Note: While this is a game about making alcohol, it focuses more on the true science and business behind it, not the consumption! Of course, for fans of games about beer, wine, and other alcohol - such as Viticulture, Vinhos, Brewcrafters, or Homebrewers - you might find this game interesting. Or if you've ever wondered how people distill liquor or brew beer, you might find this intriguing as well! 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. 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. David Digby is the solo designer for Distilled. David is a designer, developer, and rulebook editor based in Colchester in the UK. David has also designed solo modes for Chocolate Factory, Eternal Palace, Swatch, Fantastic Quests, Undaunted: Reinforcements(with David Turczi) and Tinners Trail(which he also redeveloped for the new edition).

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. 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. Cody Reimer is the copy editor for Distilled. He is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where he teaches in the Professional Communication and Emerging Media program and the Master’s program in Technical and Professional Communication. An avid gamer, his research focuses on the intersection of games and rhetoric. His academic writing has been published in Communication Design Quarterly and the Journal of Basic Writing as well as several edited collections, and he frequently appears as a guest on the podcast Game Studies Review. 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. However, Distilled accommodates up to five players. That means that for your first four- or five-player game, you are looking at possibly a three-hour experience. For my final review play, I tried Distilled at five players, with three of the five players being experienced Distilled players. That game took two hours and 45 minutes.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. Richard Woods is the Developer for Distilled. Richard is based in Lancashire in the UK and enjoys playing and designing board games in his spare time. Richard fell in love with Distilled after joining a play test in summer 2020, and has been helping Dave to refine and balance the game ever since.

Erik Evensen is the official artist and graphic designer for Distilled. Erik was the artist and graphic designer for Marrying Mr. Darcy, a strategy card game based on Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. Mostly known for his comics work, Erik’s projects have been featured online at AV Club, Nerdist.com, Twitch, and Geek & Sundry, and in print in Graphic Design USA and the Washington Post. As it is, some rounds come down to this: you’ll buy a bunch of stuff, shuffle up the cards you want to use in the recipe, then pull out the top and bottom card, and voila, you’ve got your spirit. If you only had enough money to hope for the best, you might get hosed. I had a game where I got hosed on three different turns, ending up with vodka each time. In that game—a game where I produced vodka four times—I lost by 40 points despite doing a decent job of trying to mitigate a bad card draw. 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. 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.

Distilled (2023, Paverson Games) hit all the right timing notes when it arrived at my door. I love games. I love drinks. I love high-end production. I love midweight games. I love diverse depictions of in-game characters.

Achieve the title of Master Distiller by having the most victory points at the end of the game. Points are obtained by distilling and selling spirits, which results in the creation of Unique Spirits. As a slight disclaimer, it is worth noting that the pics I have provided for this review were taken from my Signature Blend pledge level copy of the game. So, there may be elements not present in the base game, such as brewers from the Middle Eastern expansion, metal coins, coasters, shot glass, neoprene mat etc. But, that said, the base game and components are all produced at an excellent standard and the retail version of the game is still superb. Distilled gives players a choice of two different distillery owners, from a pool of about ten, depending on the pre-game setup. Each distillery owner offers an ongoing power and slightly different starting resources. For a game that comes in such a big box, Distilled is deceptively simple. From set up to scoring, everything flows smoothly and is a game that can be taught easily. Throughout your turns you will be acquiring various sugars, grains, upgrades, barrels, bottles etc all so that you can brew the best spirits that you can. And at the highest profits of course. The rulebooks? Fantastic. There’s the normal instruction manual but also a “First Taste” walkthrough for new players who want something a bit more to guide a first play. The player aids are my second-favorite aids, just behind Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory. Most players will watch an instruction video, or read the rules just once, and be off and running during their first game.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. 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 Sinatra 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. Achieve the title of Master Distiller by having the most victory points at the end of the game. Points are obtained by distilling and selling spirits.