Faction Strength: 3
Faction Overview
Ability
You may trade 1 Victory point for 1 Coin, or 2 Coins for 1 Victory Point anytime and any number of times (Sorcerer’s Stone).
Stronghold
After building the Stronghold, immediately and only once gain 12 Power. From now on, gain 2 Power for each Spade you get throughout the remainder of the game (regardless of the way you get the Spade).
Faction Summary
The alchemists get extra Victory Points (VPs) for Coins. Fortunately, they have several ways of getting Coin, including highly efficient 3rd and 4th Trading Posts and a Stronghold with a Coin income. Their stockpile of Coin can even be turned into VPs and back again! The Alchemists’ Stronghold income is better than it looks. Six (6) coins is two (2) VPs per turn! Also, getting this much gold income in any other manner is quite difficult, and the 7-Coin power action isn’t always easy to get.
Alchemists Strategy
Early Stronghold
No other Faction can get a significant Coin income as easily as the Alchemists. Furthermore, the bonus of 12 power early in the game (before you burn much power), and then bonus power whenever you generate Spades (which you will do frequently) are both very good. However, you should still try to build at least one (1) additional Dwelling at the start of the game, as you don’t want to get stuck with a low worker income. The sudden windfall of Power should get you enough extra resources to build a bit more after erecting your Stronghold.
Once you have a Stronghold, you should try to grab the VPs-for-Stronghold Bonus Tile whenever possible:
Early Trading Posts
The problem with early Trading Posts, even if the Round Tiles call for it, is that your worker income will suffer heavily. I normally advocate no more than one (1) Trading post in Round one or two, simply because it will prevent you from expanding aggressively early. However, if you want to go with more Trading Posts, you should use the extra Coin and Power to upgrade your Spade efficiency, so you can catch up on expansion in later rounds.
Grabbing Coin
In general, you want to grab Coins whenever you can get them. The 6-Coin Bonus Tile and the 7-Coin Power action are each worth 3 VPs to you, which is about the same as building a Trading Post on the right Round Tile.
Recommended Starting Locations
The Alchemists are placed very similarly to the Darklings.
H-8 & G-11 (except against brown)
Is it allowed to use your power directly after building your stronghold to get maximum value out of the 12 power you get at the end of your turn?
Example: i have 8 power total in the second circle. I transfer those to the third circle which makes 8/12. I have four left now. As I have no additional power left I decide to use 2 to get 2 gold and transfer them to the first circle. And now I can transfer the 2 power from the first circle back to the third using the last 4 power from the original 12 I got after building the stronghold (12/12).
As I can use ‘power’ at any time during a round but after or before any action, the question is can I perform this trick or not?
Short answer: no. You get the power all at once. You can’t spend part of it before you get the next part, since you get ALL of it as part of ONE action. You don’t get it at the end of your turn – you get it immediately upon building the structure.
At least, that’s how I would interpret the rules…
This guide is great in my first game did really great just following the turn two stronghold strat should’ve built more trade posts early though.
One trading post early gives you options to upgrade into other things, but too many tends to rob you of workers in the early game when you really need them for terraforming and building.