Review: Whirling Witchcraft

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake.

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble.

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

-Shakespeare (from Mcbeth)

So with October in full swing its time to dive in to the occult. Whirling Witchcraft is a high speed potion making game that has you trying to manage your workshop while over running your opponents workshop. This 2-5 player game plays fast and delivers on the fun just as fast.

Each player has a Workshop this is your player mat. The player mat has 5 kinds of resources on it. These are the raw ingredients for your potions. Every turn you will play a new recipe to your recipe book (placed next to your workshop). These recipes you can keep using the entire game. Each recipe has a list of resources you need to place on the top half of the card from your workshop. If you have all the resources you then place the output from your spell on the bottom of the card. Draw these resources from the common supply area. Then when you have done all the potions you choose to and have placed the outputs now collect all the outputs put them in your cauldron and pass it to the player on your right. Then take all the resources you used to make those potions an place them in the common supply area. Finally you pass your hand of spells to the player on your left. When you get the cauldron from the player on your left you put all of the resources in it on to your workshop. These and what you already had are what you use in the next round to create potions.

This 2-5 player game plays fast and delivers on the fun just as fast.

The game is fairly simple and I picked up on it quick when the AEG team showed it to us at Gencon. The goal of the game is to fill up the row of resources on the player to your right's workshop. If they only have room for one more toad and you send over 3 you get to take those extra cubes as victory points in your witches circle. First player to 5 at the end of a round wins.

There are several strategies in play at the same time, First you have to be diligent of what you are getting from the player on your left so that you do not over run your workshop. Then you have to be able to exploit the player to your rights workshop by sending them resources they cannot easily get rid of or send them in bulk to over run their workshop.

The Best part is the game plays fast and if you don't have a good strategy or you loose track of it you can come back in the next game.

While you are paying attention to all the cubes moving around the table you are also getting information about what recipes are available to the other players as you are passing your hand to the player on your left after you pick a new recipe. This is enough different thing happening at once that makes it hard to be aware of all the actions happening in the game. I found myself focusing on one or two things and trying to do them well and keep track of the other player's situations in regards to the same one or two things. The Best part is the game plays fast and if you don't have a good strategy or you loose track of it you can come back in the next game.

This is a fun game for the family or as a warm up to your big game night or if your a parent of a young child like we are it makes a good nap time play.

Designed by: Erik Andersson Sundén

Players: 2-5

Published by: Alderac Entertainment Group

Year Published: 2021

Recommended Ages: 14+

Time to Play: 30 minutes