#208: Quacks of Quedlinburg and Developing and Cultivating Strategy

Timecodes

  • Quacks of Quedlinburg Overview 01:00:35

  • Quacks of Quedlinburg Review 01:05:49

  • Space Gate Odyssey Look Back 01:26:20

  • News with Tony T 01:31:34

  • Developing and Cultivating Strategy Discussion 02:37:25

Opening Banter and Reviews

Feature Review: The Quacks of Quedlinburg

In The Quacks of Quedlinburg, players are charlatans — or quack doctors — each making their own secret brew by adding ingredients one at a time. Take care with what you add, though, for a pinch too much of this or that will spoil the whole mixture! Each player has their own bag of ingredient chips. During each round, they simultaneously draw chips and add them to their pot. The higher the face value of the drawn chip, the further it is placed in the swirling pattern. Push your luck as far as you can, but if you add too many cherry bombs, your pot explodes! At the end of each round, players gain victory points and coins to spend on new ingredients to add to their bags, depending on the strength of the ingredients in their pots. But players with exploded pots must choose points or coins — not both! The player with the most victory points at the end of nine rounds wins the game.

Designed by Wolfgang Warsch

Published by North Star Games

BoardGameGeek.com Entry

Lookback Review: Space Gate Odyssey

The future of humanity awaits you in Space Gate Odyssey. A system of viable exoplanets has been recently discovered and the Confederations are flocking into space to colonize it. In this 2 to 4-player development and flow-management board game, you play the leader of one of these Confederations and play your influence in the Odyssey command station to send as many of your settlers as you can on these exoplanets. After decades of research and technological development, humanity is preparing to leave the Earth to colonize this discovered system. To get there, only one possible means of transport exists: space gates. For reasons related to physics and other quantum aspects, these gates can be built only in space. The Confederations have therefore embarked on the construction of their own station in orbit, equipped with space gates. At the beginning of the colonizing era, these portals make it possible to go on one of the first three discovered planets. As soon as an entire contingent of settlers has joined the gate of a space station, it is teleported to the corresponding exoplanet. The landing conditions vary according to the planets and the choice of colonized spots quickly becomes strategic. As soon as one of the three exoplanets is fully colonized, each Confederation gains influence according to its placement, then access to one of the two later discovered exoplanets becomes possible. At the end of the colonization of the five exoplanets, the stations are teleported to the Hawking planet and the influence of each Confederation is assessed. The leader of the most influential Confederation will be promoted to the rank of Governor of this new system. One of the biggest challenges in Space Gate Odyssey is your ability to quickly develop and intelligently arrange your space station. The better you optimize the flow of your settlers to your station, then to the exoplanets, the more of them you can send to the favorable spots and thus gain influence. The choice of the modules, their arrangement, and the distance between the airlocks and the gates are therefore essential elements — especially since, at the end of the game, the domains of the modules you used to build your station will bring you additional influence points if they are in line with the position of the domains on the Hawking planet Predominance. Finally, you must be careful not to leave too many open corridors on the space void as this represents a real danger for your settlers and could therefore damage your reputation. Your most amazing quest starts with Space Gate Odyssey. Will you be able to take over your opponents in order to take control of the new system, or will you stay at the dock?

Designed by Cédric Lefebvre

Published by Ludonaute

BoardGameGeek.com Entry

Gaming News by Tony T

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#39: Take-Backs and First Time GM Jitters

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#60: The Golden Age of Intellectual Properties in Board Games