Designer: Tanax

Publisher: Tanax Games

Players: 2-4

Playing time: 30-60 minutes

Preview is based on prototype played online, there may be changes before the final production..

In Auctions of Alchemists, players will use strategic bidding to gather the resources needed to create 6 elixirs before their opponents.

The game consists of individual player boards with tokens to keep track of a player’s 4 ingredients/elements and the number of elixirs created, a main alchemy board where players can change ingredients into elixirs and other ingredients, and a set of ingredient cards and test tube cards on which players will bid. It should be noted players will need to provide their own counters for their gold or use pencil and paper.

On a turn, the active player may Hold an Auction. In this case, two ingredient cards will be turned face up. Liquid ingredients come in 4 colors. Then the active player will draw two test tube cards and place one face up and the other one face down on the ingredient card of their choice. Test tube cards show levels 0 to 5 indicating how much liquid each ingredient has. If a level 0 test tube is taken, the test tube breaks and the player loses all the ingredients of that color. A level 1 test tube will allow a player to steal one level from another player and 2-5 will allow a player to take that much of the associated ingredient.

Players take turns one at a time bidding a higher amount of gold than the previous player, once they decide to pass they are out of that auction. The last player remaining wins both the ingredients. They turn the face down test tube face up to see what was hidden, and receive both the ingredients and their effects by tracking them with the tokens on their player board test tubes. E.g. if they received a ‘0’ card (the broken test tube) for the blue ingredient they would reduce that ingredient’s token down to the lowest amount possible. Player boards have limited space for ingredients and that space shrinks as players convert ingredients to elixirs. Then the cards played are discarded. If all players decide not to bid for a particular auction, the cards are discarded, and the face down card is not revealed. At any time if there are only 2 cards remaining in the deck, all the cards are shuffled to form a new deck.

The active player may instead choose to Perform an Alchemy Action. The player consults the main alchemy board and can choose one of the 3 options. They can combine ingredients by trading in one of each type of ingredient for an elixir (or more if they have enough ingredients), and they earn gold depending on how many elixirs they have already crafted. There is a handy guide on the player boards that indicates how much gold is earned. Each time they craft an elixir they shift the lower board up to indicate the ingredients are used. The active player may instead choose to convert ingredients, by spending one type of ingredient and receiving another type using the rates listed on the Alchemy board. Each side of the alchemy board only allows 2 of the 4 ingredients to be converted. Or the active player can choose to do a transmutation for gold. The amount is dependent on how many elixirs the player has crafted. The less elixirs crafted the more gold you will receive, which helps balance the game by providing players with more gold resources early on in the game, or for those that haven’t caught up to creating elixirs. After performing an Alchemy action the alchemy board is flipped allowing different ingredients to be crafted.

The first player to craft all 6 of their elixirs wins.

My thoughts: Auctions of Alchemists is a fast playing and easy auction game. The rules are pretty streamlined and it would make a great filler or family game. The bluffing with the face down cards during the auctions really adds an element of fun. It even works with 2 players.

Mandy’s thoughts: This is a really enjoyable clever gateway game that I think new gamers and experienced gamers will enjoy. Players need to time when to bid, and when to convert ingredients. And having just one unknown card each auction does provide for some funny and memorable bidding turns. I really enjoyed the unique sliding mechanic whenever ingredients were used for creating an elixir.