Czech Games Edition CGE00027 Alchemists Board Game

Product Information

The winner of the game is the player with the most victory points. Break ties using leftover gold pieces, as explained earlier. If players are still tied, they remain tied. Well done! If you successfully exhibit 2 different signs of the same color during the exhibition, then you have demonstrated mastery of that color. Score 2 points of reputation. (More than one player can score this bonus). When it is your turn to exhibit a potion, remove your cube from the action space and place it on one of the six potions depicted on the exhibition board. This is the potion you are promising to exhibit. (You can't choose a potion you have already successfully exhibited. The neutral potion is not depicted because no one is impressed by toad soup). Speaking of actions, I will say that they game is much tighter at the higher player counts. With only 2 players, you get 6 actions cubes to use, however you only get 4 cubes at the top of the range. While that might not seem like much, those two actions can make a big difference. Competition will be a lot more fierce with 4 players to be the first to publish. Conflict tokens do not matter at this point of the game. The seals score positive or negative points regardless of conflict tokens. (If you are playing the apprentice variant, you aren't using conflict tokens, anyway).

You start your day with a leisurely walk through the forest, looking for interesting things to grind up in your laboratory. Or perhaps you spend some time doing favors for people around town ... in exchange for favors later, of course. A little mandrake root, a small raven's feather. Toss them in the cauldron and see what they produce. Players can also earn money by selling potions of questionable quality to adventurers, but the money is just a means to an end. The alchemists don't want riches, after all. They want respect, and that respect usually comes from publishing theories. You need to publish before your colleagues do, expose the flaws in their theories, and get the powerful artifacts before they are all sold out. You see, you are not the only alchemist in town. Master or Apprentice

Components

Test a Potion on a Student or on Yourself: Choose two ingredients and scan them with the app. It will tell you what type of option you just made. It will either be one of 6 different potions… or just water. However, 3 of the potions are harmful and there will be consequences for drinking those.

Sell a potion to an adventurer: This is the only space that not everyone can do. Players will bid to sell a potion to the current adventurer. You gain gold depending on how close you get to the potion the adventurer was wanting. The types of ingredients and favor cards in your hand, the types of seals you play, the ingredients in your experiments, and your deductions from results are always kept secret from the other players. This information can be hidden behind your laboratory screen. Bid Cards Mandrake root and scorpion tail; spongy mushroom and warty toad — these are the foundations of the alchemist's livelihood, science, and art.

Publish a Theory: If you think you know which alchemical belongs to one of the ingredients (or even have a good guess), you can publish a public theory. This will earn you reputation points. Now score one-third of a victory point for each gold piece. Or, to put it another way, buy 1 victory point for every 3 gold pieces, and keep any leftover gold pieces as a tiebreaker.

If the player to your left or right has exploded this round, move your marker forward another space for each. Alchemists is technically a worker placement game, but I’d say that the worker placement element is fairly light. There is really no action denial in Alchemists. For the most part, if you want an action, you can take it (other than selling potions). There is still a benefit for going first though, be it card selection or trying to publish first. Ah, but the craft of alchemy is about more than mixing potions. Alchemists seek knowledge, of course, but what they truly value is prestige. Making your mark on the world will not be easy. Mostly, alchemists try to impress each other, but once in a while it can be satisfying to demonstrate our skills to the masses.Each potion you make will be one of 3 colors, and have either a “+” or ”-“ symbol. Using the game’s logic, you can begin to eliminate specific alchemicals after you make a potion. Every alchemical has a green, red and blue circle on it, each of which has a “+” or ”-“ symbol. No one enjoys the embarrassment of arriving at the conference with nothing to brag about. There's always a rush at the publisher's office when conference papers are due. New Artifact Cards It’s worth mentioning that the laboratory boards need to be assembled each time you play and if not done correctly and carefully they will suffer some minor wear and tear. For all you get within the game the box isn’t ludicrously over-sized (although it is rather heavy). Each player then must choose which of the three patients they want to treat and place that essence card on their alchemist’s flask board. Multiple players can select the same patient. After each player has chosen, return all other essence cards to the box.

The end of the conference also marks the arrival of new artifacts. Remove any artifacts still remaining on the board and deal out the three new artifacts - level after the first conference or level after the second. In the first round, nothing changes. But then each round, and growing each time, you should be able to control your destiny a little more. At the end of the preparation phase, you will move your essence marker along a certain number of spaces. One space for each different colour chip you pulled that round. Another space if your neighbour’s cauldron exploded. And another space if the white chips in your cauldron totals exactly seven! The amount needed to explode. So, now you get a benefit from exploding but only if you explode perfectly! Special cases: If a player has the Magic Mirror, that player should count up points for the Magic Mirror first, before other artifacts and grants.The types of potions you have already made, your grants, your artifacts, your number of gold pieces, and the number and types of cards in your hand are always public knowledge. Playerboard