We're up on a review of The Master Alchemist, a worker placement game made by ExEs Gaming. The story of this game revolves on a world of alchemists who wield magics and spells as their weapon against their fellow alchemists.. They fight against each other for the sovereignty to become the most powerful master alchemist. He who rise above all will succeed the throne. Basically, this is a competition of powerful alchemists and whoever wins will gain the authority to sit on the throne that will acknowledge him as the new master alchemist and as a descendant of the previous master alchemist.
The mechanics of the game is Worker Placement, which makes the game not as hard as any other games out there. This game is easy to understand as they only have a single game mechanics, and a little bit of push-your-luck which acts like a spice to their game to make it interesting to play. If you think it sounds like boring because of having only these game mechanics, believe me, this game gave me the urge of wanting to play it again after a lose or a win. A single game mechanics runs the whole game as if it enables you to use a lot of strategies or to risk in order to win.
Now let's talk about the game components or the game pieces. For a brief recap, The Master Alchemist has a Game Board which is divided into two, each half serves as the field for each player, 2 sets of element cards which act as a deck for each player, and 10 tokens which represent the number of times a player can place cards on hand onto golems. The game components are not that complicated, as each components are correlated to each other. Overall, the game works by the use of cards that have different categories and each serves as an element. There are areas on the game board where you can put your cards to represent the areas on where they are on, such as Deck of Mysteries where a player can put his/her deck, Defense Sector where a player can put his/her cards to empower his/her golem, Attack Sector where a player can put his/her cards in order to attack the opposing player's golem, and Discard Pile where all the used/defeated cards should go. The game board organizes the cards that helps improve the overall game play.
The Master Alchemist has a Fantasy as a theme because of alchemists who control golems and wield elemental magics. At first glance, I would say it has a fictional appeal, with the help of the images of golems on the board. Nothing beats having elements as a theme for a game. As we all know, each elements has strengths and weaknesses, which is a fact. Having those kinds of elements make the game educational as you can relate each element's pros and cons to reality. Elements are interesting!
I recommend this game for people who seek for a pastime. This game will definitely worth playing. Setting the game up isn't so hard, you'll just grab those decks, set the board up, and you're now good to play with another person. The only thing I noticed when I was reviewing the game with one of the creators of this game is that the cards on hand are slightly noticeable on the opponent's view. I also noticed that attacking with two elemental cards of the same kind seems a disadvantage for the attacker, as he/she can't stack cards on his/her hand if he/she often double-attacks, as they are only required to draw one card per turn. I've already told this to one of the creators of this game as my concern, and I'm looking forward for the further polishes of the game play. But overall, the game has a pleasant and appealing design. You can almost see the concept and how to play the game on the first time you will see it. This game is worth buying for once it comes out. I would rate this game 4 stars! For the game creators, keep on making unique games!
For more information about the game The Master Alchemist, visit their website here.
