It's Calico time... Okay, so you’ve got your cat and you’ve got your quilt. But how do you turn those beauties into points? Well, have no fear for I am here to show you how to play the purrrrrfectly puzzly Calico! Sewing Up It’s obvious that the game has been exceptionally well designed down to the very last detail, much like the board game Sleeping Gods .

There are plenty of other details which also give the game a special feel. For example, the tiles come in a printed bag made of high-quality material, and there are stitching annotations on the patches. Full disclosure time; I am a huge fan of this spatial, creative puzzle and not just because, due to family allergies, this is the only way I can cuddle up with a cat! The depth it reaches is very deceptive; it looks light but plays deep and that’s very clever.It’s Calico time… Okay, so you’ve got your cat and you’ve got your quilt. But how do you turn those beauties into points? Well, have no fear for I am here to show you how to play the purrrrrfectly puzzly Calico! Sewing Up The Calico character creator will allow players to create their own magical person to experience the world through. There will also be plenty of clothing to choose from and collect throughout the game! Similarly, if your patch placements have connected a number of tiles of the same pattern in a configuration that satisfies one of those hard to please Cats, you can add the corresponding cat token onto your quilt and you’ll score the relevant number of victory points shown on the cat at end game. Mix up the patch tiles and turn them face-down into several piles. Have each player select two patch tiles for their hand, then reveal three patch tiles to form the draw pile.

There is an element of strategy involved which gives the board game a wide appeal, but it isn’t so complex that younger children would struggle to play. S0, start by giving each player a unique colour coded player board (quilt) and corresponding set of six design goal tiles. Pop the cat tokens and button tokens within easy reach. Everybody then chooses 4 of the tiles at random and then further narrow this down to 3. Those get placed on the slots on their board (wherever they like) and the others are returned to the box. Calico also has a solo player mode, and it doesn’t require some awkward automata or “dummy player”– it plays very like the regular game and the rulebook comes with suggestions for a solo campaign which I intend to explore at some point. Moreover, if you can place tiles in a way that satisfies both pattern and colour around a particular goal, you’ll be squaring up to stitch up your opponents when it comes to final scoring as the hefty yellow point values become yours for the taking! Buttons, Bags, and Boards If you want a game with a high degree of interactivity, I will say now that Calico is not it. The most you do is draft from the same “market” of tiles, but in the five or so games I’ve played it’s never worth it to “hate draft” because you always have to place the tiles you take, and each tile is so impactful. You’ll only get to place 22 tiles through the game to maximise your score and reach your goals. The set-up is delightfully simple and the form factor is really compact.Cascadia is a tile and token drafting game for 1-4 players. It involves a dual-layer puzzle that progresses over time as more habitats and wildlife are added to each player’s individual ecosystem. Players score points by creating the most harmonious spatial arrangements of wildlife, and also by creating the largest contiguous habitat corridors. Each tile has a colour and a pattern and the scoring tiles have a request like AAA-BBB this means that the six tiles are either of two colours or two patterns to score, however if you manage to have both two colours and two patterns around the tile you will score more points! This is where the brain burn comes in as you try to maximise your points.