Type: Push your luck
Players: 2 to 4
Play time: 45 mins
Difficulty: 🧠🧠 (2/5)
Fun: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
Buy From The Game Shelf
The first thing you notice about Quacks is the quirky name - alliterative and intriguing. When I first heard it I had no idea what it could be about. Turns out it’s a fantastic and fun game that anyone, not just seasoned board gamers can easily pick up.
The core mechanic of Quacks is “push your luck”. You are a quack doctor concocting a special brew - each turn you are adding more and more ingredients to your pot by pulling them randomly out of a pouch. The trouble is that some of the ingredients you might pull out have a tendency to… well, explode - if there are too many of them in the pot. So you need to balance a desire to get more points than other players with the risk of potentially blowing up your entire round.
Once every player has filled up their pot to their satisfaction (or had it blow up in their face) the furthest point along the ingredient track gives you both your victory points and your coins to spend on fancy new ingredients. This is where it gets even more fun. Different ingredients have unique effects that can help you increase your victory points.
And let’s talk about the theme for a moment - it’s so well done here. From pumpkins to mandrakes, ghost's breath and even African death’s head hawkmoths - you always feel like you are picking up some exotic and mysterious ingredient to add to your pot, reinforced by the lovely artwork. You learn to dread the pretty white cherry bombs from early on - this is the one that if you accrue more than 7 in your pot, KABOOM! 💥
There are more supporting mechanics like rubies, flasks, bonus dice and clairvoyant cards that all help to add more tactical decisions and paths to victory points, but one worth calling out is the clever catch-up mechanic. The victory track has a number of “rat tails” depicted between the player who is coming first and those following after. The bigger the gap, the more rat tails. When the round begins, players can automatically advance on their pot according to the number of rat tails to give them a leg up. It’s a simple but great way to make sure games always feel close and exciting, and reduce the chance of runaway victories.
I’ve had this game for a few years now and it’s a consistent hit with my family. My kids (7 and 10) are always excited to play, and the fact that the ingredient effects can be changed from game to game makes it always feel fresh and different. The theme is perfectly pulled off, and the game doesn’t overstay its welcome.
One thing I’ve found is that even with the rat tail mechanic it can be hard to overcome a runaway leader, and that can feel frustrating, especially when luck plays such a big part in the game. It’s also worth noting that the ingredient chips are made of thick cardboard but can still get knocked around quite a bit from constant rummaging inside the pouches. I ended up buying some cheap coin cases from eBay to put them in, to reduce the damage and make them feel a bit more satisfying to mix around.
All things considered, this has been an enduring classic on our game shelf, and one that’s well worth adding to yours if you are looking for some light & exciting fun to bring to the table.