Check out my final thoughts

My d4 DICE reviews are a quick and easy to digest review of a board or card game. Along with a brief introduction to the game I use DICE as an acronym for Duration, Interaction, Complexity and Engagement to quickly explore a game. Enjoy!

Player count: 1-4 players
Play time: 30-120 minutes
Designers: Dave Beck
Publisher: Paverson Games

Gin, Vodka, Whiskey and even Moonshine all require a careful blend of ingredients and processing to ensure you get the finest, distilled beverage (ok, well maybe not Moonshine). Distilled puts you in the shoes of someone who has inherited an old abandon distillery and are tasked with bringing it back to the prosperous business it used to be.

Over the course of seven rounds you will acquire ingredients, bottles, barrels, recipes, equipment upgrades and staff to create and distil the best spirits around.

A typical round is made up of four phase; Market, Distill, Sell and Age phase and players will gain “Spirit” points over the course of seven rounds. At the end of the game the player with the most spirit points is the winner.

Market Phase – Players will acquire new ingredients, items, upgrade and staff to add into their distillery. Recipe cubes will allow players to distill better and more lucrative spirits. Basic ingredients can be purchased from the base basic market and premium ingredients, items and upgrades can be purchase from the main market.

Distill Phase -Players will attempt to distill a liquid using the ingredients they have collected and added to the washback, add a barrel and claim a spirit label. Ingredients placed in the washback are used in creating a spirit and at least one card Yeast, Sugar and Water card must be used. Alcohol cards are added for each sugar, all cards are shuffled, the top and bottom cards are revealed and placed in your supply for future rounds.

All remaining cards are revealed and are checked against the recipes that you have learned.

Sell Phase – Players can add bottle their spirits, score spirit points, receive money and gain a label bonus. Points and money are awarded for the cards that make up your spirit (including a barrel) that has been distilled in the previous phase.

Age Phase – Any spirits not sold that are stored in the warehouse have flavour added to them and ultimately gain prestige. To age spirits you place the stack of cards in your warehouse and add a face down flavour card to the stack.

There is a lot of other things going on in Distilled but hopefully the brief rules explanation gives you enough of an idea of how the game plays.

d4 D.I.C.E. Review

Duration

I have played this solely in its digital form but a solo game will probably take around 45 minutes with this increasing to around 90-120 minutes with the full player count. However, it doesn’t feel like a long game and you achieve a lot during your turn and throughout the game. Personally I think solo or 3 player max would be how I would want to play this.

Interaction

I have not seen a massive amount of interaction other than drafting cards from the main market. You are focusing on your own distillery and what you want to achieve. It is perfect as a solo game in this regard and the solo AI simulates additional players very well

Complexity

There is a lot going on in Distilled. The rules are not complicated but there are lot of choices and options available to you. Maximising your turns and money effectively is were the depth of the game comes from. It feels like the right blend of rules complexity to gameplay depth that just the right spot for me.

Engagement

Distilled feels like a very thematic game. Everything you do in the game makes sense and the mechanisms tie in nicely with the setting. I was fully engaged in my plays of this game and it gripped my attention as a solo game a lot. Puzzling out your turn and how you are going to achieve your goals for that round as well as trying to fulfil your long terms goals is very engaging.

Distilled is coming to Kickstarter on the 14th July 2021. Check out the campaign here