up. The rat tails works well as a start, but luck still has a big part to play in this game. You may draw too many white markers that make your potion go BOOM and if that keeps happening you easily lose many points and the gap between you and the leader player increases.

If you want a game to play with your partner that is easy to get into and doesn’t take hours to play, I think that this game absolutely is worth picking up and playing.

Fredriks thoughts

I had a fun time with Quacks. Trying out different tactics in how to construct your bag of ingredients reminded my of Dominion and added a lot to the replayability. The simple game loop of calculating risk and drawing ingredients hoping for something awesome was really engaging, and being able to make light and laugh about it when things don't go your way is essential when playing this game.

As the one that often ends up having to teach others how to play different games, I appreciated how easy it was to teach and get people into this game. The art and theme also helped in getting people captivated enough to try it at least once.

There are something I think is missing in this game, and that is the option to continue taking risk when you are behind. A few times when behind I managed to max out my cauldron, if that happens there is nothing you can do. Just sit there and hope that your opponents has bad luck that round. A way to continue taking risk in a attempt to catch up would have been nice.

Playing this game as a couple worked very well. I admit that sometime I was a little sulky after a session. But since there is only a minimum of interaction between players in this game, you won't end up mad at each other. Only at the universe for not filling up on your supply of luck. It's all you, your ingredients and lady Fortuna, and the later is not on my side in this game.

Conclusion playing “Quacks of quedlinburg” as a couple

Overall we are both very happy with Quacks of quedlinburg and have had some awesome sessions with it. Regardless if you're more of a draw and hope for the best player or someone who likes to calculate the odds and make semi informed decisions, this game has something for you.

This is a game we will keep around and take out from time to time and play just the two of us and with friends.