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Distilled
Inherit a run-down distillery, chase the perfect bottle, and pray the draw cooperates.
Designed by Dave Beck · 2023
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A gorgeous, deeply thematic engine-builder that lets the luck of the draw into the most important moment. If you can roll with that, it's a joy.
Best for: Couples and small groups who want theme and atmosphere over cold optimization
What it is
Distilled hands you a sad little inherited distillery and asks you to turn it into something worth bragging about. Each round you shop the markets for ingredients, run them through the still, then either sell the spirit for fast cash or barrel it to age into something pricier. It plays like a thematic engine-builder, and the theme isn't pasted on. Buying yeast, choosing a cask, watching a whisky mature: you feel the whole craft of it.
The catch
Here's the honest catch, and players say it loud. The actual distilling is a draw from your shuffled deck, so you can spend a whole round assembling the perfect recipe and watch a bad shuffle gut it. If randomness in the key moment makes you twitch, this will sting. Money is brutally tight the first few rounds too, and the aging payoff is the one rule that takes a few plays to truly land. At four or five players it drags, with real downtime.
Who it's for
So who's it for? Play it at two or three and it's brisk, atmospheric, and quietly clever, easily its best seat. The designer never meant it as a brain-burning optimizer, and that framing helps. Come for the world and the gorgeous bits, learn to build a plan B for the draw, and you'll have a grand time. Come hunting for airtight control and you'll grind your teeth. I land firmly on the charmed side.
What other players say
This write-up is grounded in real reviews and player discussion, not just one opinion. A few worth reading:
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