Quacks of Quedlinburg is, in this author’s opinion, a timeless classic. A deck builder and push-your-luck combo, players compete to be the most morally dubious and technically incompetent doctor from the 16th Century, stabbing in the dark with mysterious ingredients to make the best potion possible. Buy ingredients (coloured cardboard chips), draw them blindly from your bag, put them in your potion (a spiralling board of points) and hope you don’t accidentally put in too many explosives (the white chip firecrackers). More ingredients in the potion means more victory points and more money to build your pool. Rinse repeat until a winner is crowned.
If you’re reading this you probably don’t need this explanations; it’s an enormous success and you know its joys. It’s easy to teach, gorgeous and tactile. The silly catch-up mechanisms (‘rat tails’ for those that are behind) make it a good way to entice board-game-sceptics to the hobby, but the quality expansions and huge variability make it replayable and strategic without alienating casual players. Given this success it’s perhaps inevitable that a smaller two player Quacks was just around the corner, following in the footsteps of two players 7 Wonders, Splendour, Codenames and Wingspan.
This might sound like an obvious move for a game this popular, but here’s the rub: Quacks of Quedlinburg is already a great game at two players. On Board Game Geek, 90% recommend it at two. So what does Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Duel add to the quacks experience? The developers had two choices - an entry-level short and simplified Quacks (something that could definitely work, given base Quacks can run well beyond an hour with a slow group), or something twistier and complex for existing fans. This is firmly the latter: a more developed and intricate two player Quacks for lovers of the game, and one that takes the same time or longer.
The basic mechanics are mostly the same. Players take it in turns to fill potions with hopefully-not-explosives, but the way to earn money and win the game have been replaced. Gold-producing black chips are now the way to earn funds to buy new ingredients. The unfortunate patients are now the foreground, through a new tug of war mechanic: instead of giving victory points, making a better potion moves patients along a track closer towards your stall on a map of the town square. Undecided patients shuffle back and forth as each player completes their potion, only treated if they reach a stall. There are other additions. To start the round players flip coins and grab one each for a round-long bonus. To end the round there’s a choice between bonus chips and upgrades to the black money-chips - the player going first decides the ratio between rewards and upgrades, the second chooses.
So Quacks Duel is a deck builder, a push-your-luck, tug-of-war with a smattering of interactive bonus mechanics. If that sounds like a lot for a game famed mostly for its accessible, light and joyful gameplay, that’s because it is. Quacks Duel is comparable to base Quacks with an expansion added, and even for experienced players there is a lot of testing new strategy here. It can also, unfortunately, be fiddly, as with the tug of war outcomes often depend on who moves first, requiring a fair amount of rule book cross referencing the first few plays.
That also creates a shift in tone. Where base Quacks is chaotic yet relaxed, as all players move at once in an amateurish scramble (it rarely matters who does what first), here the importance of timing makes it more tactically dense. The outcome of the tug of war is less about the points total and more about counting out who moves first, adding weight to decisions to stop adding to your potion and new trade-offs between more money, a stall that’s easier to get to, and greater points. The catch up mechanics are less generous than in the base game, which combined with the tug of war gives the game a sharper competitive edge. Experienced players can more easily run away with the game, and it’s a more visceral fight over patients rather than a laid back adventure that focuses mainly on your own pot. To some this might be welcome tactical crunch for a game with a very soft edge, but magic may be lost for diehard fans.
This sounds more negative than it should - the problem is it’s impossible not to compare this with one of the best games of the last decade. The production quality is still impeccable, and Quacks does well to keep its lovely visual language going. The new ingredient abilities stick with the themes of the original game but still feel fresh and add another big bundle of replayability. I especially love the new Dragon Blood chips, which apparently have the ability to corrupt the local mayor into pushing its players’ merchandise.
The problem with this Duel version, really, is that it’s difficult to figure out who it is for. Those who love Quacks should probably just buy the expansions. New players will have an easier time with the base game, even if they only want to play it at two. Only if you’ve truly exhausted what base Quacks has to offer and remain hungry for more might this be the best next stop (an impressive feat, given how much is on offer with the Quacks Big Box) but my hunch is that few reading this will fit into that category.
Even though Quacks Duel is difficult to recommend, it still leaves space for a smaller Quacks box out there, one that simplifies rather than complicates. I would jump at the chance to play a streamlined half-hour Quacks with simpler set up and a sharper more elegant set of rules, for when I’m short on time. Until that happens, I’ll be sticking with the Quacks I know and love.