Quacks, historically, are pseudo-scientists often pretending to be medical professionals (some so thoroughly they even fool themselves). They sell snake oil treatments, false cures to any and every ailment in existence. This game fits that theme.
But I still wanted the "doctors" to be ducks.
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Every good quack has a cauldron to brew their mixtures in, and this game is no different. You start with a pouch of ingredients and pick them out, one at a time, and throw them in. What could go wrong? Well, in Quedlinburg, there are so many of you fucking lunatics that it's not enough to brew a potion and make a claim unrelated to its efficacy. It has to have bubbles, which means cherry bombs go in the mix as well. Too many cherry bombs, though, and your mixture explodes.
Each round, you pick ingredients one at a time and put pieces down farther up the points path in the cauldron equivalent to how many of the ingredient are on the token (ie. if you pick a 2 cherry bomb, it's placed two spaces ahead of the last piece). If you get more than seven cherry bombs in the pot, it explodes, and you have to choose between the ability to buy more ingredients or take victory points. The highest number of cherry bombs on a token is three, so you're safe until you have at least five cherry bombs in the cauldron. From there out, it's a question of risk management—how much farther do you need to go to stay up with your opponents? How many more turns will you take, risking that you'll pull the piece that ends your round early?
And thus, the problem.
If you get a bad set of ingredients in a round and quickly build up your cherry bombs, you're generally incentivized to keep going. After all, most of the bombs are out of your bag, and you have a better chance of pulling normal ingredients. But if your luck stays poor, and you bomb out early, now your opponents are immediately pulling ahead. They'll have the ability to buy more regular ingredients, which improves their odds of a successful run next round, meaning you'll have to take a bigger risk to keep up. And if that doesn't pan out, you fall further behind, and so on.
Basically, this is a game about risk management which is nonetheless substantially based on luck. If you fall behind, you have to play carefully and get lucky or hope your opponents screw up in order to catch them. You don't really have a way to actively make up ground. The catch-up mechanic—moving you farther ahead in the cauldron if you're far enough behind the leader—only makes it so you stay within range if your opponents screw up. And if you fall behind, it's just not fun.
That's the real killer. A game can be difficult, it can be a little unbalanced, it can be somewhat frustrating, and none of that is good, but it can remain entertaining as an experience. This does not. If you fall behind, none of your options are good, and all you can do is wish ill on your opponents (most likely your friends). The game's fine when you're winning, but it feels quite bad if you're losing, and that means in most games someone is not having a good time.
Combined with the wonky theme—are these people really so stupid that they risk blowing up their concoctions for bubbles?—and even though it's pretty popular on Board Game Geek, I can't get on board.
Score: 3 busted cauldrons out of five.
Each round, you pick ingredients one at a time and put pieces down farther up the points path in the cauldron equivalent to how many of the ingredient are on the token (ie. if you pick a 2 cherry bomb, it's placed two spaces ahead of the last piece). If you get more than seven cherry bombs in the pot, it explodes, and you have to choose between the ability to buy more ingredients or take victory points. The highest number of cherry bombs on a token is three, so you're safe until you have at least five cherry bombs in the cauldron. From there out, it's a question of risk management—how much farther do you need to go to stay up with your opponents? How many more turns will you take, risking that you'll pull the piece that ends your round early?
And thus, the problem.
If you get a bad set of ingredients in a round and quickly build up your cherry bombs, you're generally incentivized to keep going. After all, most of the bombs are out of your bag, and you have a better chance of pulling normal ingredients. But if your luck stays poor, and you bomb out early, now your opponents are immediately pulling ahead. They'll have the ability to buy more regular ingredients, which improves their odds of a successful run next round, meaning you'll have to take a bigger risk to keep up. And if that doesn't pan out, you fall further behind, and so on.
Basically, this is a game about risk management which is nonetheless substantially based on luck. If you fall behind, you have to play carefully and get lucky or hope your opponents screw up in order to catch them. You don't really have a way to actively make up ground. The catch-up mechanic—moving you farther ahead in the cauldron if you're far enough behind the leader—only makes it so you stay within range if your opponents screw up. And if you fall behind, it's just not fun.
That's the real killer. A game can be difficult, it can be a little unbalanced, it can be somewhat frustrating, and none of that is good, but it can remain entertaining as an experience. This does not. If you fall behind, none of your options are good, and all you can do is wish ill on your opponents (most likely your friends). The game's fine when you're winning, but it feels quite bad if you're losing, and that means in most games someone is not having a good time.
Combined with the wonky theme—are these people really so stupid that they risk blowing up their concoctions for bubbles?—and even though it's pretty popular on Board Game Geek, I can't get on board.
Score: 3 busted cauldrons out of five.
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