Compounded is a game about building chemical compounds through careful management of elements, a fair bit of social play and trading, and just a bit of luck. In Compounded, players take on the roles of lab managers, hastily competing to complete the most compounds before they are completed by others – or destroyed in an explosion. Some compounds are flammable and will grow more and more volatile over time; take too long to gather the necessary elements for those compounds and a lot of hard work will soon be scattered across the lab.
Although Compounded does involve a fair share of press-your-luck tension and certainly some strategic planning, the most successful scientists will often be those who strike a good trade with their fellow lab mates. Players are able to freely trade elements, laboratory tools, and even favors – if there is truly honor among chemists!
- Fresh chemistry theme that is scientifically themed and educational
- Interesting experimentation tracks on the player board
- High-quality components and thematic art including a periodic table score track
- Journal/vial ability adds a powerful engine-building option
- Solid two-player and four-player play; chaotic but manageable
- Trading limited / less than expected influence in play
- Open information reduces strategic depth of trades
- Lab fire / explosions can create chaos that not everyone enjoys
- Player order strongly affects engine progression with few mitigations
- Five-player games can be too chaotic and unbalanced
- Chemistry and laboratory experimentation
- Chemistry lab environment with element trading and compound creation
- Educational/science-themed with a procedural game engine
- Valley of the Kings
- Mundus Novus
- Splendor
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Bag drafting / element draw — Draw elements from a bag equal to your discovery level each turn
- Claim token placement — Place unused claim tokens on compounds to stake influence
- Journal/vial special ability — High-tier ability to extract an element from a completed compound
- Lab phase / explosion mechanic — Flame tokens explode certain compounds; elements scatter; risk/reward
- Periodic table scoring track — Victory points tracked on a periodic table progression
- Research and board placement — Move elements from desk to board areas; trade to convert elements
- Trading and bonus kits — Freeform trading of elements and bonus tokens to influence board state
- Upgrading tracks — Advancing discovery, solid, and gas tracks to gain bonuses and more storage
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I'm gonna start with three positive points then three neutral one negative
- This is a chemistry themed game of trading elements creating compounds and exploding laboratories
- I love this chemistry scientific theme that goes along with this game
- We are chemists and a laboratory performing experiments
- It's scientifically accurate
- The art and component quality I love the fact that we have a periodic table for our score track
- I've played compounded 4 times now and I like it but I don't love it