Hello and welcome to a slightly different, slightly special episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast.

This is an audio-only version of a video that we just uploaded to the YouTube

channel the other day, where myself and Matt a yapin about all the games we played at Essen

this year. It was a video first, so that's probably the best way to enjoy this giant chunk

of games, but this audio version exists if you're using your eyes for other things, like driving,

sleeping or watching an entirely different shut up and sit down video on mute.

We'll have a regular podcast episode out soon, where we actually go into a bit more detail

on a couple of the games on this very list, and we talk about something that we accidentally missed

off of the list. Wow-wee. Enjoy! So the first game I think we're going to choose to put on this

board of things. Oh, there's a lot of pressure here. A lot of games. A lot of games. Should I suggest

one? Yes. Should we talk about chemical overload? Sure. This was a really bizarre one that we chose at the convention, sort of on a whim. We just kind of picked it up because someone was like, do you want it? And we were like, yeah, all right. Yeah. It was, I think the stand where we got it, I don't think they actually made the game. I think they just had some there on behalf of the publisher and they were like, the publisher would probably be really happy if you took one of the games. And I was like, it looks like it might be fun, so sure. It's a deck building game where you're making potions. You are crafting various different potions across the table from another alchemist who's trying to do it quicker than you. Yeah. Sort of think Dominion, I suppose, is kind of the main touch point for this game. Yeah. You're like getting cards that you are resources to then buy other cards that you then add into your deck. And then those cards might be useful for your deck or they might sort of slightly gum up the works. Yes. The main thing is that it's kind of, it's a bit bonkers, isn't it? Yeah, we played this two player and the pace of the game was terrifying. It's kind of absurd. Because we were playing it very quickly and we were kind of amped up on that like convention juice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of being like games, games, games, games. And so we were just playing super fast. It was a pretty simple game as well. then often I'd be playing and then it would just be your turn constantly.

Or I'd be having sort of like a pre-turn before your turn, you'd be like, right, now you can have your actual turn. And I'd be like, great, I've done all my admin beforehand, let me just do the finishing touches, and then it's right back to you. And you finished doing the thinking on your turn,

at which point I inform you,

and no, Tom, actually, it's your turn again.

It's just it again immediately.

So the game was kind of fascinating in the fact

we had this board of cards you can buy to make potions. And you have the different ingredients you can put into potions, but crucially you have your flasks, your vials, the glass goodness that goes, that make the go in, make the potion. That was a beautiful explanation. That's how witches do it. That's how I taught the game to you, I think. Absolutely. I'm very proud.

That's the I taught the game to you, I think.

Absolutely. I'm very proud. That's the perfect Tom Teach. The crucial thing is, though, that once you got these ingredients and got these potion bottles, there were potions you could make.

Funny that. Imagine that. But each of the different potions required a different cornstee ingredients and you had to have

exactly the right potion bottle size in order to make that potion. So if you just want to make a simple two banger potion, two ingredients, with a bit of red and a bit of blue ingredient. Just a little vial. Which are cards in your deck. You need a red, a blue and a vial and then bada bing, bad a boom. if you've got all of them you can spend one of your actions on your turn to say i'm going to make a

potion of points yes which got you a point. Or you might get like a potion of draw two more cards. Yes. And then that potion goes in your deck, and then when you reveal it or when you draw it, you can draw two more cards on your deck and build up a little bit of an engine. There was kind of an infinite potion bottle trick that felt a little bit like somebody had like glitched out RuneScape to give them too many items. Yes. When like when you bought a glass vial from the shop, whenever you bought a vial or when it came into your hand, you just put it in front of you. So it was like outside of your deck until you filled it, at which point

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