Trismegistus: The Ultimate Formula

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 6.5 out of 10

   Bayushi Sezaru

   Very complex euro, marred by aesthetics definitely unbelievable for a game published in 2019. Players are alchemists, competing for celebrity and victory points, obtained while researching for the philosoper’s stone and meddling with formulas. Gameplay is based on custom dice drafting, and it seems quite convoluted and rich, with various interlocking mechanics. I somewhat liked it, with a couple of major negatives: 1. the reaction to other players moves opened up a few “nested” sequences of plays, leading to confusion as whose turn it was 2. mercury can be used in various different ways and, while probably somewhat thematic, felt quite confusing Also, did I mention I absolutely despise the aesthetic? Tentative preliminary rating: 6.5.

2. 8.5 out of 10

   Boolbar

   Once I knew what I was doing this quickly became an addictive game. The solo is easy to use, although those who are more skilled than I find it too easy to beat (the manual lists ways to make it harder though.) I use the first three listed tweaks to make it harder and that seems to be about right for me (45% win rate)

3. 5.5 out of 10

   Abdul

   I quite enjoy the core mechanisms, as they are straight forward enough to learn (not from the useless rulebook though), but there are some seriously brain burning decisions to make. You are essentially building a Rube Goldberg machine that can trigger combos upon combos, and getting everything to hum efficiently will require a few plays to master. It seems to have everything I would want in a Euro. However I was incredibly put off by some awful graphic design choices. The potion making theme would have worked fine, if they didn't actually use archaic alchemical symbols that all look too similar (and a quick Google will show that some of them are incorrect too). There is an extra layer of translating the iconography that was unnecessary and a burden on the gameplay, as you are constantly looking back and forth on the board to see which material turns into which essence or which essence corresponds with which elemental mastery. Your experiment cards do not match what is on your player board which can be a real problem when that is one of the main goals of the game. And the artifacts and cards are just a boring jumble of icons and potions, some extra effort in this area to ground the theme would have made it so much more enjoyable and easier to parse as well. Outside of the art, there were gameplay elements I found disappointing. Trismegistus is a strictly multiplayer solitaire with some extreme heads-down staring at your own player board gameplay. You might look up occasionally during other player's turns to use the reaction system, but it doesn't really feel like interaction as you don't care what decision they made just then, only what dice happens to be sitting on their board. Additionally, during reaction turns everyone just does their own little thing on their player board, with no impact to other players - boring. Because the combos are so absurdly long, the downtime can be massive at 4p. I want to like it so much more but am unable to overlook the glaring problems. Edit: On my second play I managed to score about 40 points just from getting lucky on some publications I randomly drew late game. The other choices I had would not have netted me nearly as many points. Just too swingy for my liking. I was also guilty of executing combos and free actions for so long, that players were losing track of what I was actually doing. Sure it was amusing for me, but it’s five long minutes of watching a guy push cubes around a board for the other players. Not sure I need to play this again as a multiplayer game.