[Ad – Gifted Products] Potion Express feels like a great card game for families, perfect for the spooky season of Autumn! In this game, everyone chooses a different wand. A bunch of cards are placed out in a grid, some of which have a bat who’s asleep and others which have a bat who is awake and some ingredients for a potion at the bottom.
Potion Express has you sort of unlocking these ingredients so that you can then fulfil potions that are at the top of the table. Once you have enough potions, you’ll win the game. However, the bats themselves can stop you from getting whatever you need. It’s a game that’s part memory, part strategy, as you work your way around the table.
On your turn, you can place your wand around the age of the grid of bats, in a straight line. This can be in any open space if you think of the cards like a grid, but it cannot line up with another wand. This gives you the area in which you are able to take cards. If a card in your wand’s line of sight is revealed, you get that item. If the bat is asleep, you can flip the bat for the next time a wand is placed in it’s path. After cards are claimed, more bats are placed out before the next player goes.
Then, it’s all about keeping track of your ingredients in Potion Express and spending them on potions when it’s your turn. Some of the bats have two ingredients, some are wild cards (in the form of smaller potions) and some allow you to flip over a card on the grid before going. We played at our local geek retreat, where we had a lot of fun flipping bats and filling potions!
Amelia and Robin very much like the art in Potion Express. They both thought it was such a cute game. As a family, we weren’t super strategic or cut throat, but I can see how flipping cards and placing wands can become such a strategic play, especially when you are blocking off areas from others.