Distilled: A Spirited Strategy Game, Highly-Thematic Euro Game, Strie for The Title of Master Distiller, 30 Minute Play Time, for 1 to 5 Players, Ages 14 and up

Product Information

A typical round is made up of four phases; Market, Distill, Sell and Age phase and players will gain "Spirit" points over the course of seven rounds. At the end of the game the player with the most spirit points is the winner. A few other issues. The only thing about Distilled that feels broken is the round structure. Seven rounds is too many, particularly when the player count is high. But more importantly, in a seven-round game with five players, two players get the advantage of going first twice in each game. This feels off, particularly because having the first choice of a fresh market of cards can be vital. Sell Phase– Players bottle their spirits, score spirit points, receive money and gain a label bonus. Points and money are awarded for the cards that make up your spirit (including a barrel) that has been distilled in the previous phase. There is a lot of depth to the game but it doesn’t feel complicated or rules heavy. Everything flows nicely from round to round and there is a ton of variety straight out of the box. It also has an amazing solo mode which I have been enjoying a lot. The way the goals are displayed and figuring out your “path” through them is really fun and adds a nice twist to the gameplay.

Over the course of seven rounds you will acquire ingredients, bottles, barrels, recipes, equipment upgrades and staff to create and distill the best spirits around. Distilling a spirit is a science, it is a craft that is finely tuned and perfected over a number of years. Distilled is in essence the embodiment of this craft. Distilled is a well crafted and tasteful blend of mechanisms that when mixed together leaves a very appealing taste on the metaphorical gaming pallet. Now here’s why I recommend Distilled: it’s one of the best productions with one of the most thematic gameplay experiences of the year. Don’t get me wrong, I am far past the ‘iron liver Dan’ days of my youth and waking up in car show room entry ways holding on to half eaten cheesecake slices. True story. Don’t ask. But I do still enjoy the odd tiple. Especially if that tiple happens to be unusual and interesting. And coincidentally, that is pretty much a perfect depiction of Distilled: unusual and interesting. It is really hard to find fault in this masterpiece. But I do have a job to do… “Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy.” Frank SinatraHowever, all players can make moonshine or vodka right out of the box. So, even if you don’t make the recipe you want during the distill phase, you’ll still always make something. (Normally, your goal should be to NOT make moonshine or vodka, since those recipes score you almost no points.) This will turn off some people—specifically, strategy gamers—expecting the recipe fulfillment elements of distilling spirits to be more deterministic. The other thing that might turn off some players: money. That’s because, for at least a round or two (and maybe more if you aren’t able to generate a handsome product), you aren’t going to have any cash. During the same window of time, I began my tabletop writing career here at Meeple Mountain. One of the few things I love more than mixing spirits is playing games with friends and family.

Asymmetric characters aren’t totally balanced. I played one game where my character started with 1 coin, 1 water and my signature blend was worth 7 points and 1 coin. My opponent’s character started with 4 coins, 1 yeast and their signature blend was worth 17 points and 3 coins. This may have been down to me not selecting a balanced choice of characters, but it seemed odd that they could be so mismatched. At its heart Distilled is all about buying ingredients to fulfill recipes and scoring points. But there is so much more going on here. First off, you have a distiller with a special ability. So there is some asymmetry to the game. Each of these distillers also has a signature recipe and signature ingredient that only they can make.

So Tight

Teng Whay is the community liaison for Distilled. He is a college student majoring in Chemistry. Hailing from the little red dot of Singapore, Teng Whay is an avid gamer who loves board games and video games alike and hopes to one day be able to design, develop and publish his own board game. His favorite categories of board games are medium to heavy-weight strategy games and is always up for a challenge.