Compounded: Geiger Expansion Review

Marie Curie won two Nobel prizes, coined the term radioactivity, and discovered polonium, radium, and radiation poisoning. Now, the 2015 Geiger Expansion to Darrell Louder’s Compounded allows one to five players to follow in her footsteps, and if they’re not careful, share her fate as well as her legacy.

The expansion adds new compounds, a solo game mode, and most importantly, radioactive elements to help or harm players’ scientific efforts. Radium can be used to complete compounds, be partially decayed to produce helium, the expansion’s replacement for the “wild” element of the base game, or completely decayed to produce lead, which also helps form compounds and reduce the overall radioactivity of the lab. The third addition, polonium, only causes trouble, triggering radiation leaks and hastening the game’s premature end, and this fly in the ointment elevates Compounded to a new level.

Radiation leaks add three new dilemmas to the game. Drawing polonium from the bag increases the Geiger counter and adds a radiation token to radioactive compounds, similar to a lab fire in the base game (also still a possibility in the expansion). Two tokens cause a meltdown, scattering components like a fire and rendering that location radioactively barren for the next two turns. Plus, when the Geiger counter increases, elements are removed from the bag at the beginning of every turn, lessening the choices players have with each draw, and higher radiation levels spark lab fires and even destroy the lab, ending the game.

That one matte blue rock brings not only a ticking clock to Compounded, but more importantly, a legitimate reason for players to cooperate. A stack of compounds next to the Geiger counter can be used to “cool the lab”, an odd term for lessening radioactivity but a great add to the game, forcing players to complete secondary compounds to prevent radiation leaks. This mechanic functions as a catch-up mechanism, since the lead scientist can’t participate and the cooling players get points and increased experiment levels, and an impediment, since the lead player doesn’t have to spend elements to cool the lab. It’s a refreshing duality, half-Euro and half-punishment.

Harm doesn’t just come from a random card draw anymore; when polonium appears, your almost-completed compound could catch fire or go radioactive, or the game could end for everyone. Where the base game is a sprint to complete the most compounds first, the Geiger Expansion adds pitfalls, forces tentative teamwork and creates new strategies.

Working on radium hydroxide? Better make sure the lab stays cool. Are your opponents building radioactive compounds of their own? Maybe it’s time for a three-for-one trade to pull polonium from the bag and cause a radiation leak with a lab fire chaser. Is one of your fellow scientists about to complete a big compound and overtake you on the scoreboard? Maybe it’s time to destroy the lab and end the game. A further wrinkle allows players to be famous scientists, each with unique characteristics that not only boost abilities but can also force extended interaction to gain group benefits or avoid penalties.

Finally, the Geiger Expansion adds a true solo mode, teaming a player with Alfred Nobel to complete larger compounds before a game-controlled saboteur destroys the lab. It’s an exciting race, and if you bought the Kickstarter extra cards, a chance to make meth with the founder of the Nobel Prize, which is a far better alternate history than Germany winning the war.

These additions bring the interaction and strategic variance missing from the base game, forcing players to keep an eye on everything instead of focusing on the finish line and introducing the real possibility of backstabbing. I didn’t just block your move; I blew up your project. Need help cooling the lab? Sure, I’ll use my extra nitrogen at the end of the turn. Or maybe I won’t. And the Geiger counter’s removal of elements reduces the variability of the bag draw that felt more like a die roll in the base game. As the radioactivity increases, so does the chance of drawing a rare element each turn, provided it’s not wasted due to the leak - scientific variability at its finest.

Fresh compounds with dual uses, new hazards in the lab and a true solo mode elevate Compounded to a new level of gaming. The Geiger Expansion creates a game of multiple dimensions, introduces real treachery into the scientific method and creates an escalating sense of danger that will keep players coming back for more, ensuring the only way to play Compounded is the Geiger way.