Potions of Azerland

Potions of Azerland Deep Dive

What the Community Thinks About Potions of Azerland

Potions of Azerland is a resource management and order fulfillment game from publisher Lucky Duck Games, in which players forage ingredients, brew potions and serve visitors at a summer solstice festival over six rounds. Coverage so far is enthusiastic but thin, and much of it has a publisher connection worth knowing up front. Ryan and Bethany received their copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review; Bethany loved it and says it has the potential to land in her top 10 games of 2025, while Ryan enjoyed it but is not quite as high on it. Before You Play recorded a two-player teach and playthrough that Lucky Duck Games helped sponsor. Tim Chuon only saw a quick overview at Dice Tower West, at a convention where the publisher hosted a dinner for creators, and predicted it would be a big hit. A year-end list calls it a lovely game, and Board Gaymes James, after trying it on Board Game Arena, thinks it has potential but found part of it confusing.

Core Mechanics That Define Potions of Azerland

The Priority Holder and Cauldron Ties

Every channel that describes the game starts with the priority holder. Before each round, each player slides numbered tokens from one to five into a personal holder, one slot per action, ranking how badly they want to take each action first. As Bethany explains, a one goes where going first matters most and a five goes where going last is acceptable; a token can also be flipped to take coins instead of the action. Everyone does this in their own holder at the same time, which Bethany contrasts with placing cards or bidding. Tim Chuon describes it as not quite a programming game but a kind of bidding for which action a player takes first over the others, with flipping a token as the alternative way to generate income. Actions cover foraging and buying ingredients at the market, brewing, studying and serving visitors.

With only five numbers to go around, ties are common, and Ryan and Bethany note they come up over and over, especially at higher player counts. The game resolves them with cauldrons ranked one through four, dealt out at the start. When two players tie, the holder of the better cauldron wins the tie, and then the two players swap cauldrons, so the loser holds the stronger tiebreaker for next time. They call it a very smooth system that solves a problem bound to happen constantly, and found it almost fun to watch the pieces move around. The swap matters to the end, too: Before You Play's playthrough finished in a tie that the cauldron decided, after the hosts realized they had forgotten a swap earlier.

Studying and Drinking Potions

Studying advances a player along tracks for the three potion colors. Ryan, who calls studying his favorite part, explains the two payoffs. First, the track level adds a bonus when fulfilling a visitor: nothing at level one, one extra point at level two and two at level three, based on the lowest level among the colors that visitor asks for. Second, a parallel track sets which special abilities are available when a player drinks their own potions at the start of a turn; higher levels unlock stronger options. Drinking means giving up a potion that could have scored with a visitor in exchange for extra ingredients, extra studying or ongoing abilities. Ryan says he would be drinking potions all day long for those abilities.

The Potions of Azerland Experience

Six Short Rounds

Ryan points out that the game goes by quickly and that players have to get a lot done in a little time. Before You Play reached the same conclusion from the table: even with six rounds, there is not much time to fulfill visitors. Their post-game discussion carries a useful strategy lesson. Pushing up on every study track is tempting, but Monique and Naveen concluded that players really have to specialize, because becoming an expert only pays off when that color of potion is actually going to visitors. One host admitted to never drinking a potion after the opening, even with visitors who rewarded drinking, because serving visitors always felt like the better use.

Scoring Stays Visible

Ryan and Bethany single out how open the scoring is. There are a few end-game points, but most points are scored during play, so players generally know where they stand rather than discovering at the end that they were further behind than they thought.

What Makes Potions of Azerland Stand Out

A Tactile Twist on Action Selection

The priority holder is the standout for nearly everyone who covered the game. Bethany calls it the coolest thing ever and the best part of the game, and Ryan calls it a super cool device. The year-end list praises how selecting the strength of each action every round works, and Tim Chuon expects the system to make the game a hit.

Andrew Bosley Artwork

The art is by Andrew Bosley, whom Tim Chuon met in person at Dice Tower West and credits with games like Everdell. Foster the Meeple, which received a copy from Lucky Duck Games and has only played it on Board Game Arena, says the Bosley art makes it a nice-looking game.

Potential Drawbacks

A Rulebook That Teaches Out of Order

Ryan calls the rulebook just okay. He found some rules added needless complexity, and the arrangement made it hard to learn: the rules ask players to set up the priority holder early in the round, but only explain what the slots mean in a later section, so a first read-through means reading the whole book and then starting over. He wished it had first spelled out the basic loop of gathering ingredients, brewing, and then either drinking potions or serving visitors. Once that clicked, he found it a decent teach, apart from some odd little exceptions.

The Cauldron Swap Can Confuse

Not everyone found the tiebreaker as smooth as Ryan and Bethany did. Board Gaymes James says the game has potential but needs a better grasp of how the pots switch back and forth to decide who goes first, calling that part really confusing. Before You Play's missed swap shows how easy it is to forget in play. James also notes that the game was supposed to start fulfilling the previous November with no updates seen yet, so availability may lag in some regions.

If You Enjoy Potions of Azerland

None of the reviewers compare Potions of Azerland directly to another game, so there are no reviewer-backed recommendations yet. The closest thing is Tim Chuon's link to other Andrew Bosley titles such as Everdell, which is about shared art rather than gameplay.