Apotheca

12th March 2019

It's time for the 2nd game of the night at 'The Sovereigns'.

This game is a bit like a tabletop version of a match-3 game but done with a magic potion theme.

Unfortunately it's been a couple of months since I played this game, so I don't remember the rules very well.
Furthermore, we played a 3-player version of the game. Apparently the game rules can vary with differing numbers of players.

The game is played on a square gridded board with 3 different coloured types of potion bottles substituting for different coloured gems. There are tiles that represent potion bottles, but they are placed face-down on the board. After a number of tile are placed on the board, the remaining tiles form a draw deck.

Each player is dealt an 'Apothecary' card.

3 apothecary cards are placed by the board along with 3 piles of different coloured gems. The remaining apothecary cards form a draw deck.

Once the game is set up, play commences.

During their turn a player can perform 2 actions (out of a choice of 4) and cannot perform the same action twice. The actions are:

• Use Apothecary Card: Each apothecary card has an any ability that allows the player move the tiles around the board (in a way that's different for each apothecary).
• Reveal: You turn a face-down tile face-up and collect a gem of the colour revealed. If this completes a match of 3, then the relevant tiles are removed and placed on an apothecary card that you control. That apothecary card is now out of play. This is called 'satisfying the apothecary'.
• Play Tiles: If there are less than 3 tiles on the board, you can take a tile from the draw deck (look at it) and then play it face-down on the board. Continue doing this until there are 3 tiles on the board.
• Buy a new apothecary card: Using gems you have, you can purchase new apothecary card.

The first player to satisfy 3 apothecary cards wins the game. Thus the player must complete match-3 3 times.
However, there is a twist. Each of the 3 apothecaries must be satisfied by a different colour. Thus a match-3 must be achieved with all 3 colours.

That's it for the actions, there are some other rules, but you get the gist. It's a fairly simple game: But you have to pay attention to your decisions.

There's no point in matching 3 potions if you don't have an apothecary card to put the tiles on to.
There's no point in putting tiles on to the board, only to give other player's something to turn over and get gems for.

And so on.

The game was reasonably quick to play. But I found that I had no effective strategy and that left me feeling unengaged. I can't say if it's good or bad, I would need to play it a couple of times before coming to that decision.
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