This evening we actually managed to get a group of friends together to play a board game — something we haven't done for a good six weeks or so. With what looks like another full lockdown looming, we wanted to take the opportunity to actually socialise, so we did — at admirably short notice, which is very unusual for this group of friends.
Anyway. The game we played was called The Quacks of Quedlinburg. I'd not heard of it before, but I haven't really been keeping up on board game news for a while now as there's seemed little point; with how infrequently we were all able to meet up, my collection felt very much like it was going to waste and I actually got rid of a good few of them. I still have a fair number of what I consider to be "essentials" though. But I digress.
The Quacks of Quedlinburg is a push-your-luck game about drawing potion ingredients out of your bag and hoping you don't add too many "cherry bombs". If the value of your cherry bombs exceeds 7 in a round, your potion explodes and you're put at a bit of a disadvantage come the "evaluation" phase and are only able to claim income or victory points; conversely, if you wisely choose to hold off adding more ingredients, you're able to claim both victory points and income, the latter of which can be used to add more ingredients to your bag, thereby "diluting" it and making it a little less likely you draw a cherry bomb.
The specific ingredients each have their own functions, some of which play off other ones, and there are a variety of different "books" detailing ways the different colours work, meaning each playthrough of the game can be a little bit different from the last. Mechanically, it's pretty simple — there's a lot of luck involved — but there are some interesting decisions to be made, particularly with regard to which ingredients to buy between turns, and whether or not you should keep pushing your luck, bearing in mind the odds of drawing something that will cause an explosion.
I really enjoyed it; there was enough mechanical interest to keep everyone engaged and occupied, it played quickly and no-one ever felt they were running away with the victory at any point. There are obviously plenty of different strategies and approaches depending on the ingredients you have available, and it is immensely satisfying when your combinations of ingredients work well together.
All in all, I'm looking forward to playing it again; hopefully we'll get another opportunity soon!
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