/pic3195558.jpg)
Alchemists: The King's Golem, an expansion to Alchemists, brings you a new logic puzzle with new rewards and consequences. Can you figure out how to animate a golem? And equally important, can you convince the king you are making progress?
The King's Golem actually contains four expansions:
In Startup Funding, players get a chance to customize the initial resources in their laboratories.
The Busy Days expansion makes each round different by offering new rewards (and new costs!) on the order spaces.
The Royal Encyclopedia is an entirely new venue for publishing your research.
And in The Golem Project, players have the challenge of animating a creature made from magic and clay.
The expansions are presented in order of complexity. Startup Funding and Busy Days will be just fine for beginners. The Royal Encyclopedia is for players accustomed to the logic puzzle of the base game. The Golem Project is for advanced players who want a new deduction challenge.
- Adds another logic puzzle to the base game.
- The expansion corrects a production error proactively.
- Translucent flasks for components are noted as a unique and liked feature.
- Thematically, the wake-up mechanic worked well in the base game.
- The inclusion of four separate expansions is questioned, with a sentiment that the designer should choose how to introduce them.
- The complexity of the game requires significant study of the rulebook.
- Alchemy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- app integration — The base game required an app, and the expansion uses the same app, updated to version 2 or higher.
- Card Drafting — New gadgets and gizmos to buy are introduced, potentially through drafting.
- Deduction — The game involves tracking the logic of different elements using a pad in front of the player screen.
- Set Collection — Cards represent 'Money!', 'Goods!', and 'Extra reputation!' which are perks and rewards.
- Worker Placement — The expansion introduces new places to stick workers.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's like a logic puzzle.
- It's not a simple game!
- The King's Golem contains four separate expansions.
- It's kind of like 'Here's four expansions: you choose!' i'm like 'No, YOU'RE the designer. YOU choose! You... you tell ME. That's kind of YOUR job.'