The Quacks of Quedlinburg

Today's review is of the 2018 release, The Quacks of Quedlinburg. For 2-4 players, it takes 45 minutes.

Overview

You are a quack doctor, selling 'potions' for as much as possible. Push things too far, though, and all will be for naught. Can you outdo the competition to become the biggest quack in Quedlinburg?

In this push-your-luck game, each player has a cauldron and will build a bag full of ingredients, each of which has a number and color. After setup, rounds work as follows: 

- players draw one ingredient from their bag, place it the stated number of spaces away from their previous ingredient, activate any effects if applicable (based on color and shown on accompanying spellbooks), and decide whether to keep drawing or stop. - The white ingredients are 'bombs'; if the numbers on your bombs ever exceed seven, your whole potion explodes and you get penalized. 

- After all players have decided to stop drawing and placing ingredients (or they've gone too far and it blew up in their faces), end-of-round effects occur one at a time, giving players victory points, money to buy more ingredients, and other effects. Then, all ingredients go back in their respective bags and the next round begins. After nine rounds, the player with the highest score wins!

one game board showing in-progress round; image from here

Review

This game looks busy, but it is easy enough to learn and goes pretty quickly. The replayability is high with both 1) the chance inherit in blind draw games and 2) multiple spellbook choices per color, granting different effects and changing the game if players so choose. (Beginning-of-round 'fortune' cards also shake things up.) Overall, this is a simple, solid, enjoyable offering. 

Rating: B+