Game Info
Year
2026
Players
2-4
Age
10+
Playtime
105 min
Complexity
3.5/5
Collection
Your Tier
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Description
A worker-placement game where competing 18th-century pharmacies gather forest ingredients and craft medicines to fill patient contracts
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 2
This page: 2
Sentiment:
pos 2 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–2 of 2
Video beLVmjh3hps
BoardGameCo Discussion at 0:00 sentiment: positive
video_pk 37574 · mention_pk 112857
Click to watch at 0:00 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Hands-on, multi-location gameplay with meaningful decisions
- Clever day-by-day timing and simultaneous reveal create tension and planning depth
- Deep engine-building through apprentices and journeymen adds long-term payoff
- Clear path between forest gathering, village training, and pharmacy production supports varied strategies
Cons
- Prototype copy; rules and components may change before final release
- Complex system with multiple tracks and interactions may require a learning period
Thematic elements
- pharmacists building a practice through hands-on crafting of tinctures, ointments, and medicines while training assistants
- 18th- to 19th-century European foraging and pharmacy, with forest, village, and urban apothecary life
- hands-on, competitive engine-building with day-by-day progression
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action drafting and simultaneous reveal — Players privately plan a set of actions for each day, then reveal simultaneously, creating a tense, initiative-driven sequence.
- area-based worker placement — Actions are taken in three main areas—the pharmacy, the forest, and the village—with a shared day clock and area-specific options.
- character progression and worker upgrades — Train skills, recruit apprentices, and upgrade them to journeymen to gain bonuses and access new capabilities.
- End Game Bonuses — Endgame points come from botany progression, journeyman sets, skills, and remaining patients; varied endgame scoring channels.
- endgame scoring and tracks — Endgame points come from botany progression, journeyman sets, skills, and remaining patients; varied endgame scoring channels.
- initiative and pacing — Turn order interacts with simultaneous reveals; choosing the same area raises stakes as the first mover can influence outcomes.
- market and merchant timing — Market slots open at specific times and can be purchased for resources, with discounts later in the day and scarcity influencing decisions.
- patient drafting and treatment — Draft patients and fulfill their medicine needs by tight deadlines to earn points, with penalties for unmet demands.
- resource foraging and management — Forage for herbs, mushrooms, and other ingredients in the forest to craft medicines and tinctures.
- Resource Management — Forage for herbs, mushrooms, and other ingredients in the forest to craft medicines and tinctures.
- Worker Placement — Actions are taken in three main areas—the pharmacy, the forest, and the village—with a shared day clock and area-specific options.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- This is a sponsored preview and this is also a prototype copy in front of me so all rules, components and things like that are subject to change.
- Tinctura is going to be a competitive game for two to four players where you are in the 18th to 19th century and you are playing as different pharmacists.
- The entire thing is going to be very hands-on where you're very focused on being the best pharmacist and really trying to heal these different patients.
- Not only are you healing patients but you're balancing apprentices and hoping to train them to help these different patients as well for different bonuses.
- The player with the most points at the end of the game is going to win.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video wTA-bHlJ218
Meeple University Playthrough at 0:00 sentiment: positive
video_pk 35631 · mention_pk 106478
Click to watch at 0:00 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Vibrant, thematic presentation with accessible humor
- Engaging simultaneous-action mechanism balanced by time constraints
- Clear, thematic engine-building paths and meaningful decisions
- Solid end-game depth with multiple scoring levers
Cons
- Complexity may overwhelm newcomers
- Apprentice management can slow rounds and require careful planning
- End-game scoring requires consistent tracking of multiple interdependent tracks
Thematic elements
- botany, apothecary, patient care
- 18th- to 19th-century forest and town; herbal medicine clinic
- humorous, approachable overview with a live-playthrough
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Apprentice system — Players hire apprentices, train them, and gain benefits; untrained apprentices impose a time penalty at round end.
- Area Movement — Three zones on the board (Forest, Pharmacy, Village) govern where actions take place and what resources are gained.
- Area-based actions — Three zones on the board (Forest, Pharmacy, Village) govern where actions take place and what resources are gained.
- Card Crafting — Remedies (pills, teas, tinctures) are crafted using resources; special recipes and tokens influence progression and end-game bonuses.
- Clock/time-based actions — Actions are tied to specific times (8:00, 9:00, etc.), affecting timing and availability; a teapot mechanic helps determine turn order when actions collide.
- Crafting and crafting tokens — Remedies (pills, teas, tinctures) are crafted using resources; special recipes and tokens influence progression and end-game bonuses.
- End-game scoring and reputation — Points come from cured patients, skill levels, apprentice status, and multiple tracks; the weakest track also influences final score.
- Engine Building — Botany, pills/healing, tinctures, heating, and related tracks advance as players perform actions and acquire resources.
- Engine-building tracks — Botany, pills/healing, tinctures, heating, and related tracks advance as players perform actions and acquire resources.
- foraging and resource collection — Foraging yields plant resources (berries, mushrooms, roots) that advance botany and enable crafting remedies.
- Merchant actions — A merchant visits periodically; players purchase items (mortars, furnishings) at a resource cost to accelerate progress.
- Patient healing and reputation — Patients arrive with ailments and must be cured within a time window; failure reduces reputation and scoring potential.
- Simultaneous action selection — Players choose actions at the start of a round; actions are resolved hour-by-hour with foraging, pharmacy, and village actions happening in parallel.
- Simultaneous Actions — Players choose actions at the start of a round; actions are resolved hour-by-hour with foraging, pharmacy, and village actions happening in parallel.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- This is a mid euro game and there's a lot of programming a lot of things can go absolutely wrong
- It's a game of trying to work out what is the right time to do the right action
- This game should be called tea smashing
- This is a game about not dying
- I roll the dice and oh, I've learned something about funneling
- I gain one skill in funneling
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–2 of 2