Patchwork (game)
| patchwork | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | Uwe Rosenberg |
| graphic | Klemens Franz |
| publishing company | Lookout Games |
| Publishing year | 2014 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 2 |
| Duration | 30 minutes |
| Age | from 8 years
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| Awards | |
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Patchwork is a board game by the German game designer Uwe Rosenberg for two players, ages eight and up. The game was published in 2014 by Lookout Games . Like other games by Uwe Rosenberg, such as Cottage Garden or Ein Fest für Odin , the game is based on a puzzle mechanism in which individual puzzle pieces of different shapes ( polyominos ) have to be placed on a base and thus earn points. The base is modeled on a patchwork blanket with individual patches and buttons.
In 2015, the game won the special prize for 2 people at the Austrian Games Prize Game of Games and was included on the recommendation list for Game of the Year 2015, and at the German Games Prize 2015 it was ranked 10th.
Theme and equipment
The game thematically deals with the production of a patchwork blanket from individual patches and buttons. The players use the variously shaped patches on the display to finish their ceiling. These parts are so-called polyominos , i.e. areas that consist of several connected squares. The aim of the game is to get as many victory points as possible by the end of the game in the form of buttons that result from the buttons on the blanket.
In addition to the game instructions, the game material consists of:
- a double-sided time and evaluation plan
- two filing plans, one for each player
- two time markers, one for each player
- a pawn
- 33 patches printed on both sides
- 5 special square patches
- a special 7 × 7 bonus marker
- 50 button tokens with the values 1, 5, 10 and 20
Style of play
In the patchwork game , the players try to get the highest possible rating in the form of button values by making a patchwork blanket with patches and buttons. The goal is to fill your own filing plan with patches so that as few free fields as possible remain. The winner is the player who has received the most victory points at the end of the game and the scoring, in which the free fields are deducted as minus points from the players' buttons.
Preparations
At the beginning of the game, the scoring plan with the five special patches is placed in the middle of the table. The 33 patch cards are shuffled and then randomly placed in a circle around the schedule, the game figure (round marker) is placed between the smallest patch card and the next patch. Each player receives one of the two storage plans and the associated time marker, which is placed on the starting space of the scoring plan. Then each player receives 5 individual buttons as starting capital, which he puts next to his playing field. The remaining buttons and the 7 × 7 bonus tile are placed in the middle next to the advertising board.
Course of the game
Patchwork is a game for two players. However, it is not played strictly alternately, instead it is always the turn of the player whose piece is in the back position. The game begins with the previously determined starting player (according to the rules “the one who sewed something last”).
The active player can either
- pick up a patch plate and process it or
- Place your time marker in front of the other player's and get buttons for it.
If he decides to take a patch, he can move the round marker a maximum of three steps or patches forward and pick up the tile there. He pays the price indicated on the card from his own stock of buttons, then he moves his time marker forward by the indicated number of time steps on the scoring board. The player can now place the patch received as desired, but it must not protrude from the board or overlap with other patches. If the player decides not to pick up a patch, he must instead advance his time marker so that it lands on the field in front of that of his teammate. He receives a button from the general supply for each field he moves on.
As soon as a player is the first to cross one of the fields with the special patch while drawing his time marker, he may take the patch from it and must immediately use it free of charge on a free field of his blanket. Every time a time marker crosses a button field, its owner has to count all blue buttons on his blanket and receives the total number of buttons from the general supply.
The 7 × 7 bonus tile is given to the player who first covered a total of seven by seven fields.
Final scoring
The game ends as soon as both players' time markers have reached the end of the scoring board. The final scoring is then based on the buttons the players have and the gaps on their patchwork quilt. In the final scoring, players add up their buttons and then subtract two buttons for each free space on their blanket. The player who also owns the 7 × 7 bonus tile receives an additional seven buttons as a reward. Whoever has the most buttons and thus victory points at the end wins the game. The result can also be negative if a player has fewer than twice as many buttons as he left empty spaces on his blanket.
Development and reception
Patchwork was developed by the German game designer Uwe Rosenberg and was published for the International Game Days (SPIEL) in Essen in October 2014. As a result, it was published internationally in numerous languages. In 2015, the game won the special prize for 2 people at the Austrian Games Prize Game of Games and was included on the recommendation list for Game of the Year 2015, and at the German Games Prize 2015 it was ranked 10th.
The game is similar to Cottage Garden, which was also developed by Uwe Rosenberg in 2016 , in that fields are puzzled with pieces in both games. Rosenberg himself also draws parallels to the game Ubongo by Grzegorz Rejchtman from 2006. Due to the puzzle mechanism, there are similarities to Ein Fest für Odin , which also contains one:
“At A Feast for Odin, I had two approaches to the puzzle mechanism. I kept the one for Odin simple and isolated the complicated approach with cost and time when I worked out the game that later became patchwork. Patchwork turned out to be a much bigger success than I expected. So I continued to think about how I could work out the pure puzzle feeling, because patchwork feels a bit like an economy game. Cottage Garden was born out of these considerations. "
In the BoardGameGeek game database , Patchwork has an average rating of 7.8 (out of 10) with more than 12,000 reviews (as of April 2017), and it was largely rated very positively in numerous reviews. The website brettspiel-magazin.de, for example, rates the game with 89.3% of a possible 100% and writes about the game as a conclusion:
“You are already used to a lot from Uwe Rosenberg - especially epic resource management games like Agricola, Le Havre or Caverna. With patchwork, he has shown us once again that he can also develop other great games. The 2-person game is thematically innovative, has a good game mechanism and is by far the best game for two people that we have had on the table for a long time. [...] If you often play in pairs, you should get this game. It doesn't get any better! "
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Game instructions Patchwork ; Retrieved April 18, 2017.
- ↑ Versions of Patchwork in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); Retrieved April 18, 2017.
- ↑ a b Michael Weber: Uwe Rosenberg on a festival for Odin and Cottage Garden. Interview with Uwe Rosenberg on reich-der-spiele.de, October 1, 2016; accessed on February 2, 2017.
- ↑ Ratings & Comments for Patchwork in the BoardGameGeek game database ; Retrieved April 18, 2017.
- ↑ Patchwork at brettspiele-magazin.de; Retrieved April 18, 2017.
Web links
- Patchwork in the Luding games database
- Patchwork in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
- Game instructions Patchwork
- Patchwork at Lookout Games
- Patchwork at brettspiele-magazin.de
- Patchwork , video tutorial of the game