Dice Hate Me Games RSTRCMPD Compounded, Multicoloured

Product Information

The action in Compounded is evenly divided between each player’s Lab Bench board and the central Research Field which is composed of a grid of cards depicting chemical compounds. The Lab Bench shows four test tubes, each representing a phase of the game and the player’s capacity within that phase. When four willing participants enter the lab, Compounded is primed and ready for success. That being said, my love is only mildly conditional.

Some compounds can grant you access to tools like a graduated cylinder, journal or keys. These give you special abilities that are either one-shots or last for the entire game. During the Research phase, the scientists take turns placing Elements on their claimed and unclaimed Compounds, each Element being placed on an appropriate space marked on a Compound card. Initially just two, but it can be increased to six. If a scientist does not have the Elements he wants, he can now trade in three of one type for one he wants. Social Gamers: Maybe. There is player interaction but it’s limited to one phase per turn…and whenever someone lights someone else’s compound on fire. For us it’s enough player interaction to keep everyone talking and laughing for the length of the game. Like I said the game looks great and it attracts a lot of attention on the table. The theme is unique and who doesn’t enjoy SCIENCE (read that in the voice of the guy from the Thomas Dolby song).

Admixture

For all the good things Compounded has going for it there are a few things I wish were different. I know you are expected to trade, but with all the open information in the game, I can tell how much I am helping you when we trade. If your elements were secret it would create more trade opportunities. As it is now players rarely trade with the leader or only make trades that really benefit them. A lot also hinges on the elements you blindly draw. A game of Compounded ends with one final round once a scientist has either scored fifty Atomic Points or completed three out of four of his Experiments. The game ends immediately if the Compounds in the Research Grid cannot be refreshed to a maximum of sixteen. The scientist with the most Atomic Points is the winner. The fact that stuff explodes in the lab is both fun and chaotic. You can even use it to your advantage to get elements onto your compounds and possibly even finish them. The bunsen burner is a tool that let you make an opponent’s non-flammable compound flammable. This can help you stifle an opponent that is ahead or threatening your lead. We don’t play with Geiger as often, but I’ve really enjoyed our plays in the radioactive realm. There’s a bit more going on with monitoring Radium decay that extends the game in terms of time. But the decision-making surrounding the cooperative Cooling compounds is a nice interaction, and the bonus materials in the box provide a bit of livelihood to the base game: Scientist profiles granting special abilities and yet another set of unique compounds.

When I bring this game out to a group of new players, the first thing that always happens is they all groan and say “I flunked chemistry”. I have to explain to them that it doesn’t matter, all they have to do is put tokens on colored spots. That would be the “downside” to this game. Once you convince them to play however, it is a great deep game, that works great for any group of 2-5 players. Each round of Compounded starts by drawing new elements. There are 6 types of elements and some are more rare than others. You can trade elements with others for their elements or even future favors. You start the game with a wild element that can be used once in a compound to represent all but the rarest element.Almost everyone remembers family evenings gathered around a board game of Monopoly or Cluedo, trading, planning, calculating… in so many ways, board games make up an essential part of childhood with most associated memories being fun, fun and more fun. For the two-player outing, the amicable Nobel joins as a third party who is always ready to trade, provided the first player decides to open that floodgate for the round. Nobel also participates in Discovery and Research, placing his elements on unclaimed compounds in the Research Field. Nobel can technically win, but with the ever-changing first player controlling most of his decisions, he becomes a pawn in the duel, swaying to the beat of two dissonant drums.