QUACKS
Company: CMYK; Type: Eurostyle; Players: 2-4; Time: 45 minutes; Genre: Push Your Luck; Rating: 💥💥 💥 💥
I like it!
We have a Game Day monthly at the Library, where I run D&D in the morning and then host board games in the afternoon. This is a game that mon ami Max has brought on a number of occasions that we've played that I like.
It is a game about brewing potions. You score your points according to how many ingredients you manage to put into it. The more the better. But too much and your potion explodes!
Each player has their own game board in the form of a cauldron with a spiraling track on which they place their ingredients on the track as they pull them blindly from a cloth bag. Your choice on each draw is whether to continue or not. The catch is that you start with 11 points worth of white tokens "bloomberries." Your potion explodes if you draw and have to place more than 7 points worth of them in your cauldron. When everyone has finished, everyone then scores their victory points and purchase additional ingredients. If your potion explodes, you must either choose to score your victory points or to purchase additional ingredients. You also earn 1 Ruby if your last token is found next to a Ruby symbol on your track.
Orange "Pumpkins": No effect, except to enable red "toadstools" to move further up the track.
Blue "Skulls": Draw additional tokens from your bag, choose whether to play one.
Red "Toadstools": Advance your token additional spaces if you have already drawn and placed orange "pumpkins" in your cauldron.
Yellow "Mandrakes": If you draw and place one right after a white "bloomberry" token, you may remove the white token and put it bck into your bag.
Black "Moths": Compare how many of these tokens have been played. If you are tied, you get to permanently advance your start token in your cauldron. if you have more, you get to both advance your token and earn 1 Ruby.
Green "Spiders": Earn 1=2 Rubies if at least one of your last two tokens in your cauldron is green.
Purple "Ghosts":
You can advance your start token permanently in your cauldron if you can spend 2 Rubies. There is also a catch-up mechanic in the game whereby each turn players who are behind get to start the turn out with a temporary head start on their potion based on how many rat tails there are on the master score board between them and the current point leader.
And that's mostly it! (One thing I've learned from playing the game is that it is OK and perhaps smart to push your luck early on and explode your potions. It can be rather disadvantageous to start the game out consistently ahead -- see rat tails above for why!)
Enjoy! 👍
