Alchemists

Alchemists has quickly become one of our favorite games. Players take the role of competing alchemists, racing to see who can master the ingredients to create the potions potential customers want. You do this by harvesting ingredients and testing various combinations, either on your helper or on yourself.In addition, you may transmute ingredients into gold, sell potions, publish or debunk theories as to the alchemical properties of the various ingredients, and purchase various items to help you. Each action takes a certain number of action cubes (and sometimes money) to perform, and the risk of performing your actions later may mean that an action costs you more, or your reward is less, or potentially, the action may not be available at all, if other players beat you to it.The combining of ingredients is done either via iPhone/Android/Windows OS app, the company's website, or one player can be the game master instead of playing the game and read the results manually. We have not tried the last approach, but both the app and the website work very well. If multiple people want to have the app installed on their phones/tablets, the app will generate a code that each subsequent user can enter so that everyone is using the same setup.Overall, this game plays very smoothly, but you're going to find yourself wishing that you had 2 or 3 more rounds to make a few more deductions. There is so much to do and so little time that it's nearly impossible to figure out the composition of every ingredient. In fact, in the games we have played so far, the most theories published has been 2. Granted, I'm playing this with younger players, so your mileage may vary.Overall, I'd rate this as a solid medium weight game - possibly even edging into the heavy range. It's a bit of a brain burner, but very enjoyable.

I love this game. The concept and gameplay is fantastic, and the logic puzzle that each game presents is great. That said, my gaming group is split on it. Some love it, some can never get their head around it, and don't like it. If you don't love board games AND Sudoku style puzzles, maybe this isn't your top choice for a board game, but if you do, I would recommend it. The gameplay is worker placement with a turn order 'bid'.As others have said, it is quite complicated to teach to new players, and the first game may take 3 hours or so with rules explanation. There are some good youtube videos that explain the gameplay, and having players watch these before hand will REALLY help. Once players are familiar with the rules, 2 hours should be sufficient for plays, even with some analyzing.The game pretty much requires an app, but the app makes it great. You can have a puzzle gameplay with unlimited replay-ability. 1 phone or tablet is all that is needed, and the app works very well.So some love it, some hate it, but if you like puzzles and strategy board games, I highly recommend you give it a try.

I really enjoyed this game. It worked great with app and it is a lot of fun to forage reagents, combine them, see what type of potion you can make, and then use the grid to work backwards to determine the makeup of each reagent. The only pet peeve I had about this game was that the publishing and debunking of theories was a little confusing at first and I wish they would have explained a little more in detail how everything works or shown a few more examples. This game is really fun, the process of elimination to figure out the results is fun, experimenting on your intern/self/adventurer is fun, I love the artwork/layout/pieces that are included, and reading the instructions is entertaining (jokes included). Every time we play the game, we get better at figuring out each reagent makeup is that changes every game.

This game is very similar to other worker placement games in production (Fresco, Dungeon Lordz/Petz, Agricola, Stone Age, etc...) That being said, I love the added complexity of the deduction that the game centers around. In addition to placing workers (spending time) and gathering resources, you're also trying to solve a something like a sudoku puzzle at the same time. The solution is traditionally generated by the app, but there's also a way to generate the solution without the app, although it requires another person who can't be part of the game (and that's not fun). I love how the app works, and it works REALLY well. It's simple, slick, and doesn't intrude on or command the gameplay. It's simple a tool to make things easier.I've played with 2 and 3 people, and the it's been a success in both instances. It's a longer game, 2+hours, but it's paced very well and every character always seems to be doing something. It seems like a lot to grasp at first, but the rule book is written very well (it's actually quite humorous) and all the game mechanics are extremely intuitive and reiterated by icons on the board. Once you catch on, the game really starts to move along.I'm really glad I purchased this game over the other options. The theme is really strong, every game is a little different, and there's a number strategies you could utilize to become the most influential wizard in town!

Great Game But i cant Say they same thing withthe box

I really enjoyed my time with Alchemists! I will say it has a bit of a steep learning curve - and you really do want the mobile app. That being said the game is very enjoyable and fun; it has a bit of mystery (formulas), a bit of strategy(placement, what to buy etc), and a lot of interaction with the other players at the table!