‘Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Alchemists Expansion’ Board Game Review
It’s no surprise to hear that we are huge fans of Quacks of Quedlinburg here at Nerdly. We’ve already reviewed both the base game and the prior expansion; The Herb Witches. In the latest expansion, Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists, the game is lifted from being the relatively straightforward experience that is accessible to almost anyone, to being something a little more thoughtful. The basic Quacks of Quedlingburg recipe remains, but now players are also tasked with putting their potions to the test with “real” patients. And by real, I mean the kind of patients you’d expect in Quacks – those with giant ears, chicken eyes or carrot noses, for example.
This is achieved through the addition of an extra board for each player, each of which depicts a distillation kit with an empty space in the middle and a series of numbers leading to an essence flask. This is because the new board (and the main feature of The Alchemists) is the addition of a new Essence Phase. In a nutshell, this phase follows the end of the normal chip-drawing phase and occurs before scoring/spending.
Depending on which ailment each player has chosen to cure (from a selection of three of the eight available drawn at random during setup) there are a number of possibilities during the Essence Phase. In all cases, the way Essence is calculated is the same – this comes down to moving your marker along the numbered track based on whether your neighbours’ potions have exploded, whether you have exactly seven (in total) across your white tokens, and whether you have a variety of different coloured tokens in your potion. Depending on their score, a player will then check their Essence value against the ailment card they chose and will take the reward shown – this may be points, potion strength, rubies or additional resources.
In addition to the new Essence Phase and the components that represent the different ailments, Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists also comes with two smaller modules. The first of these is an enhancement to the Loco Weed ingredient that first debuted in The Herb Witches. In Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists players now get two double-sided recipe books to integrate with their game, as well as a stash of new tokens. The second minor addition is that of a load of new Fortune Teller cards. These come in three flavours – those that work with the base game only, and those that work only when either of the other two expansions are in use. These are all fairly simple, and just add more variety to the existing Fortune Teller mechanic.
With all of this laid out, it’s clear that the big addition in Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists is the Essence Phase and the ailments that come with it. For me, the integration of the patients and how they are chosen is slightly disjointed, as I don’t like how players first choose three (of eight) ailments to use, then choose one each (players can choose the same one) and then have to take a card from their own personal deck to build the Essence board. I’m also not a huge fan of the Essence boards being individual – I would have liked to see this expansion create a shared or joint Essence track that players race towards – perhaps thematically healing one patient at a time, rather than (oddly) attempting to heal the same patient every round.
Whilst the theme in Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists feels slightly weaker to me, and even though I would have liked to have seen a competitive edge, I still enjoy the Essence Phase mechanics. Building up essence is simple enough and it integrates well with the flow of the base game, so it’s not hard to teach to players who already understand the rules. It’s also nice to have new and powerful ways to add to your score/bag, and some ailments even give the player starting bonuses (such as additional chips) which helps to get things moving quickly. I don’t have a strong opinion on the new Fortune Teller cards or the Loco Weed recipes, except to say that I think they are logical and welcome inclusions to add longevity for regular players.
Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists is a worthwhile addition for players who enjoy the base game and The Herb Witches. It is relatively inexpensive, and therefore should be an easy decision for returning players to make. For new players, there’s no need to pick up Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists until you’ve got the hang of the base game. Even then, I think The Herb Witches is a better purchase as your first expansion.
***½ 3.5/5
A copy of Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists was supplied for review by CoiledSpring Games.
