Game summary:
A game for 1-5 players
Play time 90-120 minutes
Designer: Jamey Stegmaier
Artist: Andrew Bosley, Rom Brown
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Unboxing
This big box, got the following components in it:
1 double sided game board
1 rulebook
2 reference guides
18 landmark miniatures
1 landmark board
100 income building miniatures
16 asymmetric civilization mats
6 different capital city mats
5 income mats
43 different tapestry cards
7 trap cards
48 unique territory tiles
15 unique space tiles
33 tech cards
3 custom dice
65 player tokens (cubes)
50 outpost tokens
1 custom insert
6 reference cards
Extra for solo mode
28 Automa cards (solo mode)
1 Automa mat
1 Automa rulebook
An overview of your player board, also showing here 3 Era cards on your board.
An overview of the landmark buildings on the landmark board. This is something that I really missed as an
example in the rulebook.
Here you can see how you can place landmark buildings and income buildings in your Capital City. When a square with all 9 spots has been filled, you directly gain 1 resource on your income track of your choice. You can score extra points when you got 1 row or column completed when you are scoring points.
A few examples of some Era cards that are in the game.
Let’s get it to the table
First we’re going to setup the main board, place it on the table maybe in the middle but you have to keep some space for the cards, buildings and player boards.
Place the buildings (landmarks), on the landmark board. Not all of the buildings fits on the board, the other ones you can place near the Tech card deck.
Shuffle the Tech cards and the Tapestry cards and place them on next to the board, on the board you see where you have to place them (next to the Technology track) and at last place 3 Tech cards face up next to the pile of Tech cards.
Shuffle the Territory and Space tiles and place them also near the board and as last place the dice on the board. The green (Science) die near the green track and the red and black dice (Conquer dice) near the Military track.
Then we start building up your player board.
Every player receive an income mat and player tokens in the color of their choice. Place the different resources (corresponding houses) on the corresponding row, the far left space of each row is exposed. Place also 1 token for each resource token on the 0 space of the resource tracker at the bottom of your income mat. Place also one player token on each of the 4 advanced tracks starting spaces an 1 token on 0 VP. You can place the rest of the player tokens next to your player board.
Then every player receive 2 random Civilization maps and choose 1, the other one go to the deck.
The players also receive 1 Capital City maps, you have to sort them with the numbers compared based on the map (only in a 3 player game). In a +4 player game, you gain the Capital City map that belongs with the place on the board.
Now we’re ready to play!
On your income mat you see a table with your income turn, this are the actions before starting with the new era. Next to it, you see the eras when they’re going to be used. So in era 1 you only start with Gain Income.
Gain Income; you collect income from all exposed income for resources, tiles and tapestry cards on your resource tracks.
after this action, you have to wait toll the next player is ready and you can start with your first action on the board.
Because the first action is the same for every player, we do this all at the same time (our house rule). But when it’s your first game, just do it player by player.
By moving on a track, you have to pay for that action. On each advance track you’ll have to pay different resources. In every first advanced track, it can be any income resource but in the second you have to pay 1 specific resource and 1 of any kind. When you’ve payed for the action, you can perform the action for example you can explore a tile token and place it on the board and gain a profit (that’s on the tile), receive a technology card etc.
After you’ve payed and took the action, the next player is. This continues, till one of the players (maybe you) is ready with this era and goes to era number 2.
At this moment, you start with the first phase in the income turn, if you’re the first player that goes to the next era then you’ll receive also a bonus income:
1 Activate civilization abilities (only if applicable)
2 Play a Tapestry card on the most left space that is still blank and perform an action (if this is needed). Note; you must play a Tapestry card, if you don’t have one. Then take one from the Tapestry deck and place it face down on your income mat. You can play every Tapestry card that’s in your hand, also a Trap card (you also gain 10 VP).
3 Upgrade 1 Technology card (only if possible) and gain victory points from all exposed VP icons on your income mat
4 Gain income collect income from all exposed income for resources, tiles and tapestry cards on your resource tracks.
After this is done, you can continue with this era. The other players still can continue in their era or can also go to the next one. When you’ve finished your 4th era then you’re done, the other players still can continue playing if they want or have to. For example when they are still behind on the Victory track. If they still continue playing you only can collect points during your turn, you cannot place any cards or do other actions.
Placing buildings
This an interesting action that I want to explain a bit for you. There are 2 different buildings;
Income buildings and Landmark buildings. After placing you cannot move them to another place on your Capital City
Income buildings are the small buildings that also give income on your income turn but when you place them on your Capital City they fill in just one spot.
Landmark buildings are the big painted buildings and you can collect them when you’re the first player that reach a new tier on an advancement track or by upgrading a Tech card. When you place a Landmark building on your Capital City then you have to take a look at how many spots that building can fill. You can use also a part of a Landmark building if you need that a just a part to complete a district.
Completing a district (all 9 plots are filled) gives you direct a benefit of any 1 resource.
When you complete a row or column you score victory points when you score points at your income turn. You score 1 VP for each row or column.
Here you see some examples of explore tiles that you receive during the game. In the middle of the tiles you see a bonus, when you place this tile on the board you gain that benefit directly. But you can also VP when you have the same aligned terrain on the tile that you place and the it’s adjacend to it. So you score a max of 6 VP when every side is the same.
A few examples of Technology cards. The circle is the first upgrade, when you upgrade this card
for the first time you directly receive the bonus. When you upgrade it for the second time, you gain the bonus that’s in the quare. But before you upgrade the card, you have to take a look at the prerequisite note that’s under the square. You or one of your neighbors has to meet this note. For example. you or one of your neighbors has to be in or beyond Tier 3 on the exploration track! If no one is, you cannot upgrade this card.
A few examples examples of landmark buildings that you can receive when you pick a Technology card. When you receive this card, you also receive the building but you can place it when you’ve upgraded this card for the second time.
Game ends
Your game, not the game for every player!, ends when you finish your final (5th) income turn. But when you’re finished, other players still continue to play further till they are ready as well and also take their 5th income turn.
But if other players still continue playing, then you may still gain victory points from passive civilization abilities. But you cannot gain anything else!
When all players have taken their final income turn, the winner is the player with the most victory points! If it’s a tie, the player with the most total resources is the winner.
Just a small advice when playing a 2 player game! If you’re still ahead and the other players finish their final (5th) income turn, I will advice you to also start your final turn. This because we’ve experienced that when you continue playing the other player can collect so many points that he can also finish at first. We call also call this Wouter’s Game Advise (WGA); Finish when your winning!
An example where blue conquer a territory of red, blue thinks that he has this tile now. But then red plays a Trap card so at the end, this is still a tile for red. Blue still can roll the 2 battle dices but hasn’t got an extra territory. The Trap card goes to the discard pile.
2 examples of Civilization cards.
2 examples of Civilization cards.
Final Conclusion & rating:
Weight: 2/5
Replayability: 8, this is definitely a game with a very high replayability, there is also an expansion that can make this higher but I haven’t been able to play it with an expansion.
My rating: 🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲
I was really interested in Tapestry, yes I’ve read a lot about the game after the release but I really wanted to play it by myself. So I was really happy when Stonemaier games gave me the opportunity to review Tapestry. When I received the game I was really impressed by the way it looked! It is a big and heavy box and then the components are really awesome! Those painted buildings really make the game a lot greater.
Then we’ve started playing Tapestry, well I must say that I’ve expected a larger rulebook. I’ve missed some information in it that we needed to start playing the game quickly. We’ve watched a few video’s before so they really helped us. Is this a big deal? Well maybe but like some other games like Viticulture and Scythe, we had greater experience with those rulebooks.
After our first game, we really liked it and time went really fast. Yeah it was around 120 minutes playing but it didn’t feel that way! So we’ve directly played another game and again we liked it! Since then we’ve played it a lot and now I have to play solo mode someday, maybe during the holidays 😉. Tapestry itself is really a fun game, it all starts by choosing one of the 2 Civilization maps and your Capital City map. What is rather a pity is that there are some civilization cards that are really overpowered. Then when you start playing, you already have to decide (maybe combined with your Civilization map) on what track you’re going to spend your actions. You can go for exploring and maybe with some military actions? Or are you going for some Technology or just Science or are you going one just 1 track? Why not all? Well I don’t think that’s a great idea because you can score points when you finish a track when you’re the first or 2nd player, but you can do that if you want it!
The actions that you’re going to take are really easy and explained well, also on your income mat. I love the idea of placing buildings (large and small) but I really miss something in this civilization game when I’m building. The large buildings are great and also the different small building but when I’m building, I don’t really got the idea that I’m building a civilization but I just place the buildings where I need them to score points. Is that a major problem? No, not really, but it is a pity because that would make the game even better! There’s an expansion, but I haven’t played it yet so I don’t know if that change the game a lot.
What I really liked during the game, is that you can continue playing when another player or players are ready with there era till you’re ready with your era. The era are really great, you can get some nice era’s in the game. When you’re finished and one or more players haven’t finished there (last) era, you still receive points. This really can help you score more points and maybe finish in a better spot then when you finished the last era.
My final conclusion about this game, we’ve really enjoyed playing it! With some adjustments, the game would really be much better. Do I recommend the game? Yes, we have fun every time we play and you can perform different actions. What I said before, you can just finish your turn while playing and start the next round yourself instead of the round suddenly ending. If you stop first, you also get extra income.
What I really like?
– The components, graphics and inlay look and feel great! It’s really a Stonemaier Game, they have once again fulfilled our expectations in this!
– The choices and actions you can make during the game;
– Playtime looks long but when playing the game, it really didn’t feel like that!
– You can score points on really a lot of different ways, on the tracks, Capital city map, income mat, Civilization map etc.;
– The most important thing that I’ve enjoyed is that you can continue playing when other players has finished there era or the other way around. You can finish your era at anytime and the other players still can continue
– Solo game, haven’t had time to dive in but I’m very happy that it’s part of the game.
What could be better?
– The overpowered civilization cards, some players get really a lot of extra’s when they receive and use that civilization card;
– Larger rulebook, I’ve really missed some extra explanation that I needed during setup and playing!
– The tin cards, yeah they really look and feel great! But we’ve noticed that the corners really quickly damage the corners and cause a fold in them.
– I would feel more like I am really playing a civilization game, maybe our expectations were a bit high but it’s still a great game to play!
I really want to thank Stonemaier games for sending me this review copy and gave me the possibility to review Tapestry!
